Go launches 108th Malasakit Center

While helping the government address the COVID pandemic and strengthen the health care system, Sen. Bong Go remains focused on achieving his vision of providing convenient access to health services nationwide.

Go virtually attended the launch of the country’s 108th Malasakit Center at the Conner District Hospital in Conner, Apayao on Friday.

This is the fifth Malasakit Center in the Cordilleras and the second in Apayao.

The first center in Apayao is located at the Far North General Hospital and Training Center in Luna town.

The 107th Malasakit Center was launched at the Luis Hora Memorial Regional Hospital in Bauko, Mountain Province on the same day.

In a speech, Go said that taking measures to prevent the spread of COVID and ensure patients have access to medical care remain a top priority of the government.

Go said President Duterte and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III agreed to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated for the continuous vaccine rollout even beyond this year.

He stressed the need to invest more on health research, citing how crucial it was for the country when he pushed for additional funding for the

Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

To ensure adequate healthcare workers during the pandemic, Go said he asked Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National TaskForce against COVID, and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to include the frontline personnel of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) in the A4 priority group for inoculation.

These personnel include proctors, watchers and board examiners so the PRC can conduct exams for nurses and doctors.

He thanked Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino and the hospital administrators in Central Visayas for sending close to 100 nurses to serve at the new modular hospitals in Manila.

To improve access to health care for Filipinos, Duterte signed Republic Act 11463 or the “Malasakit Centers Act of 2019,” which Go authored and sponsored in the Senate.

Aside from Dino, Go thanked Health Undersecretary Roger Tong-an, Assistant Secretary Girlie Veloso of the Office of the President, Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Victor Neri, Rep. Elias Bulut, Jr., Gov. Eleanor Begtang and Mayor Martina Dangoy.