Pampanga-based company to make 2 million face masks

MASK PRODUCTION A company inside the Clark Freeport is set to produce 2 million face masks for medical front-liners treating coronavirus patients. —EDWIN BACASMAS

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines — The Yokoisada Philippines Corp. (YPC) here said it would increase its production of face masks to two million a month as the government required its wearing amid the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.

Yuki Yokoi, YPC president, said the firm could make 10 million face masks if its 300 workers could all report to work. About 50 have been able to report for work after the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) provided them with shuttles, he said.

Face shield

“We are hopeful that once the community quarantine is lifted, we can produce more face masks,” Yokoi said in a statement released by the CDC following a meeting with Department of Trade and Industry officials on Thursday.

The face masks are intended for medical front-liners treating COVID-19 patients, he said.

In Bataan province, the Additive Manufacturing Research Laboratory (AMRel) of the Bataan Peninsula State University has been making face shields using three-dimensional, or 3D printing technology for medical front-liners.

AMRel project leader, John Ryan Dizon, said the Bataan General Hospital and Medical Center and the Bataan St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center got 30 face shields each.

The face shields were made of 3D printer filament, acetate film and rubber provided by different groups, including the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development.

Dizon appealed to groups to lend 3D printers to them so his team could make more pieces.

—TONETTE OREJAS