CAPAS, Tarlac – This town’s Mayor Rey Catacutan urged President Duterte and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday to “consider another place or facility as isolation area” for the Filipino repatriates who are expected to be flown in from China today, amid plans to use the Athletes’ Village at New Clark City.
The Capas town council also held an emergency meeting yesterday morning and unanimously approved a resolution objecting to the national government’s plan to use the place as quarantine site.
“DOH did not at all involve Capas LGU in its last-minute decision for New Clark City to be used as quarantine zone. The Athletes’ Village was built for athletes, not for the sick. We would like to help, but not this way,” Capas Vice Mayor Jeseller Rodriguez said.
Knowing that their objection may already be too late, the Capas government will seek the court’s assistance to prevent through an injunction the Department of Health (DOH) from using more Village facilities for quarantining purposes.
But the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) insisted that residents would be safe from a possible novel coronavirus (nCoV) contamination even if the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) would be housed at Athletes’ Village.
??In a statement, it gave assurance “the municipality of Capas and its officials that the national government will address all the issues and concerns raised following the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to use New Clark City as a quarantine site for our repatriated kababayans.”
“All preventive and precautionary measures are being put in place by the Task Force not only for our repatriated kababayans, but to also ensure that the adjacent communities of New Clark City and all Capaseños are kept safe and protected,” it added.
The DOH also gave assurance that using the facility would not pose health threats to Capas and its residents.
In a press conference, Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said they will be doing everything to prevent the spread of nCoV in the communities surrounding the facility.
“We made sure that the OFWs, who are coming in, will not come in contact with the community. Though it is in Capas, it’s inside the New Clark City,” Domingo stressed.
Added to this safety protocol is the fact that the Chinese government will not allow those who are showing signs of nCoV to leave China and will instead be brought to hospital, he pointed out.
He noted that “only the healthy and asymptomatic will be sent to the quarantine facilities.”
“These are our countrymen coming home. Let us find them a safe place to stay. We appeal to your hearts for you to welcome our kababayans,” Domingo added.
At least 45 OFWs from Hubei province, where the nCoV epicenter Wuhan City is located, are expected to arrive at the Clark International Airport today.
They were initially slated to be transported immediately to an unused building at the drug rehabilitation center in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, until BCDA chairman and president VinceDizon offered the Athletes’ Village, which was used by athletes in the last Southeast Asian Games.
The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) confirmed yesterday that the airplane carrying the repatriated OFWs would land in Clark International Airport but clarified that its passengers will not use the Main Terminal Building and will be processed in a separate area.
It added that Clark International Airport is ready to assist the government in the facilitation of their arrival as it assured the public that normal airport operations in the main passenger terminal would not be affected by the activity. ??
Catacutan, who is in Germany for an official visit, objected to the plan to take the repatriated OFWs to the Athletes’ Village saying local officials were not even consulted. ?
“We acknowledge that the BCDA has full jurisdiction over NCC, but I, as the mayor of Capas, appeal in behalf of all Capaseños to our dear President Rodrigo Duterte and DOH Secretary Francisco Duque to consider another place or facility as isolation area,” he said in a statement.
Capas councilor Estella Manlupig said, “we are not rejecting the OFWs because they are our compatriots, but there exists an option to quarantine them in more isolated parts of the country. We all were taken by surprise.”
The mayor’s position contrasted with that of Pampanga Gov. Dennis Pineda who said his provincial government is ready to accommodate the returning OFWs from virus-hit countries.
“We are very much willing to help OFWs who are returning from novel coronavirus-affected areas, as well as individuals with travel history who are voluntarily going on self-quarantine,” Pineda said, adding that his province has the right quarantine facilities identified by the DOH and trained personnel to handle the cases.
Use islands instead
As the Capas officials objected to the use of the sports facilities in New Clark City for quarantine purposes, Manila City 1st district Rep. Manny Lopez, chair of House committee on Metro Manila development, proposed the use of either Caballo Island or Corregidor Island to quarantine the returning OFWs.
In a resolution, he recommended to the national government the establishment of a quarantine site in either of the two islands, which are just off Manila Bay.
“Caballo Island or Corregidor Island is safer and more practical because they are isolated from the cities. We can better prevent the possibility of the nCoV spreading to nearby communities,” Lopez explained to The STAR.
The ranking lawmaker also recalled that Caballo Island had been used as quarantine site in 2014 for members of the Philippine peacekeeping contingent after their stint in Ebola-stricken Liberia.
“It has already been proven as an effective site for quarantine before, so why not use it again now?” he suggested.
After hearing the measures taken by the DOH earlier this week, the panel passed a resolution urging Secretary Duque to “maximize all the powers and authority vested in him by laws, issuances and protocols.”
The panel also called on agencies under the task force like the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of the Interior and Local Government “to proactively support the secretary of health in the exercise of his function and duty and to ensure a coordinated effort to fulfill the task force’s mandate.”
Lopez explained that the DOH chief—being head of the inter-agency task force on contagious diseases—should be more proactive and aggressive in implementing measures without the need to wait for approval of the President.
He explained that the secretary of health is authorized by Executive Order 168 to order other agencies under the task force to implement necessary measures to contain the spread of any contagious disease.
To help the government in containing nCoV, Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte also pushed the implementation of an existing law mandating private employers to allow workers to telecommute or work from home.
“This is probably the time for our companies to give RA 11165 (Republic Act 11165 or the Telecommuting Act) a chance by pilot-testing or trying out this alternative job arrangement of allowing their employees, if possible, to work in their homes instead of reporting to their respective offices until this new viral outbreak subsides,” said Villafuerte, principal author of the law in the House.
“We now have this opportunity for employers to support RA 11165 while at the same time help the national government fight the global outbreak of nCoV by letting their workers, if possible, to work in the safety of their homes until this global emergency situation subsides, with the use of their computers and other telecommunication technologies,” the veteran lawmaker stressed.
Villafuerte added that the adoption of the flexible work-at-home arrangement during this coronavirus season will also help “ease and decongest the traffic situation in Greater Manila and reduce the stress of both citizens and the government.”
He explained that telecommuting allows employees in the private sector to work at home with the use of telecommunications and/or computer technologies, instead of them having to go to their respective offices on a daily basis. – With Sheila Crisostomo, Edu Punay, Rudy Santos