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By: Alyssa Divinagracia
Although in self-quarantine after his business trip to United Kingdom, Mayor Isko Moreno via Skype Interview with Rappler, stated that the Manila City Government already started to prepare and form a Task Force while there were only 3 confirmed cases in the Philippines in early February.
While Metro Manila is in ‘community quarantine’ on March 16, 2020, Mayor Isko signed the Ordinance no.8620 also known as City Amelioration Crisis Assistance Fund which stated that the government will allocate 60 million pesos financial assistance for all employees and job order workers of the said city. They also used the newly built Manila Infectious Diseases Control Center (MIDCC) to treat COVID-19 patients while other patients are being treated in a private hospital.
On March 19 Mayor Isko deployed 189 e-trikes that were hired not for public use but specifically to be used as service for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers. Executive Order no. 17 was signed on March 18, which made more than 500 rooms from hotels and motels available for health workers who live outside manila. A week later the number of rooms available for the frontliners rose to 1,482. On the same day Manila city Government received donations from Guangzhou, China which consists of 200,000 N95, 100,000 surgical masks, and 2,000 infrared thermal scanners.
They also received other big donations such as 20,000 face masks from Filipino Chinese Business Association, 3 brand new Fortuner from Toyota to be used as a service for the health workers, and 5 million pesos from Puregold. Still on the same day, 44,763 food boxes were distributed.
The Mayor came up with the idea of improvised acetate protector face gear in response to the shortage of face masks. In which the mayor said “in times of crisis, we have to be resourceful” on the Manila PIO’s facebook page. Together with a video of him showing the city hall employees how to create the improvised face shields as a form of the City's proactive response in relation to the global pandemic, Covid - 19.
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