City to honor 5 outstanding citizens on Baguio Day

August 22, 2021 Metro BLISTT

A doctor, a dentist, a lawyer, a businessman and a cancer survivor who for 15 years have been advocating breast cancer awareness are the five outstanding citizens for this year, the Society of Outstanding Citizens of Baguio (SOCOB) announced this week.
Dr. Elizabeth Jaravata-Batino and lawyer Dexter Diwas will be cited for their works in their respective fields while Fernando Tiong for business and Maria Victoria Bugasto and Alberto Atiwag, Jr. for community service on
September 1, during the Baguio Day celebration.
Celebration will be toned down as programs including the awarding ceremony will be done virtually due to the threat of Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus.
“There will be no gatherings,” mayor Benjamin Magalong said earlier as he and his team buckles down for possible intervention against the deadlier and more contagious iteration of the Covid-19 virus.
Bugasto is a stage 4 cancer survivor who since 2006 has been advocating breast cancer awareness. The founder of the support group Minda’s Bubble, she has been active not just in helping cancer patients but help raise funds for their treatment and funeral service despite the pain she suffers from the disease.
Batino is the head of the women and children protection at Baguio General Hospital General Hospital and Medical Center, who under her watch, saw the hospital put up a women and children protection training center, the first in Luzon.
An OB-Gyne and a graduate of nursing, the SOCOB cited Batino for introducing “innovations such as a multidisciplinary team approach in the management of cases of abuse and violence and the processing of pieces of
evidence, giving much importance to the chain of custody.”