Skilled Maranaws produce COVID-19 protection suits

COTABATO CITY — The provincial government of Lanao del Sur has mobilized Maranaw sewers to produce protection suits for frontliners in its coronavirus containment campaign.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong said Saturday they have commissioned local dressmakers and tailors, which his office had capacitated through vocational schooling and equipment support to manufacture protection outfits for members of inter-agency teams now in the forefront of the provincial government’s war on COVID-19.

Adiong said the sewers are Maranaws trained on entrepreneurial skills by the Provincial Livelihood Development and Technology Center.

“Their response is good. They will help us win this war on COVID-19,” Adiong said.

Prototypes of the COVID-19 protection suits produced initially by Maranaws for the provincial government are now being evaluated by physicians.

Lanao del Sur, which has 39 towns and covers more than 90 barangays in its capital, Marawi City, has been under a coronavirus quarantine lockdown for three weeks now.

Adiong said they have also established a COVID-19 isolation facility, comprised of 46 newly-built houses, in the provincial employees’ village in Badak area in Marawi City.

“This facility shall be managed by the Integrated Provincial Health Office and the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City with the help of the provincial government,” Adiong said.

The Makati Medical Health Foundation, the Pepsi Cola Company and the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation will help provide equipment needed in the isolation facility, according to Adiong.