COVID-19 RESPONSE
JCI Manila President John Bautista, Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno, and JCI Philippines National President Mark David.
ANG SIMBOLO NG KINABUKASAN THE ARAULLO HIGH SCHOOL EMERGENCY QUARANTINE FACILITY By: JCI Manila
March 15, 2020- a day when the Philippines joined the rest of the world in their current quarantined status; a day when all the anxiety, confusion, and chaos started for a good percentage of the Philippine populace; a day when Covid-19 came to the forefront of headlines where it remains until today. A month and a half later, the pandemic had worsened and many parts of the country were placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), including the National Capital Region. Confirmed and unconfirmed cases and deaths continued to rise daily. Our hospitals were getting overwhelmed. Our economy was beginning to bleed, with many people losing their livelihoods. Debates raged on social media on what actions to take. The situation was fast turning into a nightmare, confronting both the public and private sector. Amidst this chaos, many leaders, at both the national and local government levels, began devising solutions to address the increasing problems brought about by the pandemic. One of these leaders, one of the most recognizable faces in the Phillipine policital arena, called upon JCI Manila for help. Last April 27, 2020, Hon. Francisco “Isko’ Moreno Domagoso, Mayor of the City of Manila, called a meeting
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JCI PHILIPPINES
with the Department of Education, the Department of Health and our JCI Philippines local chapter, JCI MANILA, which was represented by JCIM 2020 LO President John Baustista, JCIM EVP Chriz Liao, JCIM VP Vince Capistrano, JCIM Special Projects Director Rurik Padiernos, JCIM Araullo Quarantine Facility Project Chairman Andre Bernardo with Cochairs Anton Laborte and Mark Pizarro. Others notably present in the meeting were Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna, Manila City Engineer, Engr. Armand Andres, Manila Health Officer, Dr. Arnold Pangan, Division of City Schools-Manila Superintendent, Dr. Maria Lim, and Manila Center for Infectious Disease Control Director, Dr. Grace Padilla.
JCI Manila was requested to build a 42bed quarantine facility that will be used to house Persons under investigation (PUI) and Persons under Monitoring (PUM) of the City of Manila to help augment the city’s quarantine capacity of its hospitals. It was a daunting task but JCI Manila was up to the challenge. We got to work right away. We contacted Greca Architecture to design a layout for us, patterned after a previously approved DOH design. After three days of meticulously planning the facility design, material sourcing (Thank you to our corporate partner, Fil-am Hardware for opening their warehouse since most suppliers were closed), logistics (checkpoints at many places across the city), cost projections (as everything had to be financed by JCI Manila and our sponsors) and many more concerns, we were able to get the required approvals from the City of Manila, the Department of Education and the Department of Health by April 30, 2020.
