Anti-SARS bill approval urged

An administration lawmaker has asked Congress to speed up the approval of the anti-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) bill when the legislature resumes session in January.

Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Apolinario Lozada, chairman of the House committee on foreign relations, said House Bill No. 5937 seeks to establish a mandatory quarantine program to institutionalize the government’s campaign against SARS and other highly contagious diseases like the Japanese encephalitis virus, malaria and tuberculosis.

He noted that the absence of an institutionalized anti-SARS campaign made it very hard for the government to quarantine possible SARS carriers when the disease broke out early this year.

Lozada, principal author of the bill, said the measure will also empower the government to take necessary steps in preventing the spread of the disease such as cordoning whole barangays suspected of carrying the deadly virus, sealing off private or public areas including hospitals, dwellings, commercial buildings, clinics, resorts, malls, recreation areas and other enclosed public places.

The bill was approved on second reading by the House last August.

Lozada warned that failure to immediately pass and enact the anti-SARS bills into law could be very costly for the nation.

"We have seen how deadly the disease is, we would not want our people to die needlessly when we can do something about it," he said.

"This (resurgence of SARS) is a very serious development," Lozada added. "We cannot effectively wage a war against the deadly disease unless we have an institutionalized campaign."

He explained that under the proposed measure, government facilities where possible carriers of fatal diseases should be confined and quarantined will be identified. Military and police authorities will be also be given a major role in ensuring the effective implementation of the law.