OFW faces raps for ‘bolting’ from quarantine facility

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

The Leganes Police Station in Iloilo filed criminal charges against a repatriated overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who allegedly fled from the local government’s quarantine facility.

The 34-year-old female OFW from Hong Kong was charged for violation of Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code in relation to Republic Act 11449 (Bayanihan to Heal As One Act) and Republic Act 11332 (Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act).

The case against her is docketed as Criminal Case No. C-3837-L.

Police Captain Roy Tayona, Leganes police chief, earlier said that authorities learned that the woman fled from the Municipal Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Office, the designated quarantine facility for repatriated OFWs and locally-stranded individuals (LSIs), on June 23, 2020.

The woman arrived in Iloilo on June 15 and was made to stay in a hotel in Iloilo City where she underwent reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) test.

Her result turned out negative. She was then fetched by the LGU and was made to stay at the town’s quarantine facility until June 29 to complete her quarantine period.

“But she had intimated that she won’t be staying at the quarantine facility,” Tayona said.

True enough, the OFW allegedly went home.

Tayona said members of the Municipal Task Force on Covid-19 went to the woman’s house and negotiated for her return to the facility.

But she did not budge.

“That’s why, we used reasonable force,” he said.

But a report by RMN-Iloilo cited the OFW as saying that she went home after the local government unit did not attend to her upon reaching the quarantine facility.

The OFW also claimed that she waited outside the facility for four hours, but no one attended to her needs. She was forced to go home because of hunger and tiredness.

The local task force decided to haul her to court.

In an order signed by Judge Arturo Doronila of the 9th Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Zarraga-New Lucena-Leganes, the woman was told to remain in the facility until such time the Leganes Municipal Health Officer issues a clearance for her release from the said facility.

A P3,000 bail was recommended for her temporary liberty.

“The jail warden of Leganes Municipal Police Station is hereby directed to keep the accused in custody upon her release at the quarantine facility of Leganes until she posts the required bill,” the order stated.

The arraignment and pre-trial conference on the case was set on Aug. 7, 2020.