DAVAO CITY—As is his custom, President Rodrigo Duterte visited the House of Hope center for cancer patients at the Southern Philippines Medical Center here on Christmas Eve.
Duterte handed out gifts and cash assistance to the children currently confined at SPMC, particularly the patients in the cancer ward who came from the different provinces around Davao.
Since he was still mayor of Davao, Duterte made it a tradition to visit the shelter during Christmas, as the House of Hope caters to 2,000 cancer patients. It is the only facility in Mindanao that has experts on different kinds of cancer.
The center is financed by different private groups and the city governments of Davao.
The city’s collections for antismoking violations are given to the House of Hope Foundation to finance the needs of the children there. Davao also pays for their medication through the “Lingap Para sa Mahirap” program, which started during Duterte’s term as mayor back in the 1980s.
Duterte also donated his house in Villa Margarita to the House of Hope, which now serves as a transient home for the patients who came from faraway places.
On Christmas last year, Duterte was caught on camera crying, after the children sang to expressing their gratitude for his constant visits and assistance to them.