Iloilo, Negros leaders stick to quarantine, tests on ROFs

Iloilo City will quarantine and test all returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) who arrive, contrary to the guidelines set by the National Task Force against COVID-19.

Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city will “be wasting all our hardships if we follow the rule that all ROFs can return to their respective houses immediately upon arrival.”

Treñas said he will align the city’s policies with Iloilo province which also requires ROFs to quarantine and undergo RT-PCR testing before they go home.

“We will place them in our quarantine facilities if needed and test them as soon as they arrive from Manila,” he added.

The mayor’s statement is in response to the Operational Guidelines on the Management of ROFs, particularly Paragraph 7.5, issued by the NTF stating that they shall no longer be subjected to local health protocols by the receiving LGUs.

The NTF guidelines appear to be in conflict with Paragraph B.3 of Resolution 67 of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) which requires “Immediate facility-based quarantine or isolation of all returning citizens, suspect, and probable cases.”

The IATF-EID chaired by Health Sec. Francisco Duque III sets the policies for COVID-19 response while the NTF headed by Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana is in charge of the implementation.

Bacolod City also asked the regional task force to endorse its call to the NTF to allow the quarantine and testing of ROFs who arrive in the city.

Leonardia said that  between the two national directives, the Bacolod LGU will have to comply with NIATF Resolution No. 67 dated August 31, as this is “congruent with our present health protocols and will provide greater protection for our people.”

“This is to most respectfully inform you of the stand of our (Bacolod) LGU that ROFs and LSIs (Locally Stranded Individuals) coming home to Bacolod need to be facility-quarantined and swabbed first (under RT-PCR method) when they arrive here, before they are allowed to finally proceed home,”  he added.

Earlier, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Iloilo Chapter said it will ask the NTF to reconsider several provisions of its Aug. 19, 2020 order on the handling of ROFs.

LMP Iloilo President and San Enrique town Mayor Trixie Fernandez told Daily Guardian that the LMP will issue a resolution appealing Sections 7.5.2 and 7.5.3 of the said order.

The NTF order also provides that ROFs will be brought to temporary quarantine facilities, only to be released for delivery to their homes if they test negative for COVID-19 via Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) upon their arrival.

Fernandez said that local government units (LGU) in the province have deemed the provisions as “dangerous”, given the current COVID-19 situation.

“The LGUs aren’t comfortable [with these provisions] because of the dangers of the policy to direct home quarantine. We already know that home quarantine may most likely be violated because there isn’t adequate home quarantine areas, and we really can’t avoid the [scenario of] ROFs going out [of the home] when they are asymptomatic. The risk is still there if we bring them directly,” Fernandez said.

In Negros Occidental, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and the mayors of the 31 local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental are pushing to retain local health protocols, including swab test and government facility quarantine for ROFs upon their arrival in the province.

The Negrense officials manifested their stand in a letter sent by Lacson to the Office of Civil Defense-Western Visayas (OCD-6) regional director Jose Roberto Nuñez, chair of the Regional Task Force on Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19).

Lacson said subjecting ROFs to tests in Metro Manila “will be a waste of effort, time and valuable resources” as the province has proven through experience that those who tested negative may be infected in transit to the provinces and test positive afterward.

“May we suggest that swabbing be done in our province and quarantine at the LGU level as part of integration to the community,” the governor said.

Lacson pointed out that testing and isolation before integration should be done at the local government level as it gives confidence to the community to receive their constituents, adding that it will also help in minimizing the cost of testing and quarantine cost for overseas Filipino workers. (FAA and ERS/With a report from PNA)