Cancer Assistance Fund now available at SPMC

The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) Integrated Cancer Committee has revealed that Cancer Assistance Fund can now be accessed by cancer patients as an additional form of assistance.

SPMC Integrated Cancer Care Committee Chair Dr. Mae Dolendo, during the I-Speak Media forum on Thursday, said that under Republic Act 11215 or An Act Institutionalizing a National Integrated Cancer Control Program and Appropriating Funds Therefor, cancer patients can now avail of as much as Php150,000 worth of laboratory, radiology, and blood transfusion fees.

“The cancer assistance fund pays for radiation therapy, laboratories, imaging---

CT scan, X-ray, so on and so forth blood transfusions are also being supported,” Dolendo said.

Two days after the shooting of schoolchildren in Pikit, Cotabato, another minor was killed while attending to their sari-sari store in Barangay Fort Pikit in the same town.

Brig. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the 602nd Infantry Brigade, identified the victim as Justine Abalon, 15, and a grade-9 student of Notre Dame of Pikit.

“Accordingly, the victim was just standing in his store when unidentified suspects approached him and fired at him several times using a caliber .45 pistol hitting his chest,” said Gumiran.

The incident took place shortly before 2 p.m. The assailants fled towards the direction of Barangay Batulawan.

The gunman was allegedly wearing a green shirt.

He was later declared dead at the hospital, according to Fr. Romeo Saniel, head of the Inter-Religious Dialogue of Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Pikit.

Around forty minutes before the shooting of Ababon, a farmer was shot also in Barangay Fort Pikit, town police chief Col. John Calinga said.

The victim is identified as Lopez Guiama, 42, a resident of Barangay Balongis, Pikit.

Guiama was driving home his single motorcycle after buying a sack of cement at the market area when two gunmen aboard a motorcycle shot him, Calinga said.

The victim sustained gunshot wounds in his neck and arm and fell from his motorcycle. He is now in critical condition in a local hospital.

One of the attackers reportedly wore a white shirt and the other one a sweat shirt.

Ababon was first brought to Cruzado Medical Hospital in Pikit but later transferred to Community Doctor’s Hospital in Midsayap, Cotabato.

An empty shell of .45 caliber pistol empty was seen at the crime scene.

According to Department of Health, the eight identified priority cancer types eligible to be financed FANOTHER, P7 FCANCER, P7