Marcos donates P150M to VMMC for MRI machine purchase

As the country honors the sacrifices of Filipino war veterans and retired personnel of the Philippine military on Araw ng Kagitingan, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. visited the Renal Dialysis Center of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) on Tuesday and donated P150 million for the procurement of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

According to the Presidential Communications Office, the Department of National Defense (DND) requested P150 million funding for the procurement of a 1.5-Tesla MRI machine for the VMMC “after its sole MRI machine acquired in 2011 became unserviceable last year.”

The amount turned over by Marcos came from the President’s Social Fund.

The VMMC’s dialysis center caters to more than 200 patients composed of World War II veterans, retired military personnel, and their dependents. 

The facility provides services and medicines free of charge.

The center, manned by nine doctors and 27 nurses, is eyeing an expansion to accommodate more hemodialysis patients.

The VMMC is also working to establish a kidney transplantation center in the next three to five years to provide better quality of life to its patients. —Anna Felicia Bajo/ VAL, GMA Integrated News