By Warren Elijah Valdez DAVAO CITY- The city government is looking at putting up its own testing laboratory for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to backstop the testing capabilities of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC). (CITY GOVERNMENT OF DAVAO/ FACEBOOK) This was disclosed by Mayor Sara Duterte who said that the local government was eyeing to put up its own testing facilities in the city as SPMC can only process around 60 to 80 samples a day. Duterte said having its own testing facilities will allow the city to augment the control measures it has been implementing to curb the spread of COVID-19, namely, minimizing the movement of people, and putting up isolation facilities. She said the city government will utilize a portion of the fund from the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act downloaded by the national government to the city. The city mayor said the ordinance requesting for the budget will be submitted for approval of the Sangguniang Panglungsod (City Council) next week. “We have allotted (a budget) from there for a COVID-19 testing facility/laboratory here in Davao City,” Duterte said. Duterte also bared that the city government will also be using the model created for the COVID-19 laboratory in Marikina City. “So we have reached out to Marikina (City) and they are helping us, guiding us on how we are going to set up the local government unit COVID-19 testing laboratory. We already have details on this and we are looking into it as of now,” she said. Duterte said the city government is pursuing to establish at least three facilities to be accredited as COVID-19 laboratories in the city. “We are helping Davao Doctors’ Hopsital. We are pushing for their accreditation as a COVID-19 laboratory,” she said, adding that the city government is also waiting for the documents of one private laboratory intending to set up a COVID-19 facility in Davao City. “We are also helping them to push their papers as what we are doing with the Davao Doctors’ Hospital,” Duterte added.