GMA: Defiant Pinoys face SARS sanctions

Overseas Filipinos evading SARS screening tests and quarantine rules on their return home would be punished, President Arroyo said yesterday. It was the government’s strongest move yet to prevent the killer disease from spreading.

"Those who willfully evade health checks at our ports of entry or who falsify their health data will be charged for violations of the law," Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement.

She did not specify the sanctions but said she would work closely with Congress on "long-term" enforcement measures, including forced quarantine.

"We must now impose stringent yet humane measures to contain this threat," the President said.

A bill was filed at the House of Representatives yesterday requiring mandatory quarantine for people arriving from countries worst hit by SARS.

At present, those arriving from SARS-hit countries are advised to undergo a 10-day voluntary quarantine as a measure to contain the spread of the disease.

However, Filipino workers returning from Hong Kong, one of the hardest hit areas of the fatal illness, often ignore the quarantine period.

Elmer Cato, director of the consular office of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Pampanga, noted that 10 to 12 people, mostly women, who have returned recently from Hong Kong, have been turning up in their office daily to renew their passports without observing quarantine measures.

"We cannot allow indiscipline to ride roughshod over the public interest," the President said as she urged Filipinos to follow advisories prescribed health authorities.

She also ordered all law enforcement agencies, local government officials and barangay authorities to support the disciplinary campaign to stop the spread of SARS.

Mrs. Arroyo bared that she would soon issue an executive order which would spell out the government’s consolidated campaign against SARS.

In his daily briefing at Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that the President is empowered under the 1987 Constitution to address the threat to public health.

Bunye disclosed that Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino Cruz was drafting the executive order in coordination with the SARS management team headed by Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit and National Security Adviser Roilo Golez.

With this development, local authorities remain vigilant against the entry of the killer pneumonia in the Philippines. With all ports of entry in the country now implementing SARS screening for inbound and outbound passengers, Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza raised yesterday the level of alert for those entering the countries water territories while fishing, particularly Chinese fishermen who may slip into the country carrying the SARS virus.

The Philippine Coast Guard and coastal communities were instructed to be on the lookout for foreign fishing vessels entering Philippine territories.

Even the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is now also helping the health department, especially in tracing people who had contact with the country’s first probable SARS victim Adela Catalon.

Since SARS became big news, Filipinos’ interest in going out of the country whether for work or for leisure has dropped significantly.

DFA’s consular office in Pampanga revealed that applications for new passports have gone down from 700 to only 300 or 400 daily.

Meanwhile, Carmen MacTavish of the Association of Travel Agencies in Pampanga (ATAP) told The STAR that plane tickets sales for Hong Kong has declined by as much as 98 percent.

But something positive may yet emerge from the woes brought by the SARS epidemic. Because of SARS, Philippine-grown vegetables would soon be exported to Singapore.

Speaking before the weekly forum at the Holiday Inn yesterday, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) secretary general and former senator Ernesto Herrera said negotiations are now underway for the exportation of different agricultural products to Singapore.

Singapore, he said, does not want to buy anymore vegetables from China and has ordered its six million residents to buy only vegetables from groceries.

"TUCP and the Department of Labor and Employment are discussing with trade unions in Singapore and cooperatives in Mt. Province the possible exportation of vegetables," he disclosed. — With reports from AFP, Ding Cervantes, Mayen Jaymalin, Cecille Suerte Felipe