Gordon eyeing PRC’s own oxygen-generating plant

MANILA, Philippines — As medical oxygen is needed in treating COVID-19 and pneumonia one of the world’s leading causes of death Sen. Richard Gordon wants the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) to have its own emergency oxygen-generating plant.

“I am thinking of the Red Cross to build one (oxygen plant) so that those depending on oxygen can get cheaper oxygen from the Red Cross,” said Gordon, PRC chairman and CEO.

He explained that as the rising cases of COVID-19 continue to overwhelm hospitals in Metro Manila, unscrupulous suppliers of medical oxygen are taking advantage of the situation by increasing prices.

“Before, it was P6,000, now it’s P13,000 and it even reached P25,000 a few weeks ago. That is not right. When you exploit your countrymen, you’ll never reach your goals,” said Gordon, addressing members of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII).

Gordon commended former health secretary Paulyn Ubial, who now heads PRC’s molecular laboratories, for having the vision to ensure that 24 hospitals in Mindanao had emergency oxygen-generating plants when she headed the Department of Health (DOH).

“That is vision; that is foresight. We always lack vision. It has happened to us with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), we should have had emergency pandemic preparation. All our hospitals should have oxygen. Look at what is happening in India, chaos, no oxygen,” Gordon said.

Over the past few weeks, India has been battling a second wave of COVID-19 infections with patients in some states dying due to the unavailability of medical oxygen in hospitals.

On Tuesday, it recorded 357,229 new cases in a day, increasing the total of confirmed cases to over 20.28 million with 222,408 deaths.