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Kiyu denies joining senators’ Manila trip
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Posted on May 11 2005
Saipan Senator Thomas “Kiyu” Villagomez denied Tuesday that he joined his three other colleagues in “a fact-finding mission” in Manila last week.
“I didn’t go. I was invited but I didn’t go,” said Villagomez.
Senate president Joaquin G. Adriano had said in an interview last week that the Saipan senator joined Senate Committee on Health chair Henry H. San Nicolas and senators Joseph Mendiola and Luis P. Crisostimo in Manila last Thursday.
“That’s not true,” Villagomez said.
Nicolas, Mendiola, and Crisostimo left Tuesday last week. They were expected back yesterday.
Adriano said the senators’ trip was in connection with the proposed creation of a liaison office in Manila for CNMI medical referral patients.
Meantime, Villagomez said that he does not favor the bill as drafted in House Bill 14-151.
“One of my concerns is that our referral patients may not at all benefit because they are covered by Medicaid and Medicare. They won’t be able to use this in Philippine hospitals. So, if we are going to open a liaison office, we should be very careful,” he said.
This means that if the CNMI government refers patients to Manila without the federally funded insurance programs, the costs would have to be shouldered by the government and individual patients, he said.
Right now, Villagomez said that only StayWell insurance is accepted in Manila hospitals.
Adriano earlier expressed the same opinion, saying that “the real issue to deal with is the fact that most CNMI patients are Medicaid and Medicare members.”
Adriano said he would call on the Department of Public Health officials to speak on the Manila liaison office bill.
“We need to know what are they doing on this matter,” said Adriano.
The bill was authored by Rota Rep. Crispin Ogo, chair of the House Committee on Health.
