Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan (R) joined by DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire (center) express their gratitude to US State Sec. Anthony Blinken during yesterday’s handover of personal protective equipment, testing and hygiene kits.
Mayor Honey receives anti-COVID kits from US State Sec. Anthony Blinken
MANILA Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan expressed her warmest gratitude to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the US Government and USAID for providing additional protective equipment, testing and hygiene kits in a simple ceremony held on Saturday afternoon at the Manila Zoo.
In her speech, Mayor Honey recalled that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city government of Manila, with almost two million people, tried to respond to the pandemic by implementing Manila CODE COVID-19 which stands for contain and delay through lockdowns and curfews.
She said the city government made the most of its health cluster comprised of the City Health Department and six city-run hospitals to face the challenges to test, trace, and treat patients and in this instance, they saw the importance of having allies and partners with whom they can forge and sustain relationship, partnership, including the US Government and USAID to help their citizen get lifesaving care and access to the rollout of vaccines.
“With your help, we were able to administer more than 300 doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the deployment of mobile vaccination drive and donations of IT equipment to enhance our vaccine data reporting and management. We are proud to share that during the early phases of the nationwide vaccination rollout, we were one, if not the first among the local government units in the national capital region with the fastest vaccination rate. Again, we are grateful for your help,” Mayor Honey said.
The mayor thanked Secretary Blinken and the US Government partners for being a key ally during challenging times and said they are hoping that they can further enhance their partnership to ensure that the city’s health systems will be better equipped for the crisis of the future.
For his part, Secretary Blinken gave his special thanked Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan and to everyone who has been involved in fighting COVID-19, including those from the Department of Health, the Manila City Health Office. The Philippine Genome Center, the Bulacan Medical Center, the community health care workers and other civil society leaders who stepped forward to save lives.
He said Manila is so fortunate to have a former physician leading its COVID-19 response. He said he was impressed with the mayor’s services to her constituents, especially when he witnessed how Mayor Lacuna administer a vaccine to a young child.
“As the Philippines continues to work to vaccinate people, to reduce the spread and save lives, my message is simple: The United States is with you. We’ve been proud to have donated more than 33 million safe, effective vaccines to the Philippines, no political strings attached,” Secretary Blinken said.
