BONTOC, Mountain Province – In an effort to sustain the social services to serve the people of Mountain Province especially on health and education, the Maximo B. Dalog Foundation was launched on October 1, 2017 as part of the celebrating what would have been the 71st birthday of the late legislator.
Maximo B. Dalog Foundation is a non-profit foundation organized by the family to primarily extend financial assistance to indigent patients suffering from chronic kidney disease. It also intends to grant scholarships to poor but deserving students in the tertiary level, aside from sponsoring educational and human resources training programs for youth development. The foundation also extends social services through outreach programs in collaboration and partnership with other registered organizations and government agencies.
During the launching of the foundation, Atty. Maximo Y. Dalog Jr. said that the foundation’s birth is to continue the social programs of the late congressman in private capacity. He said that together with his siblings and their mother, the foundation will reciprocate the love for and respect of our kakailians to the late congressman.
On the other hand, Atty. Cyphrine Maxcel Dalog said that the foundation shall continue the partnerships with the Kataguan Dialysis Patients Organization (KDPO) and the Children International that gives priority and continuously donates goods for the province.
The incorporators of the foundation include Cecilia Dalog, Clarence, Maximo Jr., April Dalome, Leopold, Virginia Teresita, and Cyphrine Maxcel with a total contribution of the corporation amounting to one million five hundred nineteen thousand two hundred fourteen and 64/100 pesos (P 1,519,214.64).
The KDPIO, a group of dialysis patients from Mountain Province who are undergoing lifetime treatment, was the first beneficiary of the foundation that receiving a check amounting to one hundred thousand pesos (P100, 000).
In response, Ms. Jennifer Tuzon, the treasurer of the KDPO, expressed her gratitude to the Foundation and the Dalog family for their unending support.
Hospital records in Mountain Province show that chronic kidney disease has increased in number over the years. With the opening of the Bontoc General Hospital and the Luis Hora Memorial Regional Hospital family expenses in the treatment of their patients are somehow lessened.
Meanwhile, Provincial Administrator Amador Batay-an representing the Provincial Governor congratulated the establishment of the said foundation and as a show of support he mulled the institutionalizing of the Kataguan Caravan Drive for Life in the Lang-ay Festival. Said caravan is an annual activity scheduled in the celebration of Lang-ay Festival of the province organized by the KDPO in partnership with the Office of the Congressman to generate funds for the weekly dialysis of the patients.
In addition, Dr. Eduardo Calpito, OIC-Medical Center Chief of the Luis Hora Memorial Regional Hospital (LHMRH) offered the whole institution in assisting the medical mission of the foundation, and he likewise informed the public that the dialysis center of the hospital will soon be functional awaiting the release of the license to operate. He said that since he assumed the post at the hospital, he facilitated in the processing of pertinent documents for the operation of the dialysis center. Dr. Calpito stressed that the opening of the dialysis center will lessen the burden of the patients and family members traveling to Baguio and other regions for treatment.
By Wabilyn Leanne Lomong-oy
