ILOILO City – The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Region 6 personnel who tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) went to Boracay Island on June 12 with 28 other colleagues, confirmed Acting Mayor Frolibar Bautista of Malay, Aklan.
He criticized the trip as an “irresponsible and blatant disregard of quarantine protocols.”
“Nabigla ako…Isa po doon ang babae na umalis ng Iloilo (City), na-swab…Hindi pa lumabas ang result (but) pumunta (na) ng Boracay at noong huli ay nag-positive,” said Bautista in a press conference yesterday morning.
He was referring to the 26-year-old female BFP-6 personnel (Patient No. 144) whom the city government placed under quarantine late night on June 14 after hours of searching for her.
Bautista said the patient’s name was listed in the port manifest.
The patient’s positive test result was released on June 13. She and her BFP-6 group took a boat to Boracay on June 12 at around 5 p.m. via Tabon-Tambisaan Port.
In an official statement posted on Facebook, the local government unit of Malay which has jurisdiction over Boracay described the BFP personnel’s trip as “an unfortunate event.”
“The personnel of the local government unit of Malay allowed the entry of the BFP personnel on June 12…due to the fact that the(y) cited ‘for conference’ as reason for entering Boracay Island,” the statement further read.
Bautista said his local government’s initial investigation showed the group was actually on unofficial business.
The BFP regional office had not coordinated with the Malay local government about any official activity of the agency in Boracay, he pointed out.
“Ano gagawin nila sa Boracay? Ano ba ang activities? Of course, mag-e-enjoy sila,” said Bautista.
The group stated in the manifesto that they originated from Kalibo, Aklan, not Iloilo City, he added.
The BFP-6 group left Malay on June 14 at around 1:40 p.m., Bautista further said, citing the Passengers’ Data Sheet from the Municipal Tourism Office.
He directed the Municipal Legal Office to study this case and file appropriate charges.
Bautista also ordered contact tracing in the hope of stopping COVID-19 from spreading in Boracay Island which is poised to initially welcome back domestic tourists from across the region.
The Municipal Health Office, Municipal Tourism Office and Malay police station are spearheading the contact tracing.
“The local government of Malay will exhaust all means to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spreading,” said Bautista.
He, however, lamented that “information gathering from the BFP-6 has been difficult.”
The acting mayor also tasked the Municipal Health Office, Municipal Tourism Office and Malay police station to investigate “establishments that accepted the unofficial business of the BFP personnel.”
Bautista lamented that the controversial visit was done at a time when Boracay stakeholders were girding for a “soft opening” after three months of quarantine. Now, he said, visitors may once again feel anxious about their health.
“May tendency na parang ‘teka muna,’” said Bautista.
This, however, won’t stop Boracay from reopening, he stressed.
For his part, Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas said the statement of the local government of Malay confirmed the information he received about the irregularity in the way BFP-6 handled its COVID-19 positive personnel.
“It’s very clear that these people violated the rules of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases,” he said.
Treñas would be bringing this matter to the regional inter-agency task force headed by Office of Civil Defense director Jose Roberto Nuñez. He said BFP-6 should be answerable to what happened.
On Monday, Treñas issued Executive Order No. 91, Series of 2020 placing the BFP-6 office and the adjacent city fire bureau office under extreme enhanced community quarantine as a precautionary measure.
He also said getting the COVID-19-positive patient to the St. Therese-MTCC Hospital for quarantine on Sunday was not as easy as it seemed. He criticized BFP-6 for not acting soon enough to turn over the patient to the city government team tasked to bring her to the hospital.
According to Treñas, the city government team was given a runaround for hours on Sunday. He had to seek help from the Department of Interior and Local Government Region 6 and Police Regional Office 6.
It was already around 9 p.m. when BFP-6 was able to produce Patient 144, said Treñas./PN
