By Raymund Antonio  Amid the shortage of personal protective equipment for health workers, the Office of the Vice President cited challenges in distribution and assured it is working toward providing the PPEs the soonest time possible. Vice President Leni Robredo acknowledged the difficulties her office is facing, even admitting that they themselves need help. “We are asking for a little patience because supplies will be a bit difficult,” Robredo, who is an opposition leader, said in a Facebook post. The vice president could not help but be apologetic to frontliners for the delay in the distribution of the next batch of protective gear. It has been four days since Robredo’s office was able to deliver PPE sets, on March 28, to hospitals in some Luzon provinces. “Apologies to our next batch of recipients for the delay. We are still waiting for our protective gowns to arrive before we send the packages to you,” she said. Robredo has repeatedly said the dwindling PPE supply has posed a challenge, despite the availability of funds sourced from public donations during this time of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. As of the evening of March 31, the OVP and its private partner’s donation drive have collected P40 million, which will be used to provide 90,753 PPE sets and 11,384 food and care packages for medical frontliners. The number of the distributed PPEs, however, was only less than half, with over 100 hospitals receiving 33,075 sets of protective gear. Among the latest recipient hospitals were Antipolo City Hospital System, Cainta Municipal Hospital, and Ortigas Hospital and Health Care Center, all located in Rizal. Also included were Biñan Doctors Hospital, Perpetual Help Medical Center, and St. Jude Family Hospital in Laguna; Batangas Medical Center, Don Manuel Lopez Memorial District Hospital, and Batangas San Jose District Hospital in Batangas. The OVP also delivered PPE sets for the frontliners of Cagayan Valley Medical Center in Tuguegarao City.