LENI ROBREDO
Vice President of the Philippines
Actively doing her part to be of assistance to those in need is Vice President Leni Robredo. In the face of the pandemic, her office took swift and practical action. The Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) efforts began with little under six million pesos, and have gone on to amass over 55 million pesos as of this writing in donations through its Angat Buhay partner, Kaya Natin. The funds went to the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and food packs for the frontliners, with a total of 33,375 PPE sets and 2,320 care packages having gone out as of writing. The distribution of these supplies was not limited to Metro Manila; PPEs were shipped to other areas of Luzon as well as Visayas and Mindanao. Support from private donors ensured continuous distribution of meals to health workers. The OVP also provided free shuttle services and dormitories (two in Quezon City and two in Manila) to ease the burden on health workers, medical professionals, and other personnel essential to the fight against COVID-19. In addition, Robredo’s office donated 5.3 million pesos worth of extraction kits to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
Via e-mail, the vice president shares: “Amid this pandemic, we find sparks of hope in the true spirit of bayanihan. So many of our people have stepped up— from corporations and businesses that share their resources, to ordinary citizens who take part in donation drives or volunteer in various initiatives. The Office of the Vice President has focused its efforts mostly on helping health workers and other frontliners. Private citizens are taking part in our efforts through a donation drive started by our Angat Buhay partner, Kaya Natin! Movement. We expect this amount to grow, as we continue to receive inquiries from our kababayans [compatriots] here and abroad.
“Some of our PPE sets, hot meals, food and care packages, and other assistance make it to hospitals with the help of people who volunteer to bring them there for us. We were able to start, and expand, our free shuttle services with companies lending their buses to us, and citizens volunteering to help us run our routes. We have partners who offered their commercial spaces so we could open dormitories for our frontliners. And we hear more stories like these from all over the country.
“After the pandemic, we hope to work in the rebuilding of our people through our flagship anti-poverty programme, Angat Buhay.”
“Amid this pandemic, we find sparks of hope in the true spirit of bayanihan. So many of our people have stepped up—from corporations and businesses that share their resources, to ordinary citizens who take part in donation drives or volunteer in various initiatives. ” – Leni Robredo