Lim identified the awardee-barangays as Pasonanca which collected 636 units of blood; Santa Maria, 532 units; Baliwasan, 496 units; Tetuan, 439 units; Guiwan, 232 units; Ayala, 219 units; Divisoria, 200 units; Talon-Talon, 186 units; Cabatsngan,172 units; and Labuan, 168 units. The recipient villages, represented by their respective barangay chairmen, received their awards from Assistant City Health Officer Dr. Kibtiya Uddin and Dr. Armando Lorenzo, president of the Rotary Club of Zamboanga.
According to Lim, the reward aims at giving “due recognition to the untiring efforts of barangay officials in helping alleviate the plight of their constituents in the area of health” even as it also encourages and motivates other communities that are not yet conducting blood donation activities. The Zamboanga City Blood Council, headed by reelected Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, was created by City Ordinance 336, which was enacted on July 24, 2008 and approved on August 8 in the same year. The ordinance, Lim said, sought “to institutionalize the provisions of National Blood Services Act of 1994 designed to promote voluntary blood donation, to provide adequate supply of safe blood and to fully implement Department of the Interior and Local Government Circular No. 96-6 mandating the integration of the voluntary blood donation services and program into the local financial work plan and budget as an added function of the LGU’s health board.”