March 29, 2024

In this age of social media, it is truly sad that many use it as a tool to criticize or “bash” others to their heart’s content, many hiding under fake names (Cowards!), as if everybody is into no good except themselves and that everything is dark and negative.
It’s as if social media is suddenly populated by members of the Baguio Crab-mentality and Back-biters Club. This is just an exaggeration, of course.
A great number also use social media on a more positive light and bring people up instead of tearing them down. In light of the untold hardships the world is going through due to Covid and other natural or man-made calamities, giving or receiving encouragement via social media helps in more ways than one.
Anyway, the city government has been receiving numerous positive feedbacks on its telemedicine digital platform, “Bantay Covid,” from patients who are under home quarantine due to the Covid-19 according to a local health official.
City Health Services Officer Rowena Galpo said the upbeat response was relayed to her by volunteers manning the program. She said several of the feedback from patients appreciated that the telemedicine team were checking up on them and thankful for making them feel that they are not being ignored. The patients who were called by the volunteers are very grateful and feel that they are not so helpless, Galpo added.
On the other hand, the platform’s volunteer doctors and other health professionals are also very grateful that they can still be of help to Covid patients under home quarantine, Galpo said. City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head Donnabel Panes said quarantined Covid patients don’t only need medicines but also people to talk to and share their concerns with.
Mayor Benjie Magalong said the digital program was based on an ongoing program of Quezon City and modified to fit the needs of Baguio’s residents. It is spearheaded by the CHSO in collaboration with the City Mayor’s Office’s Management Information and Technology Division and the Baguio-Benguet Medical Society. The free platform allows volunteer doctors and other health professionals to communicate with home quarantined individuals thru digital technology.


FYI: The city government represented by Magalong and the Commission on Population and Development-CAR headed by Director Magdalena Abellera signed a memorandum of agreement to forge a partnership to coordinate, collaborate, implement, and monitor activities to reduce the incidence of pregnancies among adolescents and youth in Baguio City through strengthened leadership capacity of the city government in collaborative partnership with PopCom-CAR.
The parties committed to participate in a collaborative mechanism and learning relationship to attain the common objectives of the The Challenge Initiative (TCI) Program in Baguio City.
The partnership aims to improve the achievement of major population management outcomes, particularly the reduced incidence of teenage pregnancies through an adolescent and youth-friendly city.
A check for P500,000 was also turned over to the city as part of the partnership. The City Population Office shall use the amount to defray expenses for the conduct of programs, projects, and activities within the timeframe of the MOA and as per the city’s program design and work and financial plan for the TCI Program.
The TCI program is led by Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, in order to further strengthen its adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health program by scaling up approaches towards establishing adolescent and youth friendly city towards reduction of teenage pregnancy.


Here’s “Love So Amazing” by Elaine Chetty: “My love for you is like the raging sea,/ So powerful and deep it will forever be./ Through storm, wind, and heavy rain,/ It will withstand every pain./ Our hearts are so pure and love so sweet./ I love you more with every heartbeat!”
May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continue to bless and keep us all safe.