PhilHealth run greets 3,000 runners

ELITE runners from Baguio and even members of the national team have answered the call for the PhilHealth–DOH Nationwide Run 2013, which flags off some 3,500 runners at the Burnham Park Lake Drive Sunday morning.

Southeast Asian (SEA) Games multi-medalist Eduardo Buenavista and Grace Delos Santos will spearhead the campaign of the national squad for the run for a cause that will have 18 simultaneous sights all over the country.

The run will be the second largest foot race in Baguio City behind the annual Milo Marathon, which has been drawing close to 7,000 runners and is set to give away prizes and surprise in the run which has four categories: three-kilometers (3K), 5K, 10K, and 18K.

“So far, we have doubled our expectations were we originally eyed at least 2,000 participants,” said PhilHealth Cordillera Public Relations Officer Magnolia Del Rosario.

Buenavista is participating in the 18K run, while Delos Santos is joining the 10K category as part of their build-up for the upcoming Asian Marathon in March this year.

Another national team in Julius Sermona is also building up for the upcoming SEA Games in December, with Hernane Sore and other members of the Philippine duathlon team joining the short race distance.

Former Milo marathon queen Cristabel Martes will also compete in the 18k category together with 2013 Pilipinas Akyathlon 3rd placer Gretchen Felipe, Milo Marathon finalists Mercy Taypoc, and former ABAP Women’s Boxing team’s Librada Tamson.

Local elites who will also join the nationwide fun run, including Marcelo Bautista, Jay Lomyog, Julius Bay-an, Cesar Castaneto, Castro Cudli, Richard Decawen, Gremil Greno and Erwin Generalao.

Proceeds of the run will go to the benefit of the PhilHealth Run’s National Sponsor, the Philippine Children Medical Center, and the regional beneficiary, Helping Hands Healing Hearts Ministries Philippines-Children’s Recovery Unit Baguio, a Christian non-government organization and a licensed institution serving indigent sick children.

Patients, 0-18 years old, mostly coming from the Baguio General Hospital and Benguet General Hospital, are provided after-care programs that include further treatment, completion of medication, physical therapy and nutritional build-up.

The most common cases are acute lymphocytic leukemia, cerebral palsy, lupus, chronic kidney failure, burns, sepsis, meningitis and nutritional disorders.

The nationwide run on February 17, 2013 marks PhilHealth’s 18 years of service to the Filipino people, having been established in 1995 with the enactment of Republic Act 7875.

The event’s simultaneous staging across 18 sites in the country emphasizes the point of unity and oneness in aim and spirit.