ZAMBOANGA CITY — Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has called on local government officials across the region to provide protection to health workers.
Hataman’s call came after unidentified gunmen killed Edmiraldo Sollano Wee, a personnel of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) in Barangay San Raymundo, Jolo, Sulu on Thursday night.
Wee was on his way home when he was shot by the suspects, who took the victim’s motorcycle and fled after the commission of the crime.
“We call on local government officials across the region to ensure the safety of our health workers, to acknowledge the context and conditions of health services in their communities, and to act with urgency according to these lived realities in the hopes of improving what works and changing what doesn’t,” Hataman said.
He said the regional government has been exerting every effort to protect ARMM’s health workers, especially against incidents of violence as they deliver health services to the peripheries.
Ensuring the Bangsamoro’s right to health, the governor said, is a fundamental part of their mandate as elected government officials, and “any attack against our health workers is an attack against the Bangsamoro people.”
“We cannot stand idly by as our health workers are threatened by violence, not when we are working towards just and lasting peace,” he added.
Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, Joint Task Force Sulu commander, said troops have been deployed to track down and possibly arrest the suspects behind the incident. (PNA)
