Philippines receives Chinese donation

Public health advocate sees Chinese donation “a huge gift”; Filipino expert on China dies to alleged COVID-19

MANILA – A respected cardiologist and public health advocate Dr. Tony Leachon sees the Chinese donation of as “a huge gift to the country.” In his Tweet, he said testing is needed now.

“Once it hits the densely populated areas and testings are done there, then it is going to be a major challenge. Korea did 15,000 tests a day to flatten the curve. They have done over 250,000 tests for three months,” he said.

Dr. Leachon served as board member of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) for sometime.

Meanwhile, Muntinlupa Congressman Ruffy Biazon, in his Tweet an hour ago said now that the testing kits have arrived, “there should be a strategic plan on how to use these.” He added the kits should be intelligently used as “surveillance tool to see the spread of the infections across communities.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila reported that the Chinese Government’s donation which arrived this morning is composed of 100,000 test kits, 100,000 surgical masks, 10,000 N95 masks, and 10,000 sets of personal protective equipment. The donation arrived early this morning at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City.

Ambassador Huang Xilian delivered the goods to Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr.

Earlier, Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea approved the acceptable by the Philippine Government through the Department of Health the donation from the People’s Republic of China.

In his memorandum issued March 20, Executive Secretary Medialdea directed the Department of Health and the Bureau of Customs to expedite the processing of necessary permits for the entry of such goods. (Melo M. Acuña)

Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. (left) engages Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian (right) in elbow-to-elbow in lieu of the traditional handshake this morning as the Philippines received the donations from the People's Republic of China at NAIA early Saturday morning. (DFA Photo)