Fish port closure continues

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The indefinite lockdown of the Iloilo Fishing Port Complex (IFCP) in Iloilo City is in preparation for its safe reopening amid rising coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases that were traced to the facility.

The indefinite closure was announced by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas on Aug 8, 2020, due to the lack of sufficient number of compliance officers deployed to the port.

The compliance officers will enforce health protocols such as physical distancing and wearing of face masks.

The port was first placed under a three-day lockdown starting Aug 2 after the death of a fish broker who was infected with COVID-19.

But Treñas extended the lockdown after more cases were attributed to the complex.

In an interview with Aksyon Radyo Iloilo on Saturday, Dr. Justo Anaquita Jr., IFCP spokesperson, said they already proposed measures to be implemented once they would be allowed to reopen.

Anaquita said they are still looking into the number of additional compliance officers that must be deployed.

He added that they have already submitted their proposals to the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) office in Manila.

“We have to figure it out, maybe there will be many. We have to reduce the market participants, if possible, to around 500 or less. We’re also proposing to introduce, although this is still in the planning stages in Manila, alternate operation of tolls, wherein odd and even [plate] numbers will be assigned for each day to reduce the number of participants, and also reducing trading hours from the usual eight hours to five hours only, or ultimately, maybe four hours, in the future,” Anaquita said.

He added that their frontline personnel already underwent testing via Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).

“I don’t have the exact number of how many were tested but we prioritized our frontline staff who had a high rate of contact with our clients. We are still asking for the results from the City Health Office,” he said.

Anaquita did not say if the fish port was ready to reopen, but they have informed the city government that they cannot return to operation at a sooner time as many of their personnel and other clients are still under quarantine.

“We are greatly preparing because we don’t want to create unnecessary delays in our re-opening and re-operation, but considering the factors that many of our colleagues are still under quarantine because of the swab test, we can’t field enough [staff]. The more we rush, the more we create inefficiency. Along with that, many personnel of the brokerages and other market participants have also undergone swab tests. We’ve informed the city government and they understood. This lockdown will give us more time to prepare ourselves for the opening,” he said.

Data from the Iloilo City Government indicated that as of Friday, 61 COVID-19 cases in the city and one in Pototan in Iloilo province were traced to the fishing port complex.

Deliveries and other transactions have been temporarily moved to the docks at Barangay Legaspi-de la Rama in City Proper district.