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Senate hails Filipina nurse: Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva co-sponsors Senate Resolution No. 320, recognizing and commending May Richell A. Cestina-Parsons for receiving the prestigious George Cross Award from the United Kingdom government. He said: “Cestina-Parsons showed the world what Filipino health care workers are made of in the face of adversity.” During Wednesday’s plenary session December 7, 2022, in his co-sponsorship speech, Villanueva said: “Parsons did not hesitate to serve the patients even though there was a high possibility that she would be infected with a deadly disease. This is the situation of our overseas Filipino health care workers in different corners of the world. They bravely face every test, even if there is no certainty of its effect on their health.” Villanueva added that during the last Congress, the Senate promoted several benefits for the frontliners such as the Special Risk Allowance and Active Hazard Duty Pay. In addition, the Senate also passed the creation of the Department of Migrant Workers to provide immediate assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Parsons is a Filipino-British nurse wotking at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) who gave the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to then 90-year-old Margaret Keenan, making her the first person, not only in the United Kingdom (UK), but in the entire world to administer a COVID-19 vaccine to a patient outside of a clinical trial. (Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB)