The present administration understands that its role in public service includes a duty to safeguard the well-being of the populace. A number of healthcare and social service initiatives reflect Taguig’s commitment to serving its citizens. Taguig is the most aggressive Local Government Unit (LGU) to offer basic universal health coverage for its growing population. The city has distributed more than 13,000 health cards since 2002 and built new healthcare centers, boasting a total of 21 to date. Reaching out to the city’s poor, Taguig has conducted more than a hundred medical and dental missions, offering free health services and medicines. Free medical and dental check-ups are available every week for all citizens.


No Citizen too Small
To benefit the city’s smallest citizens, the immunization program protects the city’s children from polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and measles. To further bolster this effort, Taguig’s First Lady and City Nutrition Action Officer, Kaye C. Tiñga, established Sentro Kalinga, a mother and childcare center, which has improved pre-natal care and helped curb malnutrition.

Innovative program to build 30,000 homes for the poor. The City government is taking a bold initiative in the mass-housing arena with an innovative program that aims to build 30,000 low-cost housing units in ten years that will benefit mostly residents of the city’s growing slums.

Mayor Freddie R. Tiñga said the project, known as the Family Townhomes, is Taguig’s way of addressing the country’s squatting problem head on. He also cited the urgency of bridging the growing gap between the rich and the poor in his city, where the country’s most expensive residential developments are found.

Under the Family Townhomes program, the city government will put up affordable low-rise buildings in various locations, with each building composed of eight to 12 residential units measuring 25 sq. meters each.

The beneficiaries will pay through an easy financing program with a monthly amortization that will range between P1,000–P1,500 only for a maximum period of 30 years.

Some of the units will be subsidized through fund-raising efforts by the local government and non-government organizations (NGOs) supporting the project. Donors who give a P50,000 or $1,000 contribution will personally get to know their beneficiaries, the mayor said.

“We are looking at a one-to-one relationship between the donor and the beneficiary, so they know exactly who will benefit from their generosity,” Tiñga explained. “The contribution is not a dole-out, rather it is a down payment that you are making on somebody’s future.”