Featured image above shows Curlee and Sarah Discaya during a recent medical mission in Barangay Palatiw, Pasig City, Metro Manila. (Photo: SDN)
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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
PASIG CITY (SDN) — Some may find joining medical missions exhausting and energy-sapping, with at least a thousand people jostling at each other, seeking to be the first in the queue.
For example, the St. Gerrard Construction (SGC) Charity Foundation, Inc. has been conducting medical missions in this urban jungle, every Saturday and Sunday at first, then made even during weekdays as many more people are asking for medical assistance, medicines, check-ups, laboratories, dental service, X-Ray.
Some more Pasiguenos are also asking for wheelchairs, Nebulizers, among other equipment the poor can’t afford to have or buy on their own.
Behind the St. Gerrard service-oriented foundation are the couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya, who own and operate the Quadruple “A” builder St. Gerrard Construction Development Corporation based in the city.
The husband-and-wife Curlee and Sarah have recently told journalists and bloggers that they have been conducting their medical missions in the city’s various barangays or villages in response to the clamor of their townmates, who have nowhere to go for their medical and health needs.
In their medical missions, many friends and supporters have been coming along, helping with the exhausting work, one of them Junjun Concepcion, a former city councilor.
While it is tiring and giving fatigue, Concepcion said he does not mind, he just wanted to serve his fellow Pasiguenos through the Discaya-owned foundation.
He said it gives him pride and he is happy about joining the humanitarian work. The ex-councilor said he joined the medical mission starting in September 2023.
Concepcion made this statement when he appeared on September 11 as a guest panelist of the Kapihan sa Metro East Media Forum, being conducted weekly every Wednesday, organized by the PaMaMariSan-Rizal Press Corps and supported by the Pinoy Ako Advocacy Group.
Concepcion pointed out his city mates see him often at the medical mission of the St. Gerrard Construction foundation.
It can be recalled that he was a two-term councilor and has 20 years of public. He started as No. 1 Kagawad in 2002.
He then ran for Barangay Chairman of Barangay 207 in Barangay Maybunga, he was an Awardee for Best Barangay Governance in 2016 and 2019 as No. 1 City Councilor of District 2.
Conception did not hide that he plans to return to the political scene and is eyeing another run as City Councilor representing District 2 in the May 2025 mid-term elections. Concepcion is a businessman and a contractor himself.
He personally supports the advocacy of the couple Kuya Curlee and Ate Sarah of the St. Gerard Construction Charity Foundation. He said the medical mission of the Discaya couple took off in 2016.
The former councilor said he believes in the altruism of the activities of the couple, saying he has seen the vision and advocacy of the SGC Charity Foundation for the last couple of years and has help thousands already and counting, and he is sure they will continue their activities. He also joined the medical mission in the city’s District 1 barangays.
It was seen as witness by SDN — SciTech & Digital News that at least a thousand poor people weekly are joining the medical mission of the foundation.
“There’s no perfect local governance,” he said, adding that at least 1,200 people benefitted in one of the medical missions of SGC Charity Foundation in District 2.
On Saturday, September 14, Concepcion said, a medical mission will be conducted in Barangay Maybunga with ECG. The activities also include vaccination of people bitten by dogs
Concepcion noted that three shots are needed to treat people bitten by stray dogs, and the SGC Charity Foundation is shouldering the two shots of the three shots of vaccines needed.
He reminisced the Solo Parents Act Ordinance in the City Council and he pushed that one of the children of the Solo Parents should be a “Iskolar ng Bayan”, saying that, through a City Ordinance, it would be of big help for the benefit of the Pasiguenos.
A mobile patrol car is practical for the services rendered to Pasigueños in terms of peace and order in the city.
In his own observation, Concepcion said that the Pasigueños have missed the “medical mission” such that there seems to be deficit in medicines so much so that the medical mission of SGC Charity Foundation is being deluged by Pasiguenos so much so that many barangays such as Kalawaan are requesting for a “second wave” of the medical mission already extended to them.
He explained that a certificate of indigency and medical abstract are needed in order to avail of the medical mission so much so that not everyone can be accommodated in the medical mission.
The TODA (Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations) sector also requested for a medical mission for them taking into consideration not to inconvenience others in the process.
Concepcion misses serving Pasigueños
Concepcion vowed that he would help even if the Committee on Health was not assigned to him, saying that he would focus on “zero billing” for the indigent patients, as well as in education, if he will be given another chance to serve as City Councilor in 2025 given his track record and experience in public service in the past 20 years already.
“Kalinga sa Barangay” should be institutionalized for “better passing” for more improvement. More scholars and love the educational sector as he had been known as “man on the street” in the sense that he has heard and listened to the stories of the Pasigueños themselves.
Concepcion could not avoid traveling around the city, specifically in District 2 and even District 1 to support the project, to support the event of Ate Sarah and Kuya Curlee of the SGC Charity Foundation in their medical mission.
If what you are doing is a “passion”, he said, it means you love what you are doing such that he has been traveling around Pasig City and going home late at night. He said he often hears the clamor, “Konsi missed ka na namin. Balik ka na”.
Kuya Curlee and Ate Sarah are a “perfect couple” for Concepcion as they have shown that they came from the poorest of the poor until blessings through hard work and perseverance and resilience came to them as they also are helping the poor and the unfortunate members of the community.
In fairness, Concepsion said that the City Government does not prohibit the conduct of medical mission and through coordination with the barangay such medical mission is properly conducted.
For example, in Barangay Maybunga, Concepcion said, the local street vendors and local service providers are invited to go to the venue of the medical mission where they were able to ply their trade.
Concepcion did not deny that he wants to return as councilor and has been saying it since a few years back because he wants to serve again in official capacity his fellow Pasigueños. He said he also miss serving them. (♡)