PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will shoulder the expenses for the funeral of a soldier's 11-month-old daughter who died of biliary atresia, his former aide and now Senator Christopher Lawrence Go said on Monday, August 12.
Duterte made the vow to provide financial assistance during the arrival of Eren Crisologo's remains from India on Sunday night, August 11, in Davao City, Go said.
Go said it was Duterte who sent the infant to India for a liver transplant after his father, who is a member of the Philippine Army, Erne Crisologo, sought the President's help.
Eren, along with her parents, flew to India in June for the scheduled surgery at Apollo Hospital to save her from biliary atresia, a rare condition in infants in which the bile flow from the liver to the gallbladder is blocked.
The infant, however, died of complications from the rare disease.
"Sasagutin ng Pangulo lahat ng gastos pati pagpapalibing sa bata (The President will shoulder the funeral expenses of the infant)," the senator said.
In March, Duterte checked the infant's condition on the sidelines of his visit to the wounded soldiers at Camp Evangelista Station Hospital in Cagayan de Oro City. (Ruth Abbey Gita/SunStar Philippines)