Last month, the Office of Vice President Leni Robredo (OVP) announced that its partnership with local designers Mich Dulce and Joey Socco to make the first approved locally produced protective suits for medical frontliners has begun production after they’ve finally settled on a suitable material to use: taffeta silver black lining (SBL) locally known as toray.
[READ: First approved protective suit prototype for medical frontliners to go full steam into production]On Sunday, Apr. 19, through its Facebook page, OVP shared that after almost three weeks of production, it is now ready to distribute the first batch of protective suits in select Metro Manila hospitals. These include St. Luke’s Medical Center and Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City; The Medical City in Pasig; Research Institute of Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa; Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan; and Makati Medical Center.
“Nag-ikot ang aming team para mag-deliver ng locally produced protective suits sa ilang ospital sa Metro Manila, kung saan marami ang mga pasyenteng inaalagaan dahil sa COVID-19,” OVP said in a statement.
According to Robredo’s office, the one-piece and two-piece designs were made at their own production house or through partners. They also encouraged those who would like to make protective suits for their own locale to refer to the Manila Protective Gear Sewing Club’s open-source pattern, while also advising against using substandard materials in its construction.
“Bago simulan ang production, dapat ipa-check sa doktor ang telang mayroon kayo on-hand, upang masiguro ang kakayahan nitong magbigay ng proteksyon sa mga frontliners na magsusuot ng suit.”
Profiteering over protective suits
On Apr. 17, Dulce took to Facebook to express her dismay over profiteering and production of substandard protective suits based on her original pattern.
“I’ve been feeling so sad and upset for a week now because I feel like I gave birth to the devil with the amount of scammers using the techpack we worked on,” Dulce said. “We posted that tech pack to show best practices and for emergency response, not for profiteering and most especially not for scamming people.”
According to her intel, some suits that claim to be medical grade go for around P650-P850 and are sold through dubious Viber chat groups such as one called “Mich Dulce and VP Leni approved suit.”
Some doctors have been sending Dulce videos of these flimsy suits undergoing water test demo, which reveal that they are, in fact, made of liquid permeable material.
“Nakakaiyak na nakakainis that we share best practices then these are the kind of suits that buyers receive. If you’re gonna make money (and your disaster capitalism is GROSS), at least have the decency of ensuring the right materials and fabric testing,” she said.
Dulce urged purchasers to practice due diligence when buying suits online. A statement and a guideline from her team will likely be posted in the coming days.
According to the data released by the Department of Health on Apr. 17, 766 health workers have already tested positive for COVID-19, 339 of which are doctors and 242 are nurses.
Header photo courtesy of VP Leni Robredo Facebook group
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