Two hospitals in Eastern Visayas have received 56 air-conditioned rooms, mostly made of converted shipping containers, as temporary mobile facilities for their medical frontliners, lawmakers said Tuesday (Sept.1).

TINGOG party-list Rep. Yedda Marie K. Romualdez and House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez expressed their gratitude to Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar for "prioritizing the special needs" of  the country’s medical frontliners by immediately facilitating the turnover of the mobile rooms to the medical workers in the region.

The turnover of the temporary mobile rooms, which will serve as quarantine facilities or temporary shelters for medical frontliners in Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC), and Schistosomiasis Hospital in Palo, Leyte, was made possible through the initiative of the Romualdezes and the DPWH, led by Villar.

They said 40 rooms made of converted container vans are given to EVRMC and are ready to house 40 of its medical frontliners, or one room per person. While, 16 rooms which are made of fabricated materials are expected to benefit 32 healthcare workers from Schistosomiasis Hospital.

The House leaders disclosed that the setting up of similar mobile facilities for various hospitals in Eastern Visayas is “underway.”

They even noted that under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2), P4.5 billion has been allocated for the construction and maintenance of isolation facilities, including billing of hotels, food, and transportation to be used for the COVID-19 response and recovery program by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) as the head of the National Task Force against COVID-19.

“This is in recognition of our healthcare workers’ courageous stand to deliver the services needed by the people in this time of COVID-19 pandemic. Some of them even sacrificed their lives so that the sick and afflicted may live and many have remained committed to saving lives by placing their own in peril,” the Romualdezes said

Last July, around 160 medical frontliners of EVRMC were given the chance to stay at the Leyte Park Hotel & Resort and Madison Park Hotel in Tacloban City  for free for three months through Romualdezes’ joint initiative with the OCD as part of the government’s efforts to protect healthcare workers and reboot the economy.

“We are relentless and we will continue to double our efforts in collaboration with the Duterte administration to reopen the economy for the preservation of jobs, ensure medical frontliners’ protection and provide comfort for them to ease the fear, pressures and dangers of their profession. Our profound gratitude to all of them,” the Romualdezes said.