Hinihikayat ang PhilHealth na magbayad nang naaayon sa oras sa Philippine Red Cross (PRC) para sa coronavirus testing sapagkat nangangailangan na ito ng pondo matapos ang pananalasa ni Bagyong Rolly, ayon kay Sen. Richard Gordon noong Martes.

May P477 milyong utang pa ang PhilHealth sa PRC para sa Covid-19 testing na isinasagawa ng organisasyon para sa overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), dagdag pa ni Gordon.

Dapat umanong magbayad ang ahensya sa loob ng tatlong araw matapos magpadala ang PRC ng bill, giit ni Gordon.

Aniya, “We are supposed to be only an auxiliary, government is supposed to bear the brunt of the support but we always help and the whole world helps us through the Red Cross.”

“As far as I’m concerned they can do all the evaluation, all I’m gonna say is we did not test anything that was not given to us by government. Coast Guard did a good job, we made sure they documented it. We can account for all the people tested,” dagdag pa ng PRC chairman.

Ayon kay Gordon, nagpadala ang Red Cross ng pagkain, langis, tatlong water tankers, at isang desalination plant na bigay ng Israel para sa lalawigan ng Catanduanes, na malubhang hinagupit ng Bagyong Rolly.

Nakatanggap naman ang NGO ng P35 milyon mula sa international federation ng  Red Cross, kung saan gagamitin ito sa pagtugon sa mga lugar na grabeng naapektuhan ni Rolly.

Balak din umano ng Red Cross na magtayo ng transitional homes sa Legazpi City, Albay matapos wasakin ni Rolly ang nasa 167 na kabahayan sa lugar.

“This is gonna be a long time, this is like Haiyan in terms of redevelopment. But this is more organized now, we’ve learned a lot of lessons. The only problem in Catanduanes is that it’s isolated,” paliwanag ni Gordon.

“Madali” rin aniyang makapagpapadala ng Covid-19 swabbers ang Red Cross sa lalawigan.

Aniya, “I’m not worried about COVID there because they’re pretty isolated there and the pop[ulation] is sparse. I’m more worried about diarrhea, water-borne diseases, or the lack of water so we’re paying attention to that.”