Tulong Kalusugan implemented on July 28, 2007 at Sitio Labtay, Napsan in partnership with Marine Battalion Landing Team 10. Photo shows residents of Labtay lining up for medical checkup.

 

A TOTAL of 1,244 residents of Barangay Napsan in the City of Puerto Princesa, most of them Tagbanuas, received free medical, dental and health care services from the project Tulong Kalusugan: A Medical, Dental and Healthcare Mission for the Tagbanua Indigenous People of Napsan sponsored as a partnership project by the JCIP-Puerto Princesa Peacock and Marine Battalion Landing Team-10 (MBLT-10) on July 28 at Sitio Labtay Elementary School.

President Emilyn R. Bayna and Lt. Col. Ramon Mabalot were both in Labtay, Napsan to personally lead the mission with the members of the JCIP-Puerto Princesa Peacock and MBLT-10 of the Philippine Marine Corps.

The services rendered on that day were free medical check-ups and medicine; tooth extraction for the dental mission; circumcision for young boys; eye examination with free glasses; milk feeding for children beyond breastfeeding age; blood smearing for malaria parasite or BSMP with K-Otab, a tablet dissolve in 500 ml. for bed net impregnation; blood sugar testing and lectures on the importance of breastfeeding, calcium to young children, hygiene, disease control, the use of alternative or traditional medicine, and film showing by MBLT-10 against insurgency.

Of these services, the medical check-up got the most number of beneficiaries at more than 600. The free check-up was facilitated by Dr. Ferdinand Totaan of the City Health Office (CHO).

More than a dozen members of the JCIP-Puerto Princesa Peacock joined the Marines in Napsan to do the mission.

In her speech, Pres. Emilyn encouraged the residents of Napsan to “care for their health, especially the children.”

“Health is wealth,” she said, adding that without the residents’ own help to themselves, the goal of the medical mission won’t be realized. She stated that first and foremost, the mission wants to encourage “self-reliance” in caring for people’s health.

Lt. Col. Mabalot, on the other hand, informed Napsan residents that Tulong Kalusugan was also implemented to show that various organizations are concerned with their health condition. He encouraged them to avoid sympathizing with the leftist movement to avoid more problems.

Commodore Ruperto Rico Borromeo, commander of the Western Command and one of the major supporters of the project, said there should be more organizations like the JCIP-Puerto Princesa Peacock that is willing to support the health care needs of the people in distant areas. Napsan is two hours travel by land on the west coast of Puerto Princesa.

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