Authorities receive P30 million worth of medical equipment from senator’s family

April 27, 2020

Authorities formally received on Monday P30 million worth of medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPEs) from the family of Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.

Capt. Jonathan Zata, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs chief, said the medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) purchased from Fujian, China was transported by the AFP on Sunday.

"The items arrived via the Philippine Air Force C-130 aircraft around 4 pm at Villamor Air Base, Pasay City," he said.

"These include 20,000 PPEs; 3,000 face shields; 3,000 goggles; 100,000 gloves; 42,000 KN-95 masks; and 500,000 surgical face masks," he added.

Zata said the donations were turned over by Senator Gatchalian and Valenzuela First District Rep.Wes Gathalian to the National Task Force COVID-19, headed by Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana and NTF COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Reconciliation and Unity Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr..

"Also present were AFP Chief of Staff, General Felimon Santos Jr. and Philippine Air Force Commanding General, Lieutenant General Allen Paredes," he said

"The donation is part of the Gatchalian Family’s ongoing humanitarian efforts and contributions to help respond to the global outbreak. It also seeks to equip the country’s health care system in flattening the curve on COVID-19," he added.

Senator Gatchalian expressed gratitude to Lorenzana for helping their family in transporting the donation from China.

"We requested from Secretary Lorenzana if we can ask for assistance to pick up the PPEs, because it is more affordable to buy from China today and almost the whole world are buying from them," he said.

"We contacted some suppliers there and purchased  PPEs. I would like thank Secretary Lorenzana for helping us with the pick-up because its is much faster via airplane than ship because shipping will take weeks," Gatchalian said.

"Hopefully, these donations will give additional courage and inspiration to our frontliners especially now that they are really in the thick of fighting COVID. So this is just a small contribution to our frontliners to make them feel that we are here to help them, and for them to feel that they are not forgotten," he added.

Lorenzana also thanked the Gatchalian family as he emphasized the importance of the donation in supporting the government's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I also want to thank Senator Gatchalian, Cong. Wes, and the whole Gatchalian family for this donation. It is a big contribition for our fight against COVID. Earlier thr  senator thank us for our contribution, but our contribution which includes the airplane and gasoline and the payment for the pilots are very little compared to almost 50 million pesosthat they have spent this," he said.

Lorenzana said that aside from the Gatchalian family the government is also receiving donations from different sources.

"Everyday there are donors who want to donate because there is a business organization here that was established by ( Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship) Joey Conception, they are gathering donations and they report to us everyday and the OCD ( Office of Civil Defense) is receiving their donations," he said.

"We also use that to add to our supplies. Now if the donors want to give their donation to a specific hospital, we will deliver it to them but if there is none we will distribute them according to our list," he added.

Despite these donations, Lorenzana said the government are still procuring more medical supplies and PPE's.

"In fact, not only 900,000 we are procuring one million. These are being transported now by our C-130. That is three times a week. The two (aircraft flew), three times a week each," he said.

"In fact, PS-DBM is procuring three million more because the use of PPEs are very fast. I think around 30,000 per day were used all over the country. So we need that, hopefully we will have enough transport to bring them in," he added.

To further support the fight against the pandemic, Sen. Gatchalian also mentioned that their family is also planning to donate laboratories.

"We already talked with Secretary Lorenzana and Secretary Galvez. We're also looking at donating laboratories. Again, drawing from our experience in Valenzuela even after May 15, we will continue to fight COVID. So the virus will not disappear after May 15.It is important that we have laboratories not only in Metro Manila but regional,'' the senator said.

"We already talked with a suppliers and our family is also going to donate some laboratories outside of Metro Manila so that we can also help local government unit outside of Metro Manila," he added.

Zata said "the AFP through Philippine Air Force is continuously conducting air operations in support of the national efforts on COVID-19. As of April 24, a total of 552,808.27 lbs of cargoes were transported through various aircraft."

"Air assets being utilized to carry out transport and importation missions are the C130, C295, N-22, NC212i, UH-1H/1D, SF260, and F28 aircraft. A total of 253 sorties have been conducted since the AFP started its support operations in March," Zata added. Robina Asido/DMS