GMA launches cleanup drive vs SARS in Lubao

LUBAO, Pampanga — Using a long-handled broom to sweep the street of Barangay Sta. Cruz in her hometown, President Arroyo launched yesterday a nationwide cleanliness campaign to curb the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The President, Pampanga Gov. Lito Lapid and her eldest son, Vice Gov. Mikey Arroyo, spent an hour under the summer sun sweeping the streets of Barangay Sta. Cruz and overseeing barangay tanods who joined the cleanliness drive.

Mrs. Arroyo arrived in Lubao at 9:45 a.m. after attending a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 61st death anniversary of national hero and former justice secretary Jose Abad Santos at the provincial capitol of San Fernando City.

Abad Santos was shot dead on May 2, 1942 for repeatedly refusing to swear allegiance to Japan during the World War II occupation of the Philippines by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Before he was shot, Abad Santos admonished his son: "Do not cry Junior, show these people that you are brave. It is an honor to die for one’s country. Not everybody has that chance."

At the capitol, the Chief Executive recalled that some 300 of the 1,500 SARS cases in Hong Kong were infected within only one apartment building in Amoy Gardens, "and it was also because of cockroaches (scurrying through the building’s drainage system) that SARS spread to (the) other tenants."

"That is proof that hygiene is important in preventing SARS," the President said. "Dirtiness and filth produce SARS. Cleanliness prevents SARS, so clean up, my cabalen."

Mrs. Arroyo said her act of cleaning the streets of her hometown is meant to stress the importance of cleanliness in all communities nationwide as a means of preventing SARS.

She said she chose Lubao as the launching pad for the new nationwide cleanliness drive because it is her hometown.