MANILA’S aggressive and innovative campaign to provide booster shots to as many people as possible amid the spike in Omicron infections is indicative of Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso’s leadership and “heart to serve the people,” Aksyon Demokratiko senatorial aspirant Carl Balita said Monday.
Balita made the remarks during a visit to the Luneta 24-hour drive-thru facility for 4-wheel vehicles Monday evening, where he witnessed the 47-year-old local chief executive checking on the people lining up for booster shots and thanking them for heeding the call of government to get added protection.
“Ito yung buhay ni Yorme. From a whole day’s work, pupunta dito, nagche-check,” Balita said in a live Facebook post, while noting that Moreno has been daily checking the facility even in the wee hours after a full day of activity.
Balita said Moreno’s leadership highlights the “Bayanihan” spirit among Filipinos, especially the netizens, as people began sending in food parcels as their little own way to support his initiative, as well as to the dedicated city hall employees manning the round-the-clock booster shot facility, and the people lining for their booster shots.
But even before Moreno was thrust into the political limelight due to his presidential run, Balita said Moreno had displayed a “heart of gold” to help the needy.
Balita, a registered nurse and midwife, recalled the time when he approached the then Vice Mayor Isko for help about a seven-month-old infant with Biliary Atresia who needed an immediate liver transplant to save his life.
While Balita was only able to raise P500,000 of the P2.5 million needed for the operation of Kal-El Sumalpong, he said, Moreno did not hesitate to provide the P2 million just to save the infant’s life.
Baby Kal-El was one of the 20 children born with Biliary Atresia who were sent by Moreno to Taiwan for the needed liver transplant surgery.
Aside from the Luneta facility, the city government also has a drive-thru booster shot facility for motorcycle and bicycle riders at the Kartilya ng Katipunan, and a similar facility for tricycle, pedicab, kuliglig and jeepney drivers at the Bagong Ospital ng Maynila.