BATANG MAYNILA
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno
As usual, it has been a very busy week for us in the city of Manila with three major activities highlighting it, among others.
First off, I and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna personally led the groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the President Corazon Aquino Baseco Health Center, along with the distribution of financial aid and goods to residents who got displaced due to a recent fire that hit the area.
From the said site will soon rise what will be known as the President Corazon Aquino Health Center, a three-storey, fully-operational general hospital with 50-bed capacity to better serve the some 100,000 residents of the said community. It will be the eighth hospital to be offering free services in Manila, the seventh being the Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital.
Third district Congressman Yul Servo, Councilor Irwin Tieng, city engineer Armand Andres, city architect Pepito Balmoris and city electrician Randy Sadac were also there with us to grace the event.
For those wondering why the hospital will be named after the late President Cory, it is in deference to President Cory and Mayor Fred Lim, who originally had the said health center built in her memory during his administration.
The name that Mayor Lim gave the health center will be retained because I am not the kind of public servant who is into the habit of erasing the legacy, credit or memory of predecessors by tearing down projects and renaming them.
I don’t believe that a change in administration must be accompanied by such bad practices as these offend feelings.
As a matter of respect to Mayor Lim and President Cory Aquino who served Manila and the country, respectively, this project would be our way of showing gratitude to our past leaders and immortalizing them.
With the new general hospital, the residents of Baseco need no longer travel all the way to the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center (GABMMC) which is located in the first district of Tondo and headed by Dr. Ted Martin as its director.
I am extremely happy and excited for the residents of Baseco since those who need medical care, specially in emergency situations, will greatly benefit from the free services that will be offered in the said hospital.
The features and amenities of the said hospital will include the following: a 24/7, fully-operational emergency room with community inclusive outpatient department; digital x-ray equipment for radiology department; laboratory and central diagnostics department; centralized medical gas system with oxygen supply line; a pharmacy; isolation wards; a dietary department; male and female wards; a maternity department; pediatric ward; surgery and internal medicine department; a service elevator dedicated for patients in bed and a passenger elevator with a capacity of 11 to 14 persons.
And then, along with City Engineer Armand Andres and Division of City Schools Supt. Dr. Magdalena Lim, I made an ocular inspection of the Aurora Quezon Elementary School in Malate, Manila. We have prepared the said school in the event of the pilot implementation of limited face-to-face classes in the city.
Acrylic barriers have been installed in each table that are set apart in such a way that appropriate distancing is observed for the safety of the students.
The city government purchased a total of 57,622 additional tablets for the use of our city’s students and teachers amid the ongoing online classes. This is on top of the 137,217 tablets previously bought and distributed by the local government for them.
To complement this, the free monthly data allocation of 10gb being provided for by the city government both for the teachers and the students had also been increased to 20gb.
During the past week, we also began vaccinating minors aged 12 to 17 after the national government gave the green light for the mass inoculation of the said age group.
I personally checked on the status of the mass vaccination program led by Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna and Manila Health Department chief Dr. Arnold ‘Poks’ Pangan and held at the Ospital ng Maynila (OM) and as usual, I am happy with the processes and results.
I reiterate my earlier call for the adult members of the families in the city to pre-register their minor children or wards so they too can avail of the free vaccination.
As I have been saying since the pandemic began, ‘vaccination is the solution’ to COVID-19 and its accompanying problems.
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Gaya ng paulit-ulit kong sinasabi, kailangan ko ang tulong ninyong lahat. Walang magmamalasakit sa Maynila kundi tayo ding mga Batang Maynila. Manila, God first!
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For updates on latest developments in the city of Manila, please visit my Facebook account--- ‘Isko Moreno Domagoso.’