More CV volunteer nurses sent to NCR+

Another 30 nurses in Central Visayas have been sent off today to the National Capital Region to help with the COVID-19 situation there. | Photo courtesy of OPAV

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The second batch of volunteer nurses was deployed to the National Capital Region (NCR+) to help in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The Office of the Presidential Assistant to the Visayas (OPAV) sent off at least 30 volunteer nurses from the region on April 16, 2021, with an assurance that they will be supported financially.

Twenty will be assigned to the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City and the remaining 10 nurses will be deployed to the Las Piñas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center.

The Provincial Government of Cebu and the Cebu City Government have committed to giving the NCR+ volunteers from Region 7 additional allowances to reward them for their volunteerism and bravery.

Like the first batch, Presidential Assistant to the Visayas, Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino said he is also adding P5,000 monthly for each of the volunteers. 

“That’s going to be a total of 25 thousand monthly on top of the salary you will be getting from this 3-month-long patriotic duty,” he said.

The Cebu City government will also provide them P10,000 per month of service incentive and the Cebu Province will give them P5,000 with vitamins and air purifier upon deployment and P10,000 upon completing three months of service.

“True to our promise of sending at least 100 medical frontliners from the Visayas to augment the health care capacity of NCR+ hospitals, today we are sending off yet again 30 nurses. Truly a selfless and heroic gesture when our country and our people need you,” Dino told the nurses. 

DOH-7 sent the first batch of 50 doctors and nurses to NCR+, composed of 11 doctors, 35 nurses, and 4 medical technologists to the capital on April 6, 2021. 

READ: Cebu to send 50 medical workers to help NCR+

Meanwhile, DOH Regional Office in Eastern Visayas (DOH-8) assigned additional 15 doctors and nurses to beef up the medical frontliners in NCR+. 

Dino emphasized it was decided that the Visayas should render assistance to the now overwhelmed healthcare system in NCR+, following the request of Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, chair of the Senate Health Committee, and guidance of President Rodrigo Duterte. 

He added that it was high time for the Visayas and Cebu to extend a helping hand to NCR since the country also helped Cebu during the peak of its COVID-19 battle in 2020. 

For the nurses, the danger they will face in their assignments at NCR is a form of patriotic service that they willingly offered themselves for their people.

Princess Diane Antolihao, a nurse from Compostela, Cebu, explained that she had been deployed to Bacolod City as a volunteer so she volunteered again for the NCR COVID response.

“Sa una, I find it overwhelming nga maka help sa isig ka tawo nato. That’s the reason why ni volunteer ko karon (Based on my previous experiences, I find it overwhelming to be able to help our fellowmen. That’s the reason why I volunteered again),” Antolihao said.

Another volunteer-nurse, Ana Nicole Delacruz, was an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) from Bohol who was able to return to the Philippines.

“I’m an OFW for three years. And karon nakauli ko ni-decide ko nga movolunteer as COVID nurse para makaserve sa atong country (And now that I was able to return home, I decided to volunteer as a COVID nurse so I could serve our country),” Delacruz explained. /rcg