The region’s five recipients of this year’s National Sandugo Awards all came from Kalinga with two awardees receiving the third straight year and Hall of Fame, while a barangay captain took home an unprecedented fourth.

Mayors Kenneth Dale Mangaoang of Balbalan and James Edduba of Pasil received their third straight award s earning them a slot in the hall of fame, while mayors Johnny Dickpus and Marcelo dela Cruz of Lubuagan and Rizal, respectively, took the awards for the first time in the annual awards of the blood program.

Barangay Calaocan in Rizal barangay chair Flor Magkilat, already a hall of famer, however, won for the fourth time.

Mangaoang and Edduba’s trophies presented by the Department of Health recognized their efforts in the voluntary blood services program and conferred the ‘Sandugo Outstanding Local Government Executive Hall of Fame Award.”

“Of the 75 towns including two cities in the Cordilleras, the five National Awardees of the SANDUGO conducted by DOH are all from the Province of Kalinga,” mayor Edduba posted on his Facebook page.

He also thanked the Municipal Health Services staff and personnel for making the award possible.

He wrote: “This Award would not have been achieved with out the hard work and dedication of the Municipal Health Services Staff and Personnel (headed by their respective MHO and for Pasil under Dr Aldrin Siwao), of each LGU and the Provincial Blood Council technical people and their staff and the CVMC blood program.”

Edduba likewise thanked the people of his town “especially to our volunteer blood donors (in caps) who are the most important people in this program.”

The Sandugo awards recognize local chief executives for their active involvement in maintaining adequate blood supply in the region.

Voluntary blood donation was given a boost in 1994 when Congress passed Republic Act 7719 or the National Blood Services Act of 1994 that promotes voluntary blood donation to provide sufficient supply of safe blood and to regulate blood banks.