By Raymund Antonio
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) is working on how to transport the personal protective equipment (PPE) from its Quezon City office to hospitals in need in Visayas and Mindanao.
Vice-President Leni Robredo
(Mark Balmores / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Robredo said she was in coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the country’s largest budget carrier Cebu Pacific for the transport of PPEs.
“So kami, naghahanap kami ngayon ng magdadala. Nagko-contact tayo sa AFP, nag-contact tayo sa Cebu Pacific, para isahan iyong pagdala (We are looking for those who can deliver it. We are contacting the AFP, we contacted Cebu Pacific so it will be delivered just once),” she said on her weekly radio show, BISErbisyong Leni. “Ang pakiusap nga namin, kung mayroong mga contact iyong mga ospital na nandito sa Manila na puwedeng mapadala sa kanila, i-pick up na lang dito para hindi na matagalan (Our plea is that if the hospitals here in Manila have contacts in the areas where it can be sent, they can pick it up to avoid delays).”
Faced with the increasing number of requests for PPEs, the OVP is expanding the distribution of protective gears for health workers and frontliners down South.
Robredo said her office has been receiving requests for PPE sets from as far as Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga, Sulu, Cotabato, and other Mindanao provinces.
Twitter user Kring also asked Robredo to provide PPEs for frontliners in Eastern Visayas.
The vice president, however, admitted the short supply of protective gears has delayed the delivery of their PPEs to hospitals.
“As of now, our delivery is still pending because we are waiting for the gowns. It has been delayed for a week. Hopefully these will be delivered to us this week so we can start with Batch 5,” she said.
Robredo also asked for understanding from the public for the delays.
“Please bear with us as we work through challenges re: availability of supplies. Now coordinating with orgs to deliver to E.Samar. Rest assured we're doing our best to respond as soon as we can,” she said in a Twitter post.
The OVP has so far raised P37.4-million cash donations that include P5.9 million from its 2020 budget for the purchase of 83,859 PPE sets as of Saturday night.
Of this number of PPEs, Robredo’s office has delivered 32,325 protective gears to 103 hospitals and communities in Metro Manila, La Union, Tarlac, Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Camarines Sur, and other Luzon provinces.