24 March 2020 

TO: THE GREATER SAN JUAN COMMUNITY 

FROM: TEAM K.K.K. 

RE: THE “KALINGA KONTRA KORONA” INITIATIVE 

Dear ALL: 

Warmest greetings of peace! 

We hope that you and your family are safe and healthy during these very challenging times. 

Today, we find ourselves caught in a still moment, isolated and yet deeply connected to one another by a bio-threat that the whole world is racing to understand. Covid-19 has exponentially spread in our country with numbers only continuing to rise. While this has caused anxiety and uncertainty in all of us, it has undoubtedly brought the nation, and the world, together. Individuals, organizations, corporations and such are doing all they can to help those most in need. 

Currently, the City of San Juan’s three hospitals — the San Juan Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and the St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital — are already straining under the onslaught of novel coronavirus cases, even as city officials say the real peak of the outbreak is still nearly a month away. The most indigent communities, living within Barangay West Crame, for instance, have the most number of registered “Persons Under Investigation” (PUIs); yet, could not be accommodated and were told to stay home, further increasing the risk of more infections. 

For many of us in the Xavier School Community, it is in moments like this that we feel our greatest sense of responsibility to be “Men-for-Others.” Thus, under the initiative of the Alumni Association of Xavier School, Inc. (AAXS), Xavier School, and the City Government of San Juan, we have launched an unprecedented initiative which we call “K.K.K.: KALINGA KONTRA KORONA,” with the aim of proactively stemming the spread of this dreaded disease. 

To this end, the San Juan City Government, through Mayor Francis Zamora, has identified the newly-built San Juan City Science High School building at Barangay St. Joseph, as the most expedient venue to house COVID-positive cases with mild symptoms as well as persons under investigation (PUI). The four-storey, fifteen-room building can comfortably house 100 beds and three isolation rooms for severe cases, with the three-room ground floor perfectly suited for healthcare workers. The City Government has agreed to provide the venue, complete with electricity and running water, as well as medical personnel. More facilities will be made available as the need arises. This facility shall be called the SAN JUAN COVID-19 KALINGA CENTER (SJCKC), A Supplementary Health Care Facility. 

The K.K.K. Team is committed primarily to provide support operations to the SJCKC, which will be under the supervision of the San Juan Medical Center/San Juan City government. Thus, the K.K.K. Team enjoins the San Juan community to volunteer and contribute their time, talent, and resources to ensure the immediate operability of the SJCKC. The AAXS will mobilize the Xavier community and all persons of goodwill to secure much needed equipment and financial support in order to maintain the smooth operations and orderliness of the SJCKC. In this regard, the AAXS shall be calling on generous donors to provide the much-needed finances and resources in providing beds (Tzu Chi has committed 100), food, consumables (i.e. oral thermometers, toiletries, face shields, surgical masks, disposable gloves, PPEs, blood pressure monitors, stethoscopes, oxygen tanks with regulators and humidifiers), retrofitting tools, sanitation appurtenances, as well as related materials and equipment. 

Xavier School, under the initiative of Fr. Ari Dy, S.J., has offered the use of the school’s Gate 4 at the Fr. Rafael Cortina Sports Center as the Command Center to receive critical communications, donations, and staff deployment. The school shall NOT be used to house PUI and PUM patients. We will begin accepting donations at Gate 4 on Wednesday, March 25, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 

Cash donations may be deposited to following accounts: