CLOUDS OVER THE TOWN OF THE RISING SUN

By Rex Legayada Aguado

Correspondent

THE White Lady of Guimbal is looking ghostlier than ever. And people in the usually throbbing heart of this southern Iloilo municipality seem to be vanishing along with its famed Vanishing Mansion.

Days after Iloilo province’s first coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patient was confirmed to have come from Guimbal, the municipality has become a ghost town, with vendors, tricycle drivers and residents still anxious over who might have been exposed to the province’s Covid-19 Patient Number 1, a 65-year-old retired seafarer.

According to Maritess, a saleslady at one of the drugtores in the poblacion of Guimbal, all the town’s pharmacies have run out of vitamin C supplies, alcohol, swabs, mouthwash and nutritional supplements after panic-buying struck the town center on 13 March. That was the day when rumors started spreading that a town resident was rushed by ambulance from a local medical center to Iloilo City because he was suspected of having Covid-19.

“There were so many customers here,” Maritess said (editor’s note: names of interviewees have been changed as they have requested). “We opened at 7am and it was normal, but by noon, some people started whispering that there was a coronavirus patient in Guimbal. Two hours before we closed, most of our supplies were sold out,” Maritess adds in Karay-a.

In a way, Guimbal is Ground Zero of Iloilo Province’s Covid-19 outbreak, following the report of Western Visayas region’s first confirmed case in Bacolod City. After the patient from Guimbal, two more individuals tested positive – one in Iloilo City and another in Capiz.

In the wake of the initial panic-buying, Guimbal authorities tightened its community quarantine measures in the hope of stemming the infection.

When we visited the town on 24 March, the poblacion was practically empty, save for the hospital area where relatives of patients were awaiting news or coming in and out to buy supplies.

Just outside the town center, we chanced upon a group of residents furtively chatting by the roadside. We noticed two women carrying basins of beans.

It turns out that Mrs Galicia (not her real name) and her neighbor have been foraging for monggo beans in a neighboring field. It’s technically stealing, but Mrs Galicia hopes the farm-owner will understand. “It’s just to supplement our dinner,” she says.

“We have a stall at the market,” adds her husband. “We sell bolos and agricultural tools from Bingawan, but we were told to close our stall because we’re not selling prime commodities. We had no choice. But now, we’re running out of money.”

Mr Galicia says he’s heard that tricycle drivers will be getting some financial assistance, but market vendors like them were not getting any help. “We are really worried. We still have to feed our kids,” he adds.

He says residents have heard about the Covid-19 patient, who lives just down the road from them. “He’s some kind of minister at the church,” Mr Galicia says. “He helps hand out hostias during Holy Communion.”

“They put the hostias on your palm,” Mrs Galicia explains. ”But they’re not wearing gloves. So everybody is now worried – we’ve taken the Body of Christ, but we’re not sure if it’s infected.”

Neighbors laugh at Mrs Galicia’s morbid joke, but it’s obvious everyone is worried.

According to the Guimbal Municipal Health Office, 66 individuals might have been exposed to the patient. In a 25 March 2020 report in Daily Guardian, Guimbal municipal health officer Dr. Jay Dorin said 61 of these people had links with the patient because of his role at the church, while the other five are relatives, plus their house-help.

Dorin said these individuals have been categorized as Persons Under Monitoring (PUMs) and were advised to go into self-quarantine until 27 March. The patient’s condition has been improving, while his 62-year-old wife remains confined in hospital as a Person Under Investigation (PUI) even though she’s asymptomatic, Dorin added.

The retired seafarer is suspected to have been infected by an asymptomatic relative who recently travelled to Japan. Dorin said the patient was deemed very vulnerable because of his age, heart condition and diabetes.

This vulnerability is also in the mind of Mrs Guila (not her real name), whose diabetic 67-year-old husband is confined at the Rep. Pedro G. Trono Memorial Hospital in Guimbal. “We’re not sure if the Covid-19 patient visited this hospital, but we’re in a private ward, so I’m somehow relieved,” she says. “But I still have to go through the common areas of the hospital to buy food, so I’m still very worried. We live just down the road, but I’ve decided to stay here with my husband because I’m afraid I may carry the virus back to him if I go out or go home.”

An orderly at the hospital, Mario (not his real name), says they have worked round the clock to make sure good hygiene is maintained. “We have a triage area here and all patients are screened before being admitted,” he says. “We’re doing our best here, but we’re not sure if we can cope because we heard so many people here were exposed to the Covid-19 patient before it was confirmed he was infected. It’s like a waiting for a bomb to explode.”