Camp Siongco hosts medical mission for soldiers, dependents

COTABATO CITY — More than 400 active and retired soldiers, along with their dependents, received free eye treatment and vaccinations for flu and pneumonia during a multi-sector outreach mission on Sunday, February 16.

Brig. Donald Gumiran, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Tuesday, February 18, that the day-long activity was jointly facilitated by the Bangsamoro health ministry and officials and personnel of 6th ID's Camp Siongco Station Hospital.

The humanitarian mission capped off the commemoration on Sunday of the 50th founding anniversary of the Camp Siongco Station Hospital inside Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte, where 6th ID’s headquarters is located.

Gumiran and the chief of the Camp Siongco Hospital, 1Lt. Hannah Valdez, separately told reporters that they are grateful to Bangsamoro Health Minister Kadil Sinolinding Jr., the special medical service team of the Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and counterparts in the 6th ID for organizing the activity.

“We in the Camp Siongco Station Hospital are glad that the activity benefited hundreds of needy individuals,” Valdez said.

 The physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding, member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, and their regional chief minister, Ahod Ebrahim, have a continuing community eye care program, since 2022, for marginalized Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous communities in the autonomous region.

Out of the 436 patients treated during Sunday’s outreach mission, 90 received free reading glasses, according to Jelyn Alegata, the anti-blindness program coordinator of MoH-BARMM.

Alegata also said that 13 elderly patients with cataracts and pterygium were scheduled for surgery with Sinolinding, an eye surgeon trained in India.