NCotabato, Army hold medical missions in Pikit, Mlang towns

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - More than 400 senior citizens in North Cotabato’s Pikit and Mlang towns availed themselves of free medical and dental services during separate joint outreach missions early this week by the provincial government and the military.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza told reporters the dental and medical missions in Mlang and Pikit towns were assisted by local officials, the Integrated Provincial Health Office, and the Army’s 7th Field Artillery Battalion.

The relief missions also facilitated the distribution of free medicines and vitamin supplements to senior citizens in Barangays Buayan and Poblacion in the municipalities of Mlang and Pikit, respectively.

Mendoza said doctors treated a total of 384 elderly villagers while four others availed  themselves of dental services during the separate outreach missions.

The two humanitarian activities were bankrolled by the provincial government under its “Serbisyong Totoo” good governance advocacy.

More than 7,000 villagers have benefited from the provincial government’s outreach missions from the last quarter of 2012 to August 2013, according to records obtained from the provincial information office at the capitol in Amas District in Kidapawan City.

A total of 430 children in remote barangays have also been circumcised free by Army medics and government physicians during the period.