Emergency Operations Center dissolved

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government has deactivated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) leaving most of its job order personnel without job effective yesterday.

Councilor Joel Garganera, EOC deputy chief implementer, said that the monitoring of COVID-19 cases will now be handled by the City Health Department.

“As to its deactivation, the WHO (World Health Organization) declared the end of the pandemic and cases are at [a] manageable level. CHD also assumed the responsibility under their community surveillance,” Garganera said.

Disbanding EOC was a tall decision for the city government considering that several employees were affected.

“We tried to absorb a few JOs, pero most, if not all, na remove gyud sila,” said Garganera.

Garganera did not give the number of personnel whose contracts were no longer renewed effective yesterday but the EOC used to have over 1,000 personnel, including doctors and nurses, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The manpower was cut down to less than a 100 when the situation improved until the WHO lifted the declaration of health emergency on COVID-19 recently.

According to Garganera, some of the detailed personnel have returned to their mother units but unfortunately for the JOs their contracts of service were terminated.

Garganera expressed his deepest appreciation to the men and women who served under the EOC in the past three years.

“We’ve been through a lot for the past three years. Blood sweat, and tears-we gave it our all to protect as many lives and livelihoods as possible. And then it’s time,” an emotional Garganera said.

“Sa kasakit ug ka-ayo, inyong kinabuhi ug kasing-kasing gihatag ninyo sa tao ug sa Sugbo. Salamat ninyong tanan,” he added.

The EOC had been on top of the city’s COVID-19 response for the past three years. It was put in place by then Inter-Agency Task Force deputy chief implementer for the Visayas retired General Melquides Feliciano and his assistant retired general Roy Cimatu.

The EOC’s best practices were shared with other local government units in the country to mitigate their COVID-19 cases.

Garganera said it will now be up to Mayor Michael Rama to reactivate the EOC if the need arises. The city government has yet to decide whether or not to keep the Cebu City Quarantine Center at the North Reclamation or use it for another purpose. —  FPL (FREEMAN)