Mandaue pushes inclusive CPR training, seeks wider community reach

MANDAUE CITY— Mandaue City is pushing to make life-saving skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) more accessible across the community, with persons with disabilities (PWDs) and their caregivers among those trained under the city’s latest public safety initiative.

The City Government of Mandaue recently joined Sagip CPR, a public safety advocacy initiated by Bell-Kenz Pharma Inc., bringing hands-only CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) awareness to city government personnel, barangay workers, health workers, PWDs, and caregivers.

The training was held at the Barangay Opao gym as part of the city’s participation in the Sagip CPR Nautical Highway, an initiative launched by Bell-Kenz in partnership with the Philippine Coast Guard and the City Government of Cebu.

Mandaue City Health Officer Dr. Debbie Catulong said the advocacy should go beyond emergency response teams and trained health personnel, stressing the need to equip more ordinary residents with basic CPR skills.

“We would as much as possible want to expand and engage everyone in the community to be trained,” Catulong said.

She said expanding training to barangays and schools is particularly important because emergencies can happen in places where professional responders may not immediately be available.

Catulong noted that while Mandaue’s health workers and emergency rescue teams have already undergone training, more personnel in schools and communities need to acquire the same skills.

She emphasized that CPR is a relatively simple intervention that can be performed immediately while waiting for emergency responders to arrive.

“If we can administer it immediately to the one who needs it most,” Catulong said, trained community members can help provide crucial assistance during the early minutes of a cardiac emergency.

The inclusion of PWDs and their caregivers in the latest training also highlights the importance of making emergency preparedness more inclusive.

For Bell-Kenz, Mandaue’s participation strengthens the reach of the Sagip CPR Nautical Highway, which seeks to bring CPR education to communities situated along major transport corridors and areas with large concentrations of people.

Mandaue’s location and its busy maritime and transport activities make it an important component of the initiative, particularly as the city hosts several ports and serves as a major commercial and transportation hub in Metro Cebu.

Patrick Larraga, head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at Bell-Kenz, said the participation of local communities demonstrates the importance of building a broader network of people capable of responding during emergencies.

Sagip CPR was launched in August 2025 to teach hands-only CPR and proper AED use, with medical practitioners from partner organizations conducting the training.

The campaign has since reached various sectors, including schools, communities, fisherfolk, transport hubs, government agencies and uniformed services.

Nearly 100,000 individuals have completed the program so far, according to Bell-Kenz.

For Mandaue, however, the goal is to continue expanding the pool of trained responders, particularly in schools and barangays, so that life-saving assistance can begin as soon as an emergency occurs.