Habal-habal drivers donate in LTO-7 bloodletting campaign

Motor taxi (habal-habal) drivers donating blood. | Photo Courtesy of LTO-7

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Motorcycle taxi (habal-habal) drivers in Metro Cebu gave back to the community by donating their blood on the World Blood Donors Day, June 14, 2022, at the Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7).

LTO-7 partnered with the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) for a blood donation campaign at its Cebu City office along N. Bacalso Avenue.

The drivers from the mobile application, Angkas, took the chance to donate blood as part of their social responsibility. Angkas has been allowed to pilot its operations in Metro Cebu.

LTO 7 Regional Director Victor Emmanuel Caindec said that the activity is part of their social responsibility in which donating blood is related and significant since their agency handles issuances of licenses, permits, and registrations, the key requirements in making sure that the driver knows and are compliant with the traffic laws.

“Our role is all about promoting road safety and part of promoting road safety is helping people make aware of consequences when the roads are not safe,” said RD Caindec.

The director added that while donating blood has been very important during the pandemic where a lot of Covid-19 patients opted for transfusion of convalescent plasma from the recovered Covid patients, the current spike in the dengue cases now has made it more important to donate to save lives.

“As motorcycle drivers/riders, a lot of us have seen friends, we have lost friends to fatal accidents not just with motorcycles but even with motor vehicles,” the director set an example of how a rider can help a blood-needing rider during an accident.

DOH 7’s Dr. Faith Ronolo who led the team from the agency said that one person who donated blood can save up to three lives.

This is because the donated blood will be processed and be divided into components, the platelets, the plasma, and the red blood cells.

The platelets are crucial these days with the rise of dengue in Cebu as the platelet transfusion can save the life of a severe dengue patient.

She also revealed that blood donations in the region have been transported to both public and private facilities to extend the need for blood.

Angkas Special Assistant to the CEO for VISMIN Operations Mr. Gilbert Olan said that their company is more than just a transport company.

“Ang Angkas has always been very active when it comes to community nga mga projects and developments. We are not only a transport company, we are also very much active in terms of helping out the community,” said Olan.

He added that they will commit another blood donation campaign that will cover more or less 4,500 of their riders.      /rcg

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