NCRPO urges donation of seized medical supplies

MANILA, Philippines — The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) yesterday urged police districts to donate medical supplies confiscated during operations to hospitals.

In an online briefing yesterday, NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas said the Manila Police District asked a court to allow it to donate seized face masks and personal protective equipment to the Chinese Doctors’ Hospital. The court granted the MPD’s request.

“Following this, I already asked the investigators of the different districts to follow what the MPD did, by manifesting (the same) to the court,” Sinas said in Filipino.

“We already have a reference, a system on what to do. We are hoping that the manifestations to be issued before other courts would yield the same result,” he added.

Sinas said the medical supplies would otherwise be wasted in police evidence rooms.

Mobile testing trucks for businesses

Meanwhile, the party-list group Bagong Henerasyon and Rotary International District 3780 are working together to put up mobile rapid screening facilities that would cater to businesses wanting to have their workers tested for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

House Deputy Majority Leader and Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera said they plan to roll out an initial five mobile COVID-19 testing trucks that can administer and process rapid antibody tests at a discount.

“We are doing this to help companies, particularly MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), which could not afford to set up their own testing booths but eagerly wanted to have their employees tested for the deadly disease,” she said.

Bagong Henerasyon and Rotary International District 3780, where Herrera serves as the district governor, have inked an agreement with the Quezon City government for the rapid testing of the city’s frontline workers.

For the mobile rapid testing trucks, they will enter into a tie-up with the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine of the Department of Health for the conduct of polymerase chain reaction tests if the result of the rapid screening turns out positive.

Each mobile testing truck will house the encoding, printing and release of certificates with results completed in roughly 15 minutes. Ralph Edwin Villanueva, Paolo Romero