LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap will personally fund the construction of the proposed molecular laboratory within the compound of the Benguet General Hospital (BeGH) that is expected to be operational by August to help in improving the testing capacity of the local health facility and ensure that frontliners, risk groups and a significant part of the population will be tested for the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Yap, who chairs the House committee on appropriations, said that he will be commissioning a private contractor who will be visiting the proposed site where the molecular laboratory will be built to assess the situation and pursue the construction activities while awaiting the permit from the health department for the put up of the laboratory.
Earlier, Congressman Yap already shelled out more than P5 million from his personal resources to purchase the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and automated extraction machines that was donated to the BeGH although the same was temporarily loaned to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), the designated sub-national testing laboratory in Northern Luzon.
The lawmaker pointed out that it will take sometime for the BeGH molecular laboratory to be constructed if it will be implemented by the government because of the tedious bidding process that is why he voluntarily decided to personally shoulder the P1.8 million initially programmed for the put up of the laboratory’s physical structure.
According to him, the earlier estimated P1.8 million cost of the project could probably be reduced further because the same will be undertaken by a private contractor part from doing away with some bureaucratic processes that will delay the put up of the desired molecular laboratory.
BeGH medical center chief Dr. Meliarazon Dulay claimed that while the construction of the facility will be underway, the administration will be working on the trainings that will be undertaken by the personnel who will be assigned in the molecular laboratory and the accreditation of the same by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
Congressman Yap explained that people should understand that the provincial government concentrated much of its existing resources for the ongoing relief operations in the different parts of Benguet that is why only P300,000 could be spread for the put up of the proposed laboratory, thus, he deemed it best to work for its realization to help in protecting the residents from being infected with the contagious virus.
Benguet will be the first local government in the Cordillera that will be having its own molecular laboratory once the project will be realized in the next several months because of the overwhelming support being given to the health department and the provincial government by Congressman Yap.
Yap added that the consumables for the RT-PCR and automated extraction machines that he earlier gave to the hospital will be sourced from the health department and other available suppliers to enhance the province’s testing capacity.
By Hent
