“The spirit of volunteerism is alive and well.”
Volunteer slots for the reopening of former vice president Leni Robredo‘s telemedicine program were immediately filled out within minutes of the announcement of its resumption under her non-government organization.
The Angat Buhay NGO chairperson shared her elation on Twitter, saying that 1,100 volunteers have already pledged to serve the public in the Bayanihan E-Konsulta program.
“In less than 20 minutes, 1,100 volunteers already signed up for the resumption of Bayanihan e-Konsulta. Thank you,” Robredo wrote with folding hands emojis.
“The spirit of volunteerism is alive and well,” she added with a partying face emoji.
Her tweet has gained almost 84,000 likes and 10,900 retweets so far.
The Angat Buhay NGO made the announcement of the reopening of the telemedicine program on Wednesday evening. It was first launched under the Office of the Vice President during Robredo’s term.
The program helped fill the gaps in the public health care system amid the raging coronavirus pandemic.
It offered teleconsultation services, COVID-19 home care kit packages with symptom monitoring sheets, and other medicines for patients.
The program ran from April 2021 to May 2022.
Now, it has resumed services under Robredo’s NGO as the country sees another rise in COVID-19 infections amid the presence of new Omicron subvariants.
Other factors in play are waning vaccine immunity and increased mobility among the public.
Meanwhile, the NGO said in its post that it needs only 50 non-medical volunteers and 40 medical volunteers working from home.
It added that the number of volunteers might increase, depending on the number of requests.
Robredo, however, said that 1,100 volunteers signed up within 20 minutes of the NGO’s announcement, more than the requested number the org has asked for.
She then said that “the spirit of volunteerism is alive and well.”
Prior to the launch of the Angat Buhay NGO, the former vice president said she is hopeful that the Angat Buhay NGO would be the “largest volunteer network” in the country as she aims to continue the spirit of volunteerism that emerged from her presidential campaign.
“Sa unang araw ng Hulyo, ilulunsad natin ang Angat Buhay NGO. Meron na tayong template nito. Bubuuin natin ang pinaka-malaking volunteer network sa buong bansa. Pero hindi tayo mamimili ng tutulungan,” Robredo said in May.
“Iniimbita ko kayong lahat, ang mga nagpagod, ang mga kumpanya at private partners, itutuloy natin ang ating pagsasama-sama,” she added.
During her spirited campaign in the 2022 elections, people from different sectors and walks of life participated and contributed what they could to the movement.
Various brands and businesses immediately supported by sharing pink posts on their social media pages.
Creative Filipinos breathed life into walls by creating colorful murals featuring Robredo and her running mate, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan.
Numerous songs were also composed and performed for Robredo’s presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, as of Wednesday, ABS-CBN data analyst Edson Guido shared that the country reported an average of 2,261 daily in the past week.
He said it is the highest seven-day average in five months or since February 19, when there was a surge of the Omicron variant.