The Ateneo de Zamboanga University Lantaka campus along Valderrosa St will be used as one of the city’s designated areas for isolation and management of suspected cases of Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19). This was announced by AdZU Fr President Karel San Juan, SJ, in a memo to the school community yesterday.
Earlier, the City’s Inter Agency Task Force had identified the Lantaka campus as a site that could be converted into an isolation facility in case the city will be infected by COVID-19. “Mayor Maria Issabelle Climaco-Salazar, Department of Health (DOH) regional director Dr Emilia Moncimpo, and the Zamboanga City health officer Dr Dulce Miravite have requested the use of the facilities due to Lantaka’s strategic location and proximity to the Zamboanga City Medical Center and the City Health Office which can facilitate movement of health personnel and transfer of medical resources,’ Fr San Juan stated.
The decision was made after Fr San Juan consulted with key University officers and got the approval of the donor. With this development, all Lantaka Campus activities, including AdZU operations at the facility, will be temporarily suspended for the duration of the public health crisis.
“I ask for the University community’s understanding and support in this endeavor as part of our mission that extends beyond the city to the six provinces of the Zamboanga peninsula and Western Mindanao. I ask, too, for prayers and cooperation in these trying times,” Fr San Juan wrote in his letter to the AdZU community. It will be recalled that the facility, formerly a hotel, was gifted to AdZU by philanthropist Hilda Walstrom, “for educational, spiritual, religious and social development purposes, in the service of the University’s mission, to serve God and country. It was inaugurated last March 19, 2019, and since then has been a venue for seminars and workshops, team-building sessions, and retreats and recollections.
