March

MARCH- REVISED
DOH confirms 2 local

virus cases; prayer hall
shut
By: Jovic Yee - Reporter / @jovicyeeINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:15 AM March 07, 2020
URGENT REMINDERS Tips on how to prevent the spread of the new

coronavirus are posted at the entrance to San Lazaro Hospital in Manila. The
Department of Health on Friday reported that for the first time two Filipinos
had tested positive for the virus in the Philippines. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Friday that for the first time two
Filipinos in the country have tested positive for the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19), one of whom was a 62-year-old man who likely contracted the
virus locally.
Duque said that the man, who has hypertension and diabetes, tested positive
for the virus on Thursday after he was admitted with severe pneumonia at
Cardinal Santos Medical Center (CSMC) in San Juan City four days earlier.
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Also on Thursday, a 48-year-old lawyer who had traveled to Japan tested

positive for COVID-19. Duque said the male patient stayed in Tokyo from Feb.
21 to Feb. 25 and was hospitalized due to chills and fever on Tuesday.
The two cases bring to five the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in
the country. It has been 29 days since the Philippines last reported a positive
case.
The first three confirmed cases were all Chinese tourists —a man and two
women— from Wuhan, the city in central China identified as the epicenter of
the outbreak. The man died of pneumonia and the two women recovered and
have returned to China, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
Absence of travel
Duque said the 62-year-old diabetic, who regularly worshiped at a Muslim
prayer hall in Greenhills, San Juan, has been coughing with phlegm since
Feb. 25.
He noted that the man has not traveled to any of the countries currently
affected by the virus, which is called SARS-CoV-2.
“The absence of travel is a clear indication that this is a local case,” Duque
said in a press briefing on Friday.
The two men are now being treated at the Research Institute for Tropical
Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City.
Assistant Health Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said a relative and
frequent companion of the 62-year-old was also confined at the RITM after
showing symptoms of the disease. His test results were not yet available.
San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora said he had already instructed the city health
office to disinfect and sanitize and then temporarily close the Greenhills prayer
hall, which could accommodate 400 people.
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“As to when it will be opened, I informed the Greenhills Muslim Traders

Association, the group that manages the prayer room, earlier that until the
DOH gives the go signal for it to open, it will have to remain temporarily
closed,” said Zamora.
Contact tracing
“I informed them that this is for the safety of those in the prayer room and the
rest of the city as well,” he said.
The prayer hall, the Greenhills Masjid, is “quite far from the main shopping
area” and is separate from the popular shops there, Zamora said.
The city government and the DOH are now conducting contact tracing to
identify who the patient, a resident of a municipality near Metro Manila, has
been in contact with since he displayed COVID-19 symptoms.
‘Stay calm’
“I encourage the public to stay calm, practice proper hand washing using soap
and water or alcohol, and execute proper cough etiquette. Finally, avoid going
to crowded places keeping at least a one-meter distance from other people,”
Zamora said.
CSMC, a private hospital, confirmed in a statement that it took care of the 62-
year-old diabetic, who had displayed “continued presence of symptoms”
associated with the disease.
“CSMC has taken all the precautionary measures that all those who had
contact with the patient have been processed following the protocols of DOH
on quarantine, monitoring and observation,” it said. “So far, all those who have
had contact with the patient have no symptoms.”
The hospital also assured the public that it will prioritize the health care of its
other patients and employees, as well as adhere to the “highest standards of
infection management” in line with DOH guidelines and protocols.
The Greenhills Center management said it was “enacting precautionary

measures” to ensure the safety of its shoppers, tenants and employees, in
coordination with the DOH and the local government.
DOH hotlines
Duque, city officials and mall managers are urging those who have gone to
the prayer hall and are experiencing fever or other respiratory symptoms to
contact the DOH hotline (02) 8651-7800 local 1149-1150 to get proper
assistance.
Duque played down concerns that there already was local transmission just
because the virus had infected the 62-year-old man.
“There is no transmission so to speak as of yet because we only have one. It’s

premature to say there’s local transmission,” he said. “As soon as we have
more than one case that should be a reasonable consideration as a basis for
saying a local transmission is happening.”
But Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the World Health Organization (WHO)

representative in the country, pointed out that there already was a local
transmission since “the patient has acquired the disease in the Philippines.”
“Local transmission means transmission in a local geographic setting,” he

explained.
Not yet sure

Abeyasinghe clarified though that while two Filipinos in the country have
tested positive, there was no evidence yet that there was widespread or
community transmission of the virus.
“We don’t know the point of contact, whether it was from a foreigner, a local
contact or other contaminated source. We also don’t know whether that
patient has transmitted the infection to other people,” Abeyasinghe said.
“At this point, we are not sure whether we are looking at an isolated case or a
cluster of cases. But a cluster of cases [also] doesn’t mean that you are
having widespread local transmission,” he added.
Abeyasinghe also opposed the prayer hall’s temporary closure or foregoing
visits there as that would be “overreacting.”
“The mere presence of one confirmed case does not mean that we need to
close down the prayer hall,” he said. “Unless we have evidence that there are
other infected people, there’s no evidence for us to say not to go there.”
Given the Filipinos’ penchant not to seek medical help when experiencing
fever, cough or sore throat, the common symptoms of COVID-19,
Abeyasinghe said it was likely that the virus was spreading in the country
undetected.
Taiwanese case
“We cannot exclude it. That’s why we are urging people that if you have
respiratory symptoms to isolate yourself, practice social distancing. If there
are pointers which point toward the fact that you possibly have had exposure
to a COVID-19 patient, you need to see a medical practitioner,” he said.
Commenting on reports that three foreigners who had tested positive for
COVID-19 after their visits to the Philippines, Duque said two of them may
have contracted the virus elsewhere.
He said that one of them, a 38-year-old Taiwanese man, may have contracted
the virus before he arrived in the country on Feb. 28. He tested positive upon
his return to Taiwan on March 3, after suffering from abdominal discomfort
and diarrhea a day before.
Japanese visitor
Given that the incubation period for most of the cases is from six to seven
days, it’s likely the Taiwanese man was infected before or during his trip to the
Philippines, according to Abeyashinghe. “The timelines point to possible
earlier infection,” he said.
A 44-year-old Japanese man who visited the country during the last week of
February may have also contracted the virus in one of the four countries he
had been to before arriving in Manila—Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and
Japan. Except for Cambodia, the three other countries have reported local
transmissions.
Duque said they were still getting more information on the third visitor, an
Australian woman who tested positive on her return to Sydney from a three-
week vacation in the Philippines.
The DOH has also reported that 88 Filipinos have been infected abroad, 80 of
them aboard the cruise ship MV Diamond Princess. Half of the 42 patients
who have since recovered have already returned to the country.
The other cases are in Hong Kong (3), Singapore (3) and the United Arab
Emirates (2).
In the country, there are 41 patients being observed for the disease, while a
total of 634 have been discharged, as of Friday.
At New Clark City, 25 of the repatriates have shown symptoms, 19 of whom

have already tested negative. Fifteen of these patients have since returned to
Athletes’ Village to finish their two-week quarantine, which ends March 11. —
WITH A REPORT FROM MARIEJO S. RAMOS
DOT postpones mall fest

amid COVID-19 threat
By: Jerome Aning - Reporter / @JeromeAningINQ
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Saturday

announced the postponement of the nationwide mall sale portion of the March
2020 Philippine Shopping Festival, saying there was a need to prioritize public
health amid the “alarming rise” of coronavirus cases worldwide.
The Philippine Shopping Festival was supposed to be part of DOT’s efforts to

boost domestic tourism to compensate for the decreased international visitors
and tourism income due to travel restrictions here and abroad.
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Malls free to operate

“As much as we want to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19, the
safety of our citizens remains our priority. We advise the general public to
maintain proper hygiene and follow the guidelines set by the Department of
Health to contain the spread of the virus,” a statement by the DOT quoted
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat as saying.
She recalled that during the Taal Volcano eruption in January, the DOT had
recommended that tourism establishments cease operations in the affected
areas.
“The malls are still free to continue its day to day operations. The DOT also
recommends that malls follow the precautionary measures set by the
Department of Health such as checking the temperatures of mall-goers before
allowing them to enter and the provision of more hand sanitizers in their
premises,” the DOT said.
The festival will continue in selected tourism establishments such as hotels,

airlines, travel and tour operators, and other specific tourism product sellers
such as diving trips and conventions.
Flight advisories
Philippine carriers have begun canceling flights to and from South Korea,
following the partial travel ban imposed by the Interagency Task Force on
Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The Philippine Airlines (PAL) said it would be cancelling one daily flight and its
five-times-a-week flight to and from Seoul for the entire March. Also canceled
were thrice- and twice-a -week flights to and from Busan.
“We will retain a number of flights to/from Seoul and Busan to serve travelers
not covered by the travel ban,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a
statement.
She said PAL will retain one daily flight to and from Seoul from March 1 to 11.
This will become twice a week from March 12 to 31.
PAL will also be mounting the one flight for the Manila-Busan-Manila route on
March 1, 3 and 7. From March 8 to 28, PAL will only be flying to Busan twice a
week, and once from March 29 to 31.
Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific said it will be canceling three of its flights from
Manila, Cebu and Kalibo to Seoul and vice versa from March 3 to April 30.
Metro Manila lockdown
over COVID-19 pushed
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda says weeklong 'staycation' needed to stop spread of virus
By: DJ Yap - Reporter / @deejayapINQ
ONLY THE BRAVE Few shoppers are spotted at Greenhills Shopping Center
in San Juan City on Monday, days after the Department of Health announced
that the fifth confirmed coronavirus case in the country frequented the prayer
hall found inside the mall. RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — An administration lawmaker has offered a drastic and
dramatic proposal to slow and contain the spread of the novel coronavirus
(COVID-19) disease: impose a weeklong lockdown on the National Capital
Region (NCR) “where all the cases are.”
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, House ways and means committee chair, said on
Monday that the national government should not discount his suggestion
which, among other measures, would mean school closures, work stoppage,
suspension of public transport and cancellation of domestic flights.
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“The lockdown of NCR should be not be off the table if needed to slow down
the transmission of COVID-19,” he told reporters.
“During epidemics, everyone is a suspect, thus the need for isolation shock,”
Salceda said.
He argued that the cost of mass community transmission far outweighed

economic losses that might arise from such preemptive actions as a
Metrowide lockdown.
President Duterte on Monday declared a public health emergency as the

number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose sharply to 20 and after the country
recorded its first local transmission of the pneumonia-causing disease over
the weekend.
Citywide quarantine
China quarantined the city of Wuhan, where the virus originated, on Jan. 23 in
hopes of keeping the outbreak under control. Italy, also badly hit by the
coronavirus, will place the entire Lombardy region and 14 other provinces
under lockdown, according to reports.
“The zero-casualty doctrine should extend to all emergencies, especially

health emergencies,” Salceda said.
Elaborating on his proposal, he explained that classes should be suspended

nationwide to slow down and mitigate daily any potential for mass
transmission.
“In NCR, where all cases are, aside from no classes, there should be work
stoppage for at least one week. No bus trips, no domestic flights, close [South
Luzon/North Luzon expressways] and railways, and therefore, everybody in
Metro Manila should have a grand staycation,” he said.
“All exceptions to the temporary entry ban to NCR would be food, medicines
and health professionals,” Salceda said.
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But Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. said the idea of a Metro Manila
lockdown should be ruled out as “as it is the country’s economic and political
center.”
The Manila lawmaker expressed openness to other strong measures, such as

moving up the school calendar to allow students to begin their vacation early.
“Government and private offices should also study work-from-home

arrangements and the use of skeletal staffing patterns to minimize person-to-
person contact,” Abante said.
“At this point, all options should be on the table given that the NCR is the most
densely populated area in the country,” he added.
Metro Manila has a total population of just over 12.8 million people with a
density of 21,000 residents per square kilometer, Abante noted.
New Metro Manila cases

A 57-year-old Filipino from Quezon City and an 86-year-old American from
Marikina City were among the new cases announced by the Department of
Health on Sunday, bringing the total of confirmed cases in the country to 10.
On Monday, the figure went up to 20 although no details were given.
The Quezon City resident was admitted at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Quezon
City while the American was taken to The Medical City in Pasig.
Another confirmed case, a 32-year-old Filipino, was admitted at St. Luke’s

Medical Center in Taguig City while the fourth, a 38-year-old Taiwanese,
sought treatment at Makati Medical Center.
Palace ready for any
eventuality amid
coronavirus outbreak
By: Julie M. Aurelio - Reporter / @JMAurelioINQ
VIRUS WARD Sta. Ana Hospital in Manila opened its Manila Infectious
Disease Control Center for patients with COVID-19 as the Department of
Health raised the alert level to code red on Saturday. —MARIANNE
BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is declaring a state of
public health emergency on Monday on the recommendation of health officials
following confirmation of the local transmission of the new coronavirus that is
sickening and killing thousands of people across the globe.
In a radio interview on Sunday, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo

said Duterte would sign the declaration on Monday and that he would release
it during his regular press briefing in Malacañang.
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“We are ready for any eventuality,” Panelo said.
On Saturday, the Duterte approved the recommendation of the Department of

Health (DOH) for a declaration of a state of public health emergency after it
reported a sixth case of COVID-19, the pneumonia-like disease caused by the
SARS-Cov-2, a new coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan, capital of Hubei
province in central China, late last year.
The virus has sickened more than 100,000 people worldwide and killed more
than 3,500, mostly in China.
PH cases
The Philippines’ sixth case is the 59-year-old wife of the fifth case, a 62-year-
old diabetic from Cainta, Rizal province, who has not traveled to any of the
more than 90 countries where the new coronavirus has spread since it
emerged at a wildlife market in Wuhan in late December.
The fourth case is a lawyer who traveled to Japan in February and tested
positive for the coronavirus on Thursday. He was transferred from St. Luke’s
Medical Center in Taguig City to the Regional Institute for Tropical Medicine in
Muntinlupa City where he was reported to be in stable condition.
The first three cases were Chinese nationals from Wuhan who vacationed in
the Philippines in January. One of them died in early February. The other two
had recovered and had returned to China.
Some local governments called off classes in schools following news of

President Duterte’s declaration on Monday, although Health Secretary
Francisco Duque III did not recommend the closure of schools. (See story in
Metro, Page A15.)Panelo said the matter was up to school authorities to
decide. “That’s their discretion. If they feel schoolchildren are safe, they can
do that,” he said.
He also said he did not see a need to suspend work in government offices as
these were not crowded places.
Malacañang will also not be shut to protect Mr. Duterte from the virus, he said.
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“Why lock down Malacañang? It’s not a crowded area. They will only do that
to public gatherings, where people conglomerate,” Panelo said.
He said the declaration would not affect Duterte’s activities. “No cancellations
as far as I know,” he said.
Delayed reaction
Vice President Leni Robredo said the national government should lay down
clear guidelines for local governments to follow in halting the spread of the
coronavirus.
She expressed disappointment over the delayed action of the Duterte

administration, noting that Duque recommended the declaration of a state of
public health emergency in a letter to Malacañang dated Feb. 21.
“While there is a commitment to declare, the order will only be released [on
Monday],” Robredo told reporters on Sunday.
“I hope it will be released at the soonest possible time, so that we would know
its scope,” she said. “How would the funding work? What are the protocols for
local government[s] to better respond? There’s so much to be worked on.”
Robredo said she hoped the government would be transparent about the local
transmission of the coronavirus, following remarks by Sen. Panfilo Lacson that
the DOH could be underreporting information about information about the
disease.
“When you underreport, you only expose our countrymen to more danger,”
Robredo said. “It is very important that we know where the incidences are,
since the transmission is very fast.”
‘Massaging the data’

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate also called on the DOH to be transparent
about coronavirus cases and refrain from “massaging the data” in its reporting
positive cases in the country.
“We do not want a repeat of what happened with the government handling of
the African swine [fever],” Zarate said, recalling the official declaration that the
outbreak of the hog disease had already been contained only for more cases
to erupt in different parts of the country.
“The DOH should allow hospitals that have treated confirmed COVID-19
[cases] to announce these developments like what Cardinal Santos Medical
Center did so… the public would not feel that the department is controlling the
release of information,” Zarate said.
Duque criticized the private hospital in San Juan City for announcing that it
had admitted the patient who was considered to be the first case of
coronavirus local transmission in the Philippines.
Zarate said the government’s declaration of a state of public health

emergency was “clearly a belated reactive measure.”
“[The] DOH should have earlier asserted the budgetary requirement to

prepare for the impending health disaster,” he said.
“The testing kits with complete reagents, additional protective equipment for
health workers, additional human resources for epidemio¬logical surveillance
and contact tracing should have been done and acquired when the first case
of COVID-19 was confirmed,” he added.
“The Office of the President has billions of budget for intelligence and travel.
PhilHealth also has billions for the supposed universal health care, but billions
were slashed from the budget of DOH hospitals,” Zarate said.
“We strongly caution the Duterte administration, though, from using or taking
advantage of this pandemic to secure onerous loans that the Filipino
taxpayers would be the one to shoulder in the future,” he said.
Competitive bidding
Duque claimed that the declaration would enable the government to dispense
with competitive bidding in purchasing medicines and medical equipment to
be used in fighting the coronavirus.
But Sen. Franklin Drilon on Sunday belied Duque’s claim, saying: “There is
nothing in the law that says the procurement will be set aside.[Public] bidding
is still required.”
Drilon said the DOH should have already purchased medicines for
communicable diseases related to COVID-19 like pneumonia.
Commenting on Duque’s decision to withhold some information on the latest

coronavirus infections in the country, Drilon pointed out the law required the
DOH to observe full transparency in dealing with epidemics and other public
health emergencies.
The law only prohibits the release of private information of patients, but not
information about the hospitals and medical centers where the patients are
cared for, he said.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara appealed for calm, saying the confirmed cases of
the coronavirus “did not come as too much of a surprise” as large numbers of
travelers fly in and out of the country.
“Information is the most essential element in addressing the situation and

preventing unwanted behavior and reactions,” Angara said.
On Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) also appealed for calm,
saying Filipinos should not demand that every case of respiratory tract
infection be tested for the new coronavirus.
“That is not a possibility for any country,” said Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the
WHO representative in the Philippines.
POGOs to stay; taxes to

fund COVID-19 response
– Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte will neither stop nor

suspend the operations of Philippine offshore gaming hubs since their taxes
may be used to fund programs such as the response to the new coronavirus
(COVID-19) threat.
The President made the decision after reading a report from the Philippine
Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) on revenues that the government
earns from Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).
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“He [Duterte] told me yesterday that the Pagcor head submitted a good report
to him, so okay. We really need the funds from those operations,” presidential
spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in an interview over dzIQ on Sunday.
No basis to stop
The Palace official did not go into details about what the Pagcor report
contained.
Panelo said many of the government’s programs, such as higher salaries for
civil servants and the government’s response to the COVID-19 threat could be
funded by revenues from Pogos.
“We have a lot of projects that need funding — for the increase of salaries of
nurses, teachers. Now we have this problem with the coronavirus, we can
also tap that,” he said.
“All of those can be done. Because the money we get from whatever sources
is for the government, so the government can use that in any undertaking,” he
added.
He made the remarks days after the Palace said the President had no basis
for now to suspend or stop Pogos from operating, despite allegations of illegal
activities.
He said Duterte could not be rushed into making a decision about the
POGOsk without any basis, and that the President would wait for official
reports before making a decision.
Some lawmakers are calling for the suspension of Chinese-run Pogos amid
alleged violations such as tax evasion, money laundering, bribery, sex
trafficking and kidnapping.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila, however, downplayed the alleged crimes
involving Chinese nationals as “isolated” cases which do not represent the
entirety of Philippine-Chinese ties.
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Panelo pointed out that problems related to Pogos can be easily addressed by
just implementing related laws and regulations, instead of stopping the
operations entirely.
“The problems in the operations, that can easily be solved. All you have to do
is to implement established laws and regulations,” he said.
No classes in Marikina,
Navotas, San Juan over
virus
Mayors say school suspension a precaution vs COVID-19 spread
By: Matthew Reysio-Cruz, Meg Adonis - @inquirerdotnet

DISINFECTION ONGOING Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan is
sprayed with a disinfectant, both inside and out, after one of the three newest
confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country is reported to have frequented a
prayer hall inside the establishment. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Classes in all levels in both public and private schools
have been called off today in the cities of San Juan, Marikina and Navotas as
a precaution against the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) after the
number of confirmed cases in the country rose to six.
Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro, however, said on Sunday that there would
also be no classes from Tuesday to Wednesday “to give way to a large-scale
disinfection of all schools” in the city.
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“If possible, stay inside your homes and avoid unnecessary visits to public
places and areas with large crowds,” he added.
Aside from the blanket suspension of classes in the city, Navotas Mayor Toby
Tiangco also urged the Department of Education on Saturday to cancel the
rest of the school term and automatically pass all students to prevent putting
them at greater risk of COVID-19.
While his proposal did not sit well with some netizens who said it would
benefit only failing students, Tiangco remained firm.
“Let’s look at the numbers. How many students are failing who will be given a
passing grade? Not that many. But if there is one student who has the virus,
how many do you put at risk?” he said in a text to the Inquirer on Sunday.
“Do we wait for one student to have the virus and cancel after other students
get exposed…? Preventive measures must be done. Health is paramount,” he
added.
San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora said the one-day closure of schools in the
city would allow school officials to “sanitize and disinfect their campuses” and
implement measures to stop the virus from infecting more people.
Ground zero
San Juan emerged as ground zero in the fight against COVID-19 after a
couple from Cainta, Rizal province—two of the three newest confirmed cases
announced last week by the Department of Health (DOH),—were said to have
frequented the city.
According to the DOH, the couple regularly visited a prayer hall located at
Greenhills Mall, prompting its owner, Ortigas Land, to announce that
sanitation measures were being implemented under the supervision of
professional sanitation experts.
Other steps being taken were the conduct of mandatory temperature checks
at mall entrances while hand sanitizers and soap were provided for patrons at
both entrances and restrooms, it said in a statement.
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“In addition, a help desk manned by medical personnel who have been briefed
on the protocols by the [DOH] has been established at the Connecticut
Parking Building for shoppers, tenants and employees who may need medical
assistance,” Ortigas Land added.
On Friday, Zamora ordered that the prayer room be sanitized and disinfected
along with the “entire mall vicinity,” which the Greenhills management
complied with.
Guio Martinez, a representative for the Greenhills Shopping Center

management, told the Inquirer that cleaning and sanitation of the commercial
complex would be conducted nightly. The prayer room — initially shut down
after news of the confirmed case was released on Friday — was reopened at
6 p.m. on Saturday “following guidelines from the DOH and the San Juan City”
government, Martinez said.
At Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig where one of the three new
confirmed COVID-19 cases worked for Deloitte Philippines, it was business as
usual on Sunday although the area was less crowded and the stores mostly
empty. A milk tea store was the exception although compared to previous
Sundays, there were fewer customers, Tiger Sugar’s manager Pinky Hon
said.
Smaller crowd
“Weekends are usually family days. However, there’s really a decrease in
terms of bypassers. Central Square was usually crowded. It’s different now,”
she told the Inquirer.
Jericho, a barista at a popular Chinese restaurant, said that although there

was a reason to be scared, there was no excuse for life and work not to go on.
“We can’t do anything about it. We are all working. What we do here is we
wear masks; some of us use mouth guards to prevent possible transmission,”
he said.
He recalled one incident in which one of their customers refused to eat the
food served because one of the staff had no mask.
“She talked to our manager, asked for a refund and asked why we were not
wearing masks,” Jericho said.
Michael Tapallo, a janitor, said that there were fewer visitors based on the
number of people using toilets.
“BGC used to be crowded. Now, it feels like Holy Week. Today is supposedly
a family day,” he added.—With reports from Dexter Cabalza and Jodee
Agoncillo
More event suspensions
as provinces contain
virus spread
By: the Inquirer Bureaus - @inquirerdotnet
Classes in all levels in Bulacan province were suspended on Tuesday after

one of the new COVID-19 cases was recorded in Sta. Maria town.
But Dr. Joy Gomez, Bulacan health officer, said they were still validating if
there had been a case of infection in Bulacan as they had yet to trace the
person’s whereabouts as of Monday night.
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“There is no confirmation yet of whether it is a positive case or just a person

under investigation (PUI),” Gomez said.
She said they were also checking if the case was a local transmission in Sta.
Maria or if the patient was a resident there but contracted the virus
somewhere else.
In Pampanga province, all scheduled public events at the Clark Freeport were
postponed by the state-owned Clark Development Corp. in compliance with
the health emergency declared by President Duterte.
In Zambales province, Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. canceled the annual

Dinamulag Mango Festival scheduled from April 29 to May 2.
In Pangasinan province, Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil said he was tested

negative for the virus after he attended the same event with a Filipina from
Australia who later tested positive.
Some people who came in contact with the woman while attending a high
school reunion in Lingayen and other events in Pangasinan presented
themselves to health officials during the contact tracing.
In Baguio City, migrant workers, who were stranded in the Cordillera due to a
China travel ban, urged the government to allow them to return to Chinese
provinces and cities that are still safe from COVID-19.
About 60 workers from the Cordillera also complained that the ban threatened
their jobs. In Cebu City, the National Quincentennial Committee (NQC) has
postponed upcoming gatherings in the city related to the commemorations of
the first circumnavigation of the world in 2021.
The NQC announced on its Facebook page on Monday that it postponed

activities set in March and April amid the rise of confirmed COVID-19 cases in
the country, mostly in Metro Manila.
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In Davao City, Councilor Joselle Villafuerte, a doctor, sought the reactivation

of the Task Force on Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases to
ensure the city’s readiness to respond to any COVID-19 threat. The task force
was set up when President Duterte was still mayor as part of the city’s
readiness measure to fight the Ebola virus.
The Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) announced it was postponing all its
graduation and recognition rites to comply with the government’s directive to
call off large public gatherings to stop the spread of the virus.
New schedules of commencement exercises will be decided after the public

health emergency is over, said Fr. Joel Tabora, AdDU president.
‘E-dalaw’
In Davao del Sur province, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology
(BJMP) suspended jail visits to prevent the possible spread of the virus, said
Police Chief Supt. Leo Baldon, the BJMP director in Davao Region.
Instead, he said, the BJMP activated “e-dalaw,” a project that allows inmates
to communicate with their loved ones through social media platforms, such as
Facebook or Skype.
Inmates who wished to avail of e-dalaw services only needed to ask the jail
guards for schedules, Baldon said.—Reports from Carmela Reyes-Estrope,
Tonette Orejas, Joanna Rose Aglibot, Vincent Cabreza, Karlos Manlupig,
Orlando Dinoy, Germelina Lacorte, Bong Sarmiento, Erwin Mascariñas
and Ador Vincent Mayol
Train commuters on
edge amid COVID-19
scare
By: Krixia Subingsubing - Reporter / @KrixiasINQ

KEEPING ’EM CLEAN Crews of Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit are
leaving no stone unturned to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among its
nearly 1.5 million daily commuters. Garbed in vests, plastic suits and masks,
they spray the handrails and seats with a hospital-grade disinfectant when the
passengers have disembarked after every full loop. —GRIG C.
MONTEGRANDE/LYN RILLON
As officials urge the public to observe proper hygiene and “social distancing”
amid the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) strain in the capital
region, the vulnerability of Manila’s public transport—characterized by
precisely the same conditions where the virus could stew and infect hundreds
in one go—has Will*, 22, nervous.“Every time I leave the house, it’s always
going to be a risk,” he told the Inquirer.
Though healthy, he was wearing a surgical mask—something health officials

have been discouraging so as not to deplete stocks that could otherwise go to
health workers on the front line. But “the only thing that’s not making me panic
is my own efforts to sanitize and boost my immune system, because I can’t
change my commuting routine,” he said.
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Will’s sentiment reflected the general concerns of Metro Manila’s commuters,

who face great risks in contracting the lethal virus simply by traveling by train,
bus or jeepney.
1.5M passengers
The metro’s three main railways alone—Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1 and 2, and
Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3—carry nearly 1.5 million passengers every day
from over 10 cities.
“We’re already well aware of the problems in public transport, and even during
health emergencies like this, it’s still not easy to procure new trains, or open
new franchises for buses and jeepneys,” said Julius Dalay, chair of
Commuters of the Philippines.
“It is worrying to be commuting in this time, but people don’t necessarily have
to avoid it as long as they take precautionary measures.”
As proposals for a total Manila lockdown remain shelved for the meantime,
transport officials have doubled down on sanitation efforts on all public utility
vehicles to minimize the possibility of an outbreak in these cramped spaces.
At the MRT 3, for example, men in reflectorized orange vests and surgical
masks methodically scour the train’s handrails and seats with high-grade
disinfectant after every full loop (North Avenue-Taft-North Avenue).
MRT 3 staff said they have been doing this since January, when the virus was
still making its way outside Wuhan, China, epicenter of the now global
epidemic.
INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Full-blast disinfection
But the full-blast disinfection procedures began only when the Department of
Health last week confirmed local transmissions among Filipinos. The LRT
Authority, meanwhile, also began sanitizing its five trains after every full loop
at Cubao station in Quezon City. Three men in plastic suits disinfect the trains
with a hospital-grade spray before redeploying the train back in the mainline.
The process takes three to five minutes, according to LRT 2 staff.
For Dalay, the bigger problem is the road-based PUVs (buses, jeepneys, UV
Expresses and taxis), where disinfecting the vehicles is not regulated.
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“At least at the MRT and the LRTs, each passenger is subjected to a temp
check and the trains undergo regular sanitation,” Dalay said. “You can’t
expect the same for buses and jeepneys every time they complete their route.
There’s virtually no barriers for sick people from getting on.”
This has made commuters like Roderick Layco, 48, jittery. “I try to wear a
mask myself and use sanitizers and alcohols. But when your fellow passenger
is not as diligent and coughs in front of you without a mask, that’s scary,
right?”
To remedy this, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board

(LTFRB) has directed all PUV operators and drivers to comply with
Memorandum Circular No. 2020-005. The MC requires, among others, all
drivers and operators to wear face masks, and for terminal operators to
sanitize their premises and provide disinfectants and sanitizers for
passengers. “We call out to all drivers and operators to be reminded of their
responsibility to provide a safe and reliable public transport system for the
riding public, now more than ever,” LTFRB chair Martin Delgra said in a
statement.
COVID-19 patient stirs

panic in Cavite
By: Carla P. Gomez, Irma Faith Pal, Maricar Cinco - @inquirerdotnet
SAN PEDRO CITY—As soon as local officials confirmed Cavite’s first case of
coronavirus disease (COVID-19), residents of Barangay Buhay na Tubig in
the densely populated city of Imus rushed to grocery stores, sweeping the
racks clean of alcohol, sanitizers and rolls of toilet paper.
The patient, a 48-year-old male seafarer, arrived on Feb. 28 via Tokyo’s

Narita airport and began to manifest symptoms the next day.
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According to Cavite health officer Dr. Nelson Soriano, the patient was
admitted to a hospital on March 7 and was tested for the virus only on March
9.
The results came back the following day, prompting Cavite Gov. Juanito Victor
Remulla to declare a weeklong, provincewide class suspension.
It did not help that the patient was already isolated for treatment at the
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City.
Barangay chief Reymundo Ramirez was forced to go live on Facebook and

appeal for calm among his constituents.
He also apologized for failing to inform the villagers sooner “as we did not
have the capability to confirm [a case] (unlike) city and provincial health
offices.”
Posts revealing the patient’s identity also spread online, putting the man’s
family at risk of public scorn.
Remulla on Thursday said that of the 10 people identified to have had “close
contact” with the patient, one had developed symptoms and was under self-
quarantine. The rest, he said, were “asymptomatic.” The patient remains in a
stable condition, awaiting final tests for possible release depending on
hospital protocol from the RITM, Ramirez said.
Meanwhile, a 62-year-old councilor from the town of Tayasan, about 109

kilometers north of Dumaguete City, remained in critical condition after he
tested positive for COVID-19.
“He has severe pneumonia. He is intubated and on a ventilator at the

intensive care unit of a private hospital,” said Bimbo Miraflor, spokesperson of
Negros Oriental’s provincial government.
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According to investigation, the councilor went around Greenhills in San Juan

City in Metro Manila where he attended a national convention of the Philippine
Councilors League.
The patient was first admitted to the Ace Dumaguete Doctors Hospital on
March 6 but was transferred four days later to the Silliman University Medical
Center after his condition deteriorated.
Doctors from Ace Hospital said the patient was admitted on March 6 for body
malaise and vomiting. It was only on March 10 when the patient developed
respiratory symptoms that the hospital considered him to be a person under
investigation, they added.
COVID-19 diagnosis
tools from SoKor, China
coming
MANILA, Philippines — Local hospitals may expect to use soon some 3,500
new testing kits for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), all courtesy of South
Korea and China.
The kits are awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Saturday.
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In a media briefing, Duque said the Department of Health (DOH) hoped to

speed up testing as Metro Manila goes into a monthlong “community
quarantine” starting today.
“There is a global shortage of rapid diagnostic tests that is polymerase chain

reaction-based,” said Duque, referring to the technology used in identifying
the “fingerprint” of the virus. “But we’re hoping to expand our capacity soon.”
Speed up evaluation
Around 500 testing kits donated by South Korea arrived on Friday, to be
followed by a thousand more, he added.
Another batch of 2,000 kits is expected from China.
The DOH has ordered the FDA to speed up the evaluation of these imported
kits — as well as the one developed by local scientists from the University of
the Philippines—National Institutes of Health and thus expedite their use on
patients.
Udenna partnership
Udenna Foundation of Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy has partnered
with South Korea’s Myongji Hospital to donate 1,000 diagnostic kits to the
DOH.
In a statement on Saturday, Udenna said Myongji Hospital played a vital part

in the diagnosis and treatment of the first batch of patients confirmed of
having been infected with COVID-19 in Seoul.
The detection kit developed can push up the accuracy of the diagnosis results
to 99.9 percent, while decreasing the time required to less than two hours, it
added.
‘Somber times’
“These are very somber times. COVID-19 is not just a national problem but is
a global epidemic,” Uy said. “While we’re literally disallowed to join hands,
nothing is stopping the private sector, the local government, and the
international community from responding collectively to contain, or at the very
least slow the spread of COVID-19. We all have a role, and this is our small
share to help.”
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“We are encouraged by these signs of solidarity. We thank the Udenna

Foundation and South Korea’s Myongji Hospital for the opportunity to assist
the Philippines in building a response system to COVID-19,” the statement
quoted as Duque saying.
Myongji was one of the first hospitals in South Korea to successfully treat
confirmed cases with the use of an accurate and state-of-the-art coronavirus
diagnostic kit, newly developed by its subsidiary biomedical company
CancerRop.
Community quarantine,
lockdowns and lockouts
By: Michael L. Tan - @inquirerdotnet
EVE OF QUARANTINE Hundreds of passengers wait for the next ride out of
Metro Manila at Araneta Bus Terminal in Cubao, Quezon City, on Saturday, a
day before a “community quarantine” is imposed on the National Capital
Region to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. —NIÑO JESUS
ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines ֫— Last Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte announced
a lockdown in Metro Manila from March 15 to April 14, suspending classes
and work in government offices (except for a skeleton staff), together with
domestic land, air and sea travel in and out of the capital. Local government
executives were given the power to declare similar lockdowns for provinces,
cities and towns, and villages.
Adverse public reaction was swift and the government has since backpedaled,
now using the term “community quarantine” but the description of enforcement
still sounds like a lockdown.
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China as model
Accompanying the modified term “community quarantine” have been all kinds
of proposals, none of which seem to be official yet mainly allowing exemptions
such as media, people needing medical care and people who work in Metro
Manila and live outside (and vice versa) to move in and out of the National
Capital Region.
The model here is clearly China, which first imposed a lockdown in January,
for the city of Wuhan, where the epidemic began, which was then extended to
the entire province of Hubei with a population of more than 50 million. Less
restrictive lockdowns have been imposed on other major urban centers
including Beijing and Shanghai so that currently, some 500 million people live
in various forms of lockdown in China.
That kind of lockdown is unprecedented and would have been possible only in
a country like China. I am referring not just to an authoritarian government but
also to its highly collectivized culture, where the battle against COVID-19 has
been transformed into a patriotic duty. Only with that mindset could it have
been possible to have widespread cooperation (but not without resistance) to
handle mind-boggling logistics around provision of food, medical supplies and
other essentials as well as continuing services from street cleaning to schools
shifting to online learning systems.
Did China’s restrictions make a difference?
Using a computer modeling program, a study published last March 5 in the

journal Science found that China’s stringent travel restrictions for Wuhan did
more for the world than for China. Because the ban on travel happened only a
month after the outbreak began, many infections had already spread to other
parts of China, so the lockdown slowed down the domestic epidemic by only
three to five days. To China’s credit, the restrictions did slow down global
spread by a few weeks.
Concerns
The findings then are not encouraging for the Philippines, but with the
government intent on pushing through with this community quarantine, we will
have to hope that it is at least implemented properly, and this is where I have
several concerns.
First and foremost, the community quarantine has to be implemented

consistently. I foresee too many “exemptions” to the rules (if and when they
are issued) including on-the-spot ones, due to overwork, negligence, political
connections and outright bribery at the checkpoints.
Paradoxically, for this COVID-19 quarantine, we may have to worry about

laxity on one hand and, on the other, an arbitrary, if not paranoid, expansion
of lockdowns because local government officials are allowed to impose
additional quarantines at the provincial, city/town, and even barangay levels, if
there are two infections confirmed within their jurisdiction.
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Unless we get clearer guidelines for implementing this COVID-19 quarantine,

we are opening the doors to too many confusing quarantines, abuse and
extortion, especially with the Philippine National Police already asking to be
authorized to arrest violators of the travel restrictions.
We should be looking at other models for responding to the epidemic such as

South Korea’s massive and reliable testing, which should be the basis for
quarantine. I am thinking of our own experience at the University of the
Philippines (UP) where we have been waiting for more than a week now for
test results of two professors who may have been exposed to the virus on an
overseas trip. These delays in test results can mean prolonged quarantines
within the community. Fortunately, UP researchers have developed a new test
kit, which can be rolled out next week and make testing faster and more
reliable.
Going back to the study on China’s lockdown, the authors conclude that travel
restrictions work only within a limited time after the infections emerge. They
note that such restrictions will “have a modest effect unless paired with public
health interventions and behavioral changes that achieve a considerable
reduction in the disease transmissibility.”
Intensify public education

Translation: more than a community quarantine, we need to intensify public
education to counter the misinformation and rumors and to highlight what
works against the virus: frequent handwashing, use of disinfectants, social
distancing. I hear people fretting about the “correct” distance, but don’t think
twice about meeting up with the neighborhood “barkada,” which will increase
as we see more idle people because of school and work suspensions.
And of course, we shouldn’t forget to intensify campaigns to encourage self

quarantine and medical attention for people who may have been exposed.
The government will have to explain, in the days ahead, that the number of
new infections will rise even more rapidly than in the past because the
outbreak is taking off now, and testing is done more intensely. Even as this
happens, the country must be ready to provide, promptly and adequately,
services for the growing numbers of patients, and their families.
I worry most about lockdowns becoming lockouts, pitting people and

communities against each other, and eroding the already low trust levels we
have for the government and in each other. Lose that trust and we lose to the
virus.
Palace defends COVID-

19 quarantine from
criticisms
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Sunday defended the anti-COVID-19

community quarantine in Metro Manila from attacks that the presence of fully
armed soldiers was too harsh and restrictive.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo insisted that the restrictions on

the movement of people into the National Capital Region (NCR) were
necessary “sacrifices” to curb the spread of COVID-19.
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Panelo brushed off criticisms that the restrictions would deprive them of their
livelihood and cause their families to go hungry.
“That’s not true. No one dies of hunger. A month will pass and you won’t die of
it,” the Palace official said.
Exemptions
As part of its efforts to contain the disease, domestic land, sea and air travel
to and from Metro Manila are now prohibited, although there are exceptions to
the rule.
Exempted from the travel ban are health professionals, authorized

government officials, personnel providing basic services and public utilities,
essential skeleton workforce and those traveling for medical and humanitarian
reasons.
Workers living outside NCR but whose jobs are in Metro Manila will be
allowed to travel as long as they present the necessary employment
documents.
In response to reports that some workers without identification documents are

having difficulty entering Metro Manila, Panelo said: “We need to sacrifice a
little. The ID and their temperature are being checked because those with
high-temperature readings won’t be allowed in.”
Meanwhile, the Palace said it was pleased with the first day of the
implementation of the community quarantine.
Secure the borders“For now, I see the implementation is good. You see the
people are cooperating. There were no people on Edsa, I think I only saw
motorcycles,” Panelo said.
The quarantine will be in effect until April 14. To secure Metro Manila’s
borders from anyone wishing to enter or exit NCR, the police and military have
been deployed to stop those who wish to cross the border.
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Some critics and netizens have slammed the restrictions as reminiscent of

martial law of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
“Martial law? Was anyone arrested? [During] martial law, many were arrested
and jailed. We need the military because we need the manpower. The
barangays cannot do it alone. We need each Filipino to cooperate,” he said.
Comelec suspends work
until April 14 to avoid
spreading COVID-19
By: Tina G. Santos - Reporter / @santostinaINQ
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has

suspended work in its main office and field offices until April 14 due to the
ongoing community quarantine to contain the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19).
“In view of the continuing need to minimize risk of #COVID19 infection and
transmission, the Comelec has suspended work in all @COMELEC field
offices,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in his Twitter account
@jabjimenez.
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He said the suspension would be from March 16 to April 14, unless sooner
revoked.
“Even the main office has no work, except for vital offices like IT, finance, and
security,” Jimenez added.
The suspension of voter registration, which was initially scheduled tjMarch 31

was also extended.
Duterte places
Philippines under state
of calamity
By: Jovic Yee, Leila B. Salaverria - @inquirerdotnet
AAARGH! A man carries his bicycle to get through a police checkpoint on

Marcos Highway in Marikina City clogged with motorcyclists and other
travelers trying to go to work on Tuesday, the second day of a month long
quarantine of Metro Manila—and the first in the rest of Luzon—due to the
coronavirus. Malacañang announced that the government will use Army
trucks and private buses to ferry employees of essential businesses that are
exempted from the quarantine. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday placed the
entire Philippines under a state of calamity for six months due to the spread of
the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The move would give all areas of the country more elbow room to respond to
the disease and halt its contagion.
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As of Tuesday, the Philippines has 187 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 14

deaths.
Duterte declared a state of public health emergency in the country last week
and placed the main island of Luzon under a monthlong quarantine on
Monday to fight the virus.
Use of funds
Proclamation No. 929 would allow the national government and the local
governments “ample latitude to utilize appropriate funds, including the Quick
Response Fund, in their disaster preparedness and response efforts to
contain the spread of COVID-19 (the disease caused by the new coronavirus)
and to continue to provide basic services to the affected population.”
“All government agencies and [local governments] are enjoined to render full
assistance to and cooperation with each other and mobilize the necessary
resources to undertake critical, urgent, and appropriate disaster response aid
and measures in a timely manner to curtail and eliminate the threat of COVID-
19,” it said.
It noted that despite government interventions, the number of coronavirus

cases in the country had continued to rise.
The National Disaster and Risk Reduction and Management Council then
recommended the declaration of a state of calamity in the entire country.
The proclamation also directs all law enforcement agencies, with the support
of the military, to undertake all necessary measures to ensure peace and
order in areas with infections.
It further states that the executive secretary, the health secretary, and the
heads of concerned departments should issue guidelines for the
implementation of the quarantine in Luzon.
The state of calamity would last for six months unless earlier lifted or
extended, depending on the circumstances.
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The resolution was issued on March 16.
Malacañang also issued on Tuesday Memorandum Circular No. 77 ordering

that existing price control measures being implemented for emergency
medicines, medical supplies, and basic agricultural and fishery commodities
be maintained.
Price controls
It directs all government agencies and local governments to strictly implement
the price control issuances of the Department of Health (DOH) and the
Department of Agriculture (DA).
It also directs the DOH and the DA, and the Department of Trade and Industry
to undertake continuous monitoring and review the prices of basic
commodities within their jurisdictions.
The circular was effective immediately.
On Tuesday, the DOH reported 45 new confirmed cases of the new

coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the county to 187, all but
three of those in the past 11 days.
The DOH reported two new deaths, bringing the death toll to 14.
Assistant Health Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also reported that a DOH
official has tested positive for the coronavirus. She did not identify the official.
President Duterte on Monday expanded a quarantine imposed on Sunday on

Metro Manila to include the rest of Luzon, in a bid to halt the spread of the
coronavirus that has killed 7,165 people and sickened 182,260 others across
the globe.
It wasn’t clear on Tuesday whether the 45 new cases included a second

employee of the House of Representatives who had tested positive for the
coronavirus.
In a statement, Jose Luis Montales, the House secretary-general, said the
employee worked at the House Printing Service, the same office where the
first employee of the chamber to test positive for the virus had worked.
“He last reported for work on March 5. He went on leave on March 6, and was
admitted to the hospital on March 7,” Montales said.
The employee was initially diagnosed with dengue, he said, but was
confirmed on Tuesday to be positive for the new coronavirus after his March
12 and March 14 tests returned.
The first House employee to get the virus died on Sunday.

While information on the nationality, condition and possible exposure of the 45
new cases are still being verified by the DOH, initial data from the agency
showed that all except one are confined in various hospitals in Metro Manila.
Case 145, a 32-year-old Filipino man, was admitted on Tuesday at Cotabato

Regional and Medical Center.
Another patient was also reported to have recovered, the second of the new
cases recorded in the country. He is the 31-year-old Filipino crew member of
the cruise ship Diamond Princess who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2,
the virus that causes COVID-19, toward the end of his 14-day quarantine at
New Clark City.
The patient, who is the 25th coronavirus case in the country, was
asymptomatic when he was confirmed to have contracted the virus on March
9. He received treatment at Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital in San
Fernando, Pampanga, and was scheduled to be discharged on Tuesday after
testing negative for the virus twice.
Three other patients have also recovered from the disease—two Chinese
tourists and one Filipino.
On Monday night, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III confirmed that the
DOH no longer saw links among the confirmed cases, prompting the agency
to raise the alert to the highest level.
“There is already unlinkable clustering of cases or untraceable chains of

transmission in the community,” he said.
Due to the limited capacity of the country to test patients who have possibly
contracted the virus, Duque said the “real number” of positive cases was
unknown. He estimated some 160 positive cases remain “undetected.”
People who suspect they have contracted the virus or need assistance due to
exposure to a known coronavirus case may call the DOH hotlines—02-894-
COVID (02-894-26843) and 1555.
“We expect an influx of calls in the first few days. We ask for the public’s
cooperation and patience to allow only relevant and important calls to go
through. In that way, we can provide timely medical assistance to those who
really need it,” Duque said in a statement late on Tuesday.
He said the 02-894-COVID hotline was free 27/7. Smart and PLDT
subscribers can use the 1555 hotline for free, while subscribers to other
networks can access this once “technical adjustments” have been completed.
P30B for hospitals

Meanwhile, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) said it was
ready to release an initial P30 billion to its accredited hospitals to help them
respond to the crisis.
The amount is equivalent to three months’ worth of claims based on historical

data and will be charged to the hospital’s future claims.
According to PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales, the hospitals

need only submit a letter of intent to be able to avail themselves of the fund.
He added that even those “facing sanctions for various violations of their
contracts” can also access the fund.
The filing period for claims of health-care providers was also extended from
60 days to 120 days.
Paying members were also provided relief as the deadline for the payment of
first-quarter contributions was moved to April 30 from March 31.
—With reports from the wires and Melvin Gascon
Congress to hold special

session to pass budget
vs COVID-19
By: DJ Yap, Julie M. Aurelio, Marlon Ramos - @inquirerdotnet
The government has enough funds to combat the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) even as President Rodrigo Duterte urged Congress to hold a
special session to pass a P1.6-billion supplemental budget for the COVID-19
response.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task

Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, gave this assurance but did not
disclose just how much the government can spare to curb the spread of the
disease.
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The Palace official said they would “need the help of Congress.” The Senate
said it would convene a special session to deliberate on the President’s
request for additional funds.
“The President has already assigned certain persons to talk to Congress on

how we will work together to make these funds available for all of the needs—
health, social amelioration, giving aid to our countrymen and even economic
recovery,” he said.
Address pandemic
While Luzon remains on lockdown, the House of Representatives has begun
arrangements for a special session of Congress to enact urgent funding
measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
House leaders said they intend to maintain social distancing protocols among
the 300-plus lawmakers expected to participate in the special session called
by Mr. Duterte during the congressional break.
“We shall convene Congress at the earliest possible time, while taking all the
necessary social distancing protocols to ensure that the proceedings will be
safe and secure for all those who will be attending,” Speaker Alan Peter
Cayetano said on Thursday night.
One bill to be prioritized is the supplemental budget “that would give the
executive department more flexibility in containing the spread of COVID-19,
and help ease the burden brought about by the pandemic among our nation’s
most vulnerable sectors,” the Taguig lawmaker said.
On March 10, the House appropriations committee approved a bill proposing

a P1.65-billion supplemental fund for the Department of Health to procure
badly needed personal protective equipment for health workers and other
supplies, including test kits for COVID-19. But the chamber did not have
enough time to discuss the measure in plenary session.
Congress adjourned for the Lenten break on March 11.
No date has been set for the special session, but House leaders said it would
be “soon,” likely in the next few days.
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Senate President Vicente Sotto III said it would be better if lawmakers could
convene on March 21 instead of next week.
On Friday, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez cited plans to ensure there

would be little to no risk of infection among those going to Batasang
Pambansa in Quezon City.
“Plans, including observing social distancing amid quarantine are being

finalized to guarantee the safety of our House employees, officials, media and
lawmakers attending the special session,” Romualdez said.
As much as P56 billion is available in the national government’s coffers for

unconditional cash transfers (UCT) to poor Filipinos reeling from the economic
toll of COVID-19, according to Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda.
Legarda, a former Senate finance chair, revealed on Friday that the amount
could be easily distributed to poor families immediately.
Legarda said there was unspent funding of P18.7 billion from the 2019 budget
for unconditional cash transfers, and an extra allocation of P36.4 billion for the
same purpose under the 2020 spending law.
“In addition, there is still P1.7-billion UCT to be distributed under the 2018
GAA (General Appropriations Act). [Thus] a total of P56 billion funds are
available,” she said in a statement.
IATF lays down new

requirements,
exemptions to Luzon-
wide lockdown
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 08:59 PM March 22, 2020
MANILA, Philippines — Local government units who plan to buy or use

coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test kits should first consult with the
Department of Health if it is necessary to do so.
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has

laid down the new requirement and other exemptions to the Luzon-wide
lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.
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IATF spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Sunday

addressed the nation to announce the amendments to the existing guidelines,
as detailed in IATF Resolution 14.
“All LGUs must first coordinate with DOH prior to acquiring, purchasing or
utilizing testing kits within their respective territorial jurisdictions,” Nograles
said, reading part of the revised measures.
The IATF also organized the Response Cluster and Incident Management
Team at the national, regional and local levels, designating the DOH to lead
the response clusters and the Department of Interior and Local Government to
lead the incident management teams.
“Moreover, the regional Inter-Agency Task Groups for the Management of

Emerging Infectious Diseases are hereby organized in all regions headed by
the regional directors of the DOH,” Nograles said.
The IATF also allowed the accommodation of distressed or stranded overseas

Filipino workers in hotels, which ceased operations since the imposition of the
enhanced community quarantine.
It authorized the Overseas Welfare Workers Administration to issue
certifications needed by the distressed OFWs in seeking temporary lodging in
such hotels.
The latest IATF resolution also repealed previous provisions on the entry of
foreign nationals to the Philippines. It immediately suspended the issuance of
visas to all foreign nationals, as well as visa-free privileges based on visa
waiver agreements, holders of Hong Kong, Macau, Macau-Portuguese
passports and British national overseas passports.
As in previous resolutions, foreign spouses and children of Filipinos are

exempted from the above suspension.
Foreign nationals with visas previously issued by foreign service posts will not
be allowed entry into the country, except for accredited foreign government
and international organization officials and their dependents; and foreign
spouses and children of Filipino nationals whose visas will remain valid and
will be honored when entering the country even after said date.
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Business process outsourcing and export-oriented establishments were given

until March 22 to prepare alternative work arrangements, such as temporary
accommodations for their workers, the need to shuttle employees and the
transfer of necessary equipment to facilitate work from home arrangements.
The IATF also finetuned the exemptions to the Luzon-wide enhanced

community quarantine and extended the period of issuance of IATF
accredited IDs to March 26.
As to media workers, this will be limited to 50 percent of a media outfit’s total

permanent staff and will include reporters and other field employees.
“No further exemptions shall be granted by March 23,” Nograles stressed, as

he appealed for the public’s patience and calm as the world faces an
unprecedented crisis.
Also exempted from the lockdown and travel restrictions are members of
Congress and their chiefs of staff; department secretaries, undersecretaries,
assistant secretaries, and bureau directors of the different government
agencies under the executive branch;
Ombudsman and deputy Ombudsmen; justices of the Supreme Court, Court
of Appeals, Court of Tax Appeals and the Sandiganbayan, and their skeleton-
workforce; judges of regional, metropolitan, and municipal circuit trial courts
and prosecutors, and their skeleton-workforce; local chief executives; and
close-in staff necessary.
Also exempted are: At most three personnel operating cargo vehicles and
delivery service vehicles for food, drinking water, medicine, and other basic
necessities, with or without load; employees of manufacturing and processing
plants of basic food products, essential products, medicine, and medical
supplies;
Employees of retail establishments like groceries, supermarkets,

hypermarkets, convenience stores, public markets, pharmacies, and drug
stores; logistics service providers such as cargo handling, warehousing,
trucking, freight forwarding, and shipping lines;
Hospitals and medical clinics; food preparations and water refilling stations;
delivery services whether in-house or outsourced transporting only food,
water, medicine or other basic necessities;
Banks and capital markets, power, energy, water, IT and telecommunications

supplies and facilities, waste disposal services; export and BPO companies;
airline and aircraft maintenance employees, including pilot and crew, and ship
captain and crew;
Hotels that have bookings as of March 17; energy companies and their third-
party contractors, employees involved in electric transmission and distribution,
electric power plant and line maintenance and those involved in exploration,
operations, trading and delivery of coal, oil or any kind of fuel used to produce
electricity.
Also exempted are employees of telecommunications utilities who provide

indirect services such as security, technical, sales, and other support
personnel, and employees of their third-party contractors doing sales,
installation, maintenance, and repair work.
Also exempted are pastors, priests, imams or such other religious ministers
whose movement shall be related to the conduct of necrological or funeral
rites; and heads of mission or designated foreign mission representatives and
a limited number of personnel.
Duterte seeks more
powers to fight virus
By: DJ Yap, Julie M. Aurelio, Marlon Ramos - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang is upping the ante in the fight against the
fast-spreading coronavirus disease, calling Congress to a special session on
Monday to declare a national emergency and grant President Rodrigo Duterte
broad powers, like taking over private businesses, including utilities and
hotels, realigning public funds and tapping government savings.
The President has certified as urgent the proposed “Bayanihan Act of 2020,” a
copy of which was widely circulated on social media on Sunday afternoon, as
the Department of Health recorded 73 new cases of coronavirus infections,
bringing the total number to 380 with 25 deaths.
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‘Urgent measures’
The passage of the bill will “authorize the President to exercise powers
necessary to carry out urgent measures in order to meet the COVID-19
national health emergency,” Malacañang said in a letter dated March 21 to
Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
Even as Congress has yet to convene, questions are being raised about the
additional powers being asked by Duterte, particularly the use of unspent
funds, which as of Sept. 30, 2019, were estimated at P1.3 trillion, or about
one-third of last year’s P3.8-trillion spending program.
Of the unspent funds, P989 billion was kept by various state agencies under
the executive department, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
Additional powers
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman also observed that the additional powers sought by
Duterte to realign billions of pesos in the 2020 budget might be a violation of
the Constitution. The bill, among other things, would authorize the President
to:
 Allocate cash, funds and investments held by any government-owned
and -controlled corporation or any national government agency for
whatever purpose deemed necessary.
 Take strong steps to “protect the people from hoarding, profiteering,
injurious speculations, manipulation of prices, product deceptions, and
cartels, monopolies, and other unscrupulous business practices.”
 Extend credit to productive sectors of the economy and to liberalize the
grant of incentives for the manufacture and importation of necessary
goods and equipment.
 Require businesses to prioritize and accept contracts for goods and
services necessary to deal with the health emergency.
 Regulate the use of the energy supply, fuel and water and operation of
public and private transportation.
 Ensure that local governments “adhere to the declared national policy
and strategy, while allowing them to continue exercising their autonomy
in matters undefined by the national government.”
The takeover of hotels is meant to house health workers and serve as

quarantine centers or medical relief and aid distribution locations.
Public transportation can be taken over to ferry health, emergency and front-
line personnel.
Subsistence allowance
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chair of the House ways and means committee,
said the measure would have a validity of “two months, or throughout the state
of calamity, whichever comes later.”
Salceda expressed support for specific provisions in the draft bill, including
those exempting the purchase of necessary medical supplies and other
essential goods from the procurement law, as well as support for front-liners.
“Subsistence allowances will also be given to poor families affected by the

enhanced quarantine through these powers,” he said.
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Over 7.5 million low-income families in Luzon must be supported by the

government as many have been forced out of their jobs due the lockdown,
according to Ibon Foundation.‘More political than fiscal’Lacson said, however,
that the bill was more political than fiscal as it would provide extra “powers
and muscle” to Duterte in responding to the economic strain caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
For one, Lacson said the bill did not provide specific provisions on handing out
financial aid to about 16.5 million Filipino families adversely affected by the
state-imposed travel restrictions.
Lagman noted that provisions in the bill calling for the “cancellation” and
“reallocation” of appropriated funds could constitute “transfer of funds”
prohibited under Section 25 of Article VI of the Constitution.
—With a report from Jhesset O. Enano

No preferential treatment
for COVID-19 testing—
DOH
By: Jovic Yee, Julie M. Aurelio, Leila B. Salaverria, Marlon Ramos - @inquirerdotnet
Filipinos should not take advantage of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19) at the expense of others.
A Malacañang official made this general appeal amid reports that some
government officials are demanding special treatment for them to be tested for
COVID-19, despite the lack of test kits.
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Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles was initially evasive when asked if there
was any directive for government officials to be prioritized for COVID-19, at
the expense of patients under investigation (PUIs) who were actually suffering
from symptoms.
In a public briefing aired over state-run PTV 4, the spokesperson of the Inter-
Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) said
protocols were set by the Research Institute on Tropical Medicine.
Pressed whether the IATF-EID will appeal to government officials and

politicians not to seek VIP treatment, Nograles spoke in general terms.
“Maybe we have general rules for that. No one should take advantage of the
situation or seek favorable treatment at the expense of others. That’s our
message for all Filipinos,” he said.
The reported VIP treatment for government officials has prompted netizens to
call for mass testing for COVID-19 to show the real status of infections in the
country.
‘National security’ reasons
Nograles admitted that he was not fully aware of the protocols for COVID-19
testing, saying other member-agencies of the IATF-EID were in charge of its
implementation.
As it continued to face criticisms over its alleged preferential treatment for top
government officials and their families in testing for the COVID-19, the
Department of Health invoked “national security” concerns on Monday as the
reason why the tests were needed to be done.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the public “must

understand” that there were certain persons in government whom they have
to “preserve,” hence the need for them to be immediately tested for COVID-
19.
“Our countrymen must understand that there are things we do for national
security reasons. We do not just test [anyone]. There are people whom we
have to test because of national security reasons. We need to preserve high
people in government,” Vergeire said in a radio interview.
Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 scientists, organizations and concerned citizens

have signed an online petition urging the government to speed up and
increase the country’s capacity to test for COVID-19 cases. INQ
DOH seeks volunteers to

help in contact tracing
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) and the World

Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said contact tracing and strict
adherence to testing protocols were at the moment key steps to holding back
the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO country representative, said contact tracing

efforts must be beefed up so that those who might have interacted with a
confirmed case could be immediately isolated to prevent them from
unknowingly transmitting the virus.
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Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday called for

volunteers to help the DOH look for people who might have been exposed to
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
She noted that the DOH’s current staff was no longer adequate for this task,
given the sheer number of individuals that needed to be traced.
Numbers still rising

The DOH on Tuesday reported 90 more confirmed COVID-19 cases in the
country, raising the number to 552. It said 33 patients have died due to the
disease and 20 had recovered.
The 19th patient to recover from the disease is a 21-year-old Filipino woman
from Davao de Oro province, who recently traveled to the United Kingdom
and Qatar. She fell ill on March 3 and tested positive for the virus on March
15, but had since recovered and was discharged on Monday.
The latest to recover is a 76-year-old woman from Quezon City who was
exposed to another confirmed case. She showed COVID-19 symptoms on
Feb. 25 and tested positive on March 14. She was discharged last Sunday
after a test showed she was negative for the virus.
Vergeire said people who had been sickened but whose blood tests and chest
X-rays later appeared normal could be discharged.
She said, however, that the person discharged by the hospital still needs to go
into a 14-day quarantine and then be tested again at the end of that period for
the virus.
It was unclear whether the guideline for releasing patients was due to the
limited number of test kits.
Priority
The DOH and the WHO said that in view of the limited supply of test kits to
determine infection, priority should be given to people already showing
symptoms, such as cough and fever, severely ill patients and those who are
elderly and have underlying ailments.
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“This information is useful not only to confirm the infection in the people
suffering from the disease and to improve their management, but more
importantly, this information needs to be used quickly for contact tracing and
isolating people at high risk to limit further transmission,” Abeyasinghe said.
He said the disease was transmitted “largely by symptomatic people,” or

almost 90 percent of cases, and there was “very weak” evidence that asymp-
tomatic people were transmitting SARS-CoV-2.
The DOH earlier said it had 1,300 test kits in stock. Over the weekend, it got
an additional 100,000 test kits from China. About 20,000 more were expected
from Brunei and South Korea.
Appeal to landlords
Abeyasinghe also allayed concerns of some people who reported they had
lost their sense of taste and smell and that that condition was emerging as a
common symptom among positive patients.
“These have not yet been confirmed. The focus should be on the key clinical
features of this disease, which is largely acute respiratory infection
accompanied by fever and sore throat,” he said.
Also on Tuesday, Vergeire reported a disturbing development. She said the

DOH had received information that some health workers had been told by
their landlords to leave for fear that they might spread the virus in their
premises.
She appealed to property owners not to discriminate against health workers

and assured them that all front-line workers follow infection and prevention
control procedures to prevent the spread of the disease.
“This is not the time to turn our backs on our health care workers. We appeal
to our countrymen, let us take care of our health care workers because they
are the ones who would look after us should we get sick,” Vergeire said.
111,000 PH workers
affected by COVID-19
pandemic
MANILA, Philippines — More than 111,000 workers employed by at least

2,300 business enterprises have been affected by the outbreak of the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to the Department of Labor and
Employment (Dole).
Based on its monitoring, Dole said that 30,796 workers were displaced after
600 establishments suspended their operations after the government declared
a lockdown in the entire Luzon island to prevent the spread of the virus.
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Some 41,300 workers employed in 889 establishments were also forced to

follow flexible work arrangements (FWA), such as reduced workdays, rotation
of workers or forced leaves.
Dole said most of these workers were in the manufacturing, hotel, restaurant
and tourism-related sectors.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier called on companies to implement

FWA rather than close shop or retrench their workers.
Majority of the affected workers are in Luzon, where an enhanced community

quarantine has been imposed since last week.
The National Capital Region topped the list with 46,213 affected workers,
followed by Central Luzon (21,964) and Calabarzon (19,486).
There were also a lot of displaced workers in top tourist drawers in Western
Visayas (12,470) and in Central Visayas (4,610).
Dole also said a total of 3,169 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were
affected by COVID-19. More than a thousand of them have already been
repatriated, while a little over 1,500 are still displaced and 521 are deemed
stranded.
Most of these OFWs are in Macau (1,560), Qatar (208) and Japan (135). In
Italy, which has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide, 143
OFWs are affected.
Bello said they had allotted P1.3 billion to support around 250,000 affected
workers in the private sector under the COVID-19 adjustment measures
program (AMP).
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Under the AMP, each affected private sector worker will receive P5,000 in
“lump sum, non-conditional and regardless of [their] employment status.”
To qualify, a worker should be an employee of a private company that has

implemented flexible work arrangements or has temporarily closed due to
COVID-19.
Patient in Quezon with

symptoms dies, but
negative of COVID-19
By: Delfin T. Mallari Jr. - Correspondent / @dtmallarijrINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:51 PM March 27, 2020
LUCENA CITY—A suspected COVID-19 carrier in Quezon province, who died

without knowing results of tests for the virus, was found negative for the
disease, according to health officials on Friday (March 27).
The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) in Quezon, in a 5 p.m. report,

said a person under investigation, or someone who showed symptoms of
COVID-19, who recently died was negative of the disease.
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But the health office said the cause of death of the unnamed PUI was “acute
respiratory failure”, one of the most serious effects of COVID-19.
Based on health office records, only two casualties of COVID-19 are still
without test results that could confirm infection or clearance.
Once test results showed the two casualties positive for the disease, they
would be officially listed as COVID-19 fatalities in Quezon.
Health authorities also listed 154 validated PUI, an increase by six from
figures last Thursday (March 26) of 148.
Health office records still showed four confirmed COVID-19 cases—two in this
city and one each from the towns of Sariaya and Sampaloc.
Edited by TSB
Koko Pimentel:
Protocols may have
changed over time
By: Marlon Ramos - Reporter / @MRamosINQ
Apparently justifying his actions amid threats of possible legal sanctions, Sen.
Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Friday said the government’s existing protocols
in handling infectious diseases such as COVID-19 might have “changed over
time.”
Pimentel, son and namesake of the late revered anti-Marcos figure Senate
President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., has been strongly criticized for flouting
mandated quarantine procedures when he accompanied his expectant wife to
the Makati Medical Center (MMC) on Tuesday night despite knowing he had
been exposed to a person infected with the coronavirus.
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‘In a state of flux’

“I will respond to their specific allegations in due time after we read them and
compare [them with] what’s in the law,” Pimentel said in a Viber message
when asked to comment on the possible cases to be filed against him.
“We are in an entirely new environment where everything is in a state of flux. I

believe even the so-called protocols have changed over time,” he added,
seemingly courting another public backlash.
“Everything will be clarified in due time,” he said.
Owning up to his mistake, the senator apologized to MMC and asked for
understanding as he reiterated that he did not intend to jeopardize the safety
of health workers and other individuals when he brought his wife, Kathryna, to
the hospital for her scheduled delivery of their first-born.
Under Republic Act No. 11332, a person may face up to six years in prison for
failure to “report and/or respond to notifiable diseases or health events of
public concern.”
MMC medical director Dr. Saturnino Javier said Pimentel did not inform the
hospital that he had been under quarantine and that he had symptoms of
COVID-19.
In a scathing statement, Javier slammed Pimentel for his “irresponsible and

reckless” action that exposed the hospital’s already depleted workforce to
danger and forced some of their doctors and nurses to go on quarantine.
But the senator said he was not aware he had tested positive for the virus and
that he hurriedly left the hospital upon learning of his condition.
Pimentel, a bar topnotcher, said he was ready to answer any complaint

against him.
Doctor is 2nd COVID-19

fatality in Cebu City
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Dale G. Israel - @inquirerdotnet
Helen Tudtud
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Another physician, a pathologist at Vicente
Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), succumbed to the new coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) on Friday.Dr. Helen Tudtud, 66, passed away on March
27 as her husband, oncologist Dennis Tudtud, remained in critical condition at
the same hospital, according to their son, Dennis Thomas Tudtud.
Helen was the second fatality of the virus in the city but it was only after her
death became widely reported on social media on Saturday that health
authorities here admitted that there was actually a first fatality who died on
March 23, a 65-year-old man.
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There was no explanation why the first death was not reported. Both died in
Cebu City, according to a health official who declined to be named for lack of
authority to speak to the media.
Helen was admitted on March 17 after experiencing symptoms and appeared

to be stable up to March 21, before her condition deteriorated. Dennis
Thomas said he had no idea where his parents got the virus, but both
physicians worked at tertiary hospitals in Cebu — VSMMC and Chong Hua
Hospital in Mandaue City, where a 65-year-old Cebu resident also succumbed
to the virus on March 23.
VSMMC is one of the five subnational laboratories recently certified and

designated by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to conduct COVID-
19 tests.
VSMMC was also the confirmatory lab for the tests of 23 persons under
investigation (PUIs) in Eastern Visayas.
“The 23 PUIs are now cleared and for discharge in their respective health
facilities,” Dr. Minerva Molon, the Eastern Visayas regional health director,
said in a press statement.
22 found positiveIn Central Visayas, Dr. Jaime Bernadas, the regional health
director, said 22 people were found to have contracted COVID-19 on March
28 and 16 of them were in Cebu City, which was placed under enhanced
community quarantine starting noon of March 28.
Bernadas said the age of the new patients ranged from 27 to 72 and most of
the new cases were in stable condition except for one.
Two persons, including Helen, died due to COVID-19 in Cebu City, while two
other COVID-19 fatalities died in Negros Oriental.
Dennis Thomas expressed dismay over how some people treated them,
particularly his deceased mother.
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“Even before my mom passed away, rumors were already circulating that my
mom has died, as early as March 18! Some heartless people even posted it
all over social media. My mother was still fighting to stay alive but people were
already killing her,” he said.
“Do you know how painful it is to have both parents admitted and both in
serious and guarded condition—and yet you hear news saying that our
mother has already died, when she is still holding on and fighting to stay
alive? We understand the fear. We understand the panic. But do these
heartless people not understand how much more fear and panic that we are
in?” he added.
Dennis Thomas said their entire compound was even cordoned by the
policemen.
‘We are not the virus’

“What for? We never breached the quarantine protocol! People treat us like
some statistics they see on Facebook or on the news. We are people, too! It
can happen to you and your family, too,” he said.
“We did not choose this virus. We do not even know where Mommy and
Daddy caught it. We are not the virus and yet people are treating us like we
are,” he said.
“My parents touched many lives and were always at the forefront of helping
other people. Yet, some people shamelessly post their names all over social
media as if they are the virus. I do not understand why this world has become
so heartless. We are breaking but some people choose to break us even
more.”
Dennis Thomas appealed to the public for prayers for his deceased mother
and still-critical father.
“My heart is breaking and I can’t hug my sweet and loving Mommy Helen ever
again. I will miss her laughter. I will miss everything about her and I will never
see her again. I love you always mommy. Please watch over us as you
always do. Please whisper to Daddy to keep on fighting and to stay alive.” —
With a report from Joey A. Gabieta
Palace: Lockdown
slowing spread of virus
By: Julie M. Aurelio, Tina G. Santos - @inquirerdotnet
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo. (File photo from Philippine Daily

Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The monthlong quarantine imposed by the
government on the entire island of Luzon has helped to slow the spread of the
new coronavirus in the Philippines, Malacañang said on Sunday.
Disputing claims that the lockdown has been ineffective as shown by

increasing confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new
coronavirus, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, echoing the
Department of Health (DOH), said the rise in new cases was the result of
more testing enabled by the acquisition of more testing kits.
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“Some quarters expressed the opinion that [the increase in the number] of
COVID-19 cases shows [the Luzon quarantine] is ineffective [in curbing the
spread of the virus]. We beg to disagree,” Panelo said.
Had the Luzon quarantine not been imposed, he said, the number of
coronavirus cases would have been staggering.
“[W]ith unrestricted movement of population, with each individual being a
potential carrier, the coronavirus would have an untrammeled leap-frogging
from one person to another,” Panelo said.
The DOH reported on Sunday 343 new coronavirus infections, bringing the
total to 1,418. It said three more patients had died, raising the death toll to 71.
It also reported seven recoveries, bringing the total to 42.
The agency, however, did not say whether the remaining 1,305 were all in
Metro Manila or scattered across the country.
Panelo said the smaller number of cases earlier was due to the lack of testing
kits. Now, with more testing kits, more people are being tested and
“necessarily the hitherto unknown cases of COVID-19 have surfaced, hence
the galloping increase in number,” he said.
He gave the assurance, however, that the government is doing everything to

“contain, if not permanently halt, the spread of [the coronavirus].”
He said vital medical supplies, including protective equipment and sanitizers,

were coming in from local manufacturers and donors.
Not only P500

The DOH said that as of Sunday, 690 medical workers had answered the
government’s call for volunteers in the fight against the coronavirus.
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At the same time, the DOH reiterated its apology for causing a misimpression
with its offer of P500 daily allowance to volunteers, saying the amount was
only provisional as it was based on the volunteer program for outbreak
response implemented in 2019.
“No amount would ever be equal to the service you have committed to render
our countrymen as you prepare to support other health-care workers already
[on] the front lines,” the DOH said in a statement.
In a press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said

volunteers would receive special wages on top of the P500 daily allowance.
“Our volunteer health workers will be provided with food and a place to stay
while serving and undergoing a 14-day quarantine. They will also receive daily
allowance even while on quarantine,” Vergeire said.
The volunteers will also receive a special risk allowance, hazard pay and
transportation allowance, she said.
As provided for in the coronavirus response law passed last week by

Congress, the medical expenses of volunteers who will get COVID-19 while in
service will be shouldered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
Volunteers who will get sick will receive P100,000 in compensation. If they
die, their families will receive P1 million. INQ
2 front-line health
workers attacked
Splashed with disinfectants were hospital staff in Sultan Kudarat and Cebu
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Edwin O. Fernandez - @inquirerdotnet

EYE CHECKUP A health care worker at St. Louis Hospital in Tacurong City of
Sultan Kudarat province undergoes an eye checkup after five men splashed
his face with Zonrox disinfectant in President Quirino town, also in Sultan
Kudarat, on March 27. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
COTABATO CITY, Maguinadano, Philippines —The discrimination against
health workers in the front line of the battle against the new coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) has become violent
Two persons, a hospital employee in Tacurong City and a nurse of a Cebu

City hospital, were attacked and harmed, indicating the worsening incidents
targeting front-line health workers.
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The St. Louis Hospital based in Tacurong City, in a statement released on

Saturday, said that five unidentified men ganged up on one of their personnel
and splashed his face with Zonrox, a brand of disinfectant, while he was in
front of the public market of President Quirino town sometime around 5 p.m.
on his way to work in the city, located some 9 kilometers from the town.
Outnumbered
“Outnumbered and alone, he was helpless as these vile individuals splattered
Zonrox all over his face, which could have caused irreparable and permanent
damage to his eyes,” the hospital statement said. “Fortunately, he was able to
run to the hospital where he was given prompt treatment,” the statement said.
The St. Louis authorities said the personnel was a family breadwinner “as
many of our front-liners are,” bravely choosing their duties to the communities
amid the threats posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
But officials said front-liners remain unfazed by the discrimination that they
encountered on a daily basis as a result of the present health emergency.
“We respectfully demand that justice be given,” the hospital officials said.
“Instead of discriminating against health workers, to the point of committing
unspeakable violence against them, we, as a community should show
solidarity with these individuals who risk their lives to ensure that medical
services remain unhampered. We heeded the call of duty when others would
not,” the hospital statement said.
The incident made other health workers anxious over their safety.
“I have to be in uniform so that I can easily pass checkpoints, but what the St.
Louis personnel experienced makes me scared,” a health worker in another
hospital in Tacurong City said on Sunday.
The victim’s coworkers said the victim was already fast recovering. He still
vowed to continue serving as a front-liner in the fight against COVID-19 but
preferred not to return home and stay in the hospital instead.
In Cebu City, a male nurse, who was on his way home, was splashed with
chlorine by two unidentified men on board a motorcycle in Barangay
Labangon at 8:45 p.m. on March 27. Fortunately, he was only hit in the leg.
The nurse’s superior, a doctor in one of the private hospitals in Cebu City said
the nurse, whose identity was withheld for his safety, reported the matter to
village officials.
“I am so angry right now. This is unacceptable,” said the doctor who posted
details of the incident on her Facebook account on Sunday, March 29.
“People please do not terrorize our health care workers. The COVID-19 is
scary enough. No need for additional acts of abuse and vandalism. My nurses
are not the virus. They are our warriors in fighting it and helping to keep our
patients alive,” she added.
The doctor said the nurse was in civilian clothes when the incident happened
as their health workers were required to change out of their uniforms once
they leave the hospital.
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The attacks heightened the risks faced by front-line health workers not only
from getting infected by the virus but also from the public, whose fear for the
virus made them a target for discrimination.
Legal action
Health workers in Iloilo and Negros Occidental have also decried the
discrimination faced by doctors, nurses and even hospital janitors who were
refused services in eateries, told to vacate their apartments, and were denied
rides in buses (before the total lockdown was implemented) for being front-
liners in the fight against the coronavirus disease.
On Saturday, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia threatened to take legal actions

against those who discriminate front-liners, especially people in the health
sector.
Garcia issued the warning after receiving reports that a homeowners’

association in a subdivision in Bogo City in northern Cebu planned to submit a
petition that sought to prohibit hospital personnel into their place.
Dr. Jaime Bernadas, director of the Department of Health in Central Visayas,

urged the public to refrain from hurting those who came in close contact with
COVID-19 patients.
Bernadas assured the people that they have sufficient containment protocols
around the patients who tested positive for COVID-19. INQ
DOH condemns attacks

vs health workers
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) condemned reports
of attacks against health care workers fighting against the COVID-19
pandemic.
“We strongly condemn the violence and reports of discrimination experienced

by our health care workers,” Assistant Health Secretary Maria Rosario
Vergeire said, citing the report about a health worker in Sultan Kudarat who
was sprayed with bleach.
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“We should respect and give importance to our health care workers, who
sacrifice and work tirelessly to protect us,” said Vergeire.
In Cebu City, two men on a motorcycle splashed a nurse with chlorine while
the latter was on his way home.
There were also reports that health workers were refused service in eateries,
denied rides in public transport and asked to leave their apartments.
—Reports from Tina Santos and Leila B. Salaverria
APRIL-REVISED
Locked-down Manila
City Jail inmates
connect with families
through ‘e-Dalaw’
By: Meg Adonis - Reporter / @MegINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:03 AM April 01, 2020

ONLINE VISITS With visiting rights suspended, Manila City Jail inmates can
only see their families online. —PHOTO FROM MANILA CITY JAIL
FACEBOOK PAGE
MANILA, Philippines — Persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Manila City
Jail now find themselves further cut off from the outside world as cases of the
novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue to rise, prompting the
government to enforce a Luzon-wide lockdown.
With a ban on visitors enforced to prevent the spread of the virus inside the
crowded facility, the city jail’s “e-Dalaw” system has become in great demand
among inmates seeking a way to connect online with their families.
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From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, around 500 PDLs from the facility’s north and
south wings wait for their turn to use any of the 10 computers for 10 to 15
minutes to talk to their loved ones.
“We are doing this to boost the morale of our PDLs and lessen the loneliness
they feel inside the facility. The temporary suspension of visiting privileges
during the lockdown might trigger certain emotions especially since they
treasure the visits very much,” Nelmar Malimata, the Manila City Jail public
information officer, told the Inquirer.
Before the lockdown, the prisoners’ relatives were allowed to see them from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, except Mondays, and between 8 a.m. and 4
p.m. on weekends.
According to Malimata, the city jail management has been ordered to strictly
observe the absolute lockdown, so nobody is allowed to enter and leave the
compound except for personnel delivering essential goods and garbage
collectors.
However, social distancing, a crucial guideline that the Department of Health

deemed the most effective way to contain the spread of the virus, has proven
to be physically impossible inside Manila City Jail.
The facility has a 300-percent congestion rate, with 4,868 PDLs packed into a
compound built for only 1,100 to 1,200 people.
“Since we cannot observe social distancing inside Manila City Jail, we instead
formed a task force consisting of various teams that [carry out] precautionary
measures in the facility, such as educational talks on hygiene and how to
prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Malimata said.
Medical and psychosocial teams also go around the dormitories to conduct

temperature checks and remind PDLs that the temporary ban on visiting
privileges was being enforced for their and their loved ones’ safety.
As of Monday, Malimata confirmed that the facility remained free of the virus
and none of the inmates showed any symptoms.
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Some had reported a mild fever that eventually subsided in the evening, he
said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, a nongovernmental

organization that pledged to help vulnerable communities in times of national
emergencies, has offered assistance should an inmate be infected.
Despite their precautionary measures and medical aid, however, Malimata

admitted that they lacked health care workers.
“Right now, we are trying to utilize our jail personnel with a background in
medicine for our medical infirmary,” he said.
For now, he can only hope that the psychosocial and medical interventions
they are enforcing will be enough to prevent the disease from invading the city
jail.
Moriones canceled as
pandemic rages
By: Jofel Lancion, Maricar Cinco, Mayda Lagran - @inquirerdotnet
MASKED MEN For the first time since World War II, Marinduque will not stage
the Moriones during Holy Week this month as a precaution against the spread
of the coronavirus. —RICHARD A. REYES
BOAC, Marinduque, Philippines — Months ahead of this year’s Holy Week,
Mark Montevirgen already had his new set of Morion costume ready. He had
ordered a mask with a custom-made body armor of an ancient Roman soldier
for the Lenten parade in Marinduque province.
But Montevirgen was caught in the lockdown that prevented him from going
home to Boac, the provincial capital.
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So far, with four cases of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19),

Marinduque had shut its door to tourists and even returning residents since
the “enhanced community quarantine” in Luzon was imposed last month.
On Wednesday, the provincial government decided to cancel the popular

religious tradition to prevent the spread of the virus on the island.
First time since war

The streets of Boac, normally busy with foreign visitors at this time of the year,
are now quiet and empty. Houses are shut and lodging facilities unoccupied.
It was the first time, except during World War II, that there would be no
Moriones, an ancient rite that dates back to 1807 and a major tourist come-on
of the island, said provincial tourism chief Gerry Jamilla.
“We were actually thinking maybe we could still allow people to parade
individually—wear your costume, walk outside your house, then go back
home,” Jamilla said.
“But we thought that might only encourage people to congregate,” he added.
Randolf Olympia from Boac also felt sad about missing Moriones, which he
and many others considered a vow or a way of penitence.
Moriones is observed across six towns of Marinduque by wearing a Roman

soldier’s headgear during the procession. Its highlight is the “pugutan,” or the
reenactment of the beheading of Longinus, the Roman soldier who speared
the side of Christ, held on Easter Sunday.Beyond rites
“A lot of Morions are asking me about it. I just said maybe there are other
ways to keep our vow,” said Montevirgen, who is also a leader of Kapatirang
Morion ng Marinduque para kay Kristo.
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The Catholic Church supported the government’s call to cancel the Moriones.
Boac Bishop Marcelino Antonio Maralit Jr. said one’s devotion “goes beyond
the rites.”
But Maralit said Lenten Masses would push through and would be streamed
live on the internet, as well as on local television and radio stations, especially
for those in remote communities.
On Palm Sunday, he said, village officials would be given palm fronds

“blessed” by the church for distribution to every household.
Communities turn their

backs on sick nurses
South Luzon health officials worry about hospital space, workforce as COVID-19 cases spike
By: Maricar Cinco - Reporter / @maricarcincoINQ
SERVING THE FRONT LINE Volunteers and members of medical teams

around the country, like this worker in Albay province, serve the front line and
continue to look after patients despite the risk of contracting the new
coronavirus disease. —MARK ALVIC ESPLANA
SAN PEDRO CITY—Some nurses and health workers in provinces in
southern Luzon have tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19) and are being pulled out of front-line duty against the outbreak, weakening
hospitals’ capacity to handle the growing number of suspected and confirmed
cases.
A number of hospitals have already shut down their critical sections, while
one, San Jose District Hospital in Batangas province, had been closed for a
week.
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In Laguna, a number of the provincial health office (PHO) staff have caught
the virus, its chief health officer, Rene Bagamasbad, said on Wednesday. It
was “already more than what my one hand’s fingers could count,” he said.
“How do you make a [skeleton] workforce even more [of a skeleton

workforce]?” Bagamasbad said.
Government health workers, mostly on “job-order” status, normally take 12-

hour shifts on the front lines.
Just this week, Bagamasbad said he had to cut short the work shift of a nurse,
an emergency medical technician, when doctors received his test result as
COVID-19-positive.
Driven away
The 32-year-old nurse showed no symptoms of the disease, but believed he
contracted the virus from one of the many patients he had “carried” on
stretchers from one hospital to another since the outbreak.
The nurse said his team was preparing to bring him home to Majayjay for
quarantine on Wednesday, but the municipal government refused his entry.
“Parang pinagtatabuyan nila ako (I feel like was being driven away),” he said
in a phone interview.
While local governments have imposed lockdowns to contain the virus spread,
the PHO’s “stand” is to send home patients with mild or no symptoms in order
to decongest hospitals.
“There are still proper protocols [even for home quarantine] and [the nurse]
will still be monitored. It’s just a waste of [hospital] bed when we can give it to
another patient with severe symptoms and who requires actual hospital
treatment,” Bagamasbad said.
DISINFECTION POINT A man on a motorcycle passes through a disinfection

area set up at the boundary of Calamba City and Los Baños town as Laguna
province is placed on lockdown. —RICHARD A. REYES
Hospital shutdown
He said the matter had already been raised to the Department of the Interior
and Local Government.
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In Batangas province, chief health officer Rose Ozaeta said at least 28 nurses
and personnel of San Jose Hospital were isolated after being directly exposed
to a COVID-19 patient, who later died.
They, too, were refused by their communities, Ozaeta said.
The hospital has been closed since March 26.

In Laurel town, a hospital temporarily shuttered its emergency room. Bauan
Doctors General Hospital’s emergency room and laboratory were also closed
for disinfection.
The Laguna nurse, who is now in hospital isolation, appealed against

discriminating front-liners.
More than the virus, he said he was scared of catching other diseases in the
hospital when he felt that he could recover sooner at home.
“I will get better, ma’am,” said the nurse. “I still have a lot of patients to carry.”
Mass testing on April 14;

but who to test is
unclear
If the Department of Health (DOH) will have its way, the persons to be
included in the “mass testing” for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
starting on April 14 would only be those who are vulnerable because of their
advanced age or existing ailments and those who had been exposed directly
to the contagion and are showing symptoms.
The mass testing was announced on Thursday night by presidential peace

adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief implementor of the government measures
against COVID-19, the acute respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2
virus, which has triggered a pandemic.
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Caught off-guard
It appears that the DOH was caught off-guard by the announcement as Health
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire was unable to provide details of how
the mass testing would be conducted.
“We would talk about it in the IATF-EID (Inter-Agency Task Force for
Emerging Infectious Diseases) meeting the right direction and real content of
the mass testing pronouncement of Secretary Galvez,” Vergeire said at the
daily Laging Handa government briefing on Friday.
Vergeire pointed out, however, that mass testing did not mean everyone
would be tested for SARS-CoV-2.
Priority
Priority would also be given to health care workers, who are most exposed to
the virus.
But if existing DOH guidelines were to be followed, come April 14 those who
will be tested will be elderly people with preexisting ailments, the severe to
critical cases, front-line health workers and persons under investigation
(PUIs), or those who have symptoms and had recently traveled or had been
exposed to persons found positive for the virus.
Excluded would be persons under monitoring (PUMs), who are like PUIs but
without the symptoms.
Cumulative figures
The current number of PUIs and PUMs remains unclear as Vergeire said the
6,002 PUIs and 6,021 PUMs recorded were cumulative figures.
Galvez on Thursday said PUIs and PUMs would be tested.
It was unclear whose decision will prevail.

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Nearly two weeks ago, Vergeire said that mass testing would be considered
only if the “experts would recommend it.”
It also appears that the DOH would use the PCR-based (polymerase chain
reaction) testing method for the mass tests.
Currently, the DOH only considers the results of PCR tests in determining if a
patient is positive for the virus.
While it has allowed the use of rapid antibody test kits, positive results using
this device still need a confirmatory test using the PCR-based test kits, which
can give results in 24 hours.
Possibly 3K tests a day

Under the March 31 DOH Department Circular No. 2020-0160, Health
Secretary Francisco Duque III has also prohibited the use of the rapid test kits
for mass testing due to the “high risk of misinterpretation.”
The PCR-based tests measure the viral load of a patient while the rapid tests
measure the antibodies. A patient’s rapid test result may be negative if he is
tested too early into the infection when he had not yet developed antibodies
against the virus.
A positive result may not mean he has the SARS-CoV-2 as his antibodies
may be for a different virus or ailment.
Dr. Beverly Ho, Duque’s special assistant, expressed confidence that the
government would have the capacity to conduct mass testing by April 14. It
could do a total of 3,000 tests a day by then.
UP-made test kit approved

The main laboratory conducting the tests, the Research Institute for Tropical
Medicine, is now processing around 1,000 tests daily and that is expected to
increase to 2,000 in the coming days, Ho said.
The other seven accredited subnational laboratories can process another 500
tests daily and 40 more laboratories are awaiting accreditation.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday night approved the
commercial use of the test kit developed by the University of the Philippines-
National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH), bringing to 21 the number of accredited
PCR-based test kits.
UP said that it has already begun mass producing the kits.
A Chinese-developed rapid test kit was also approved by the FDA. There are
now nine accredited rapid test kits.
Deaths hit 136

By the end of April, Ho said that they expect their testing capacity to increase
by “at least 8,000 tests per day.”
The DOH on Friday reported 29 more patients have died of COVID-19,

pushing the death toll to 136. It said 385 more were confirmed to be infected
bringing the country’s total to 3,018.
Ho said the sudden spike in the number of fatalities was due to the “late
reporting of deaths.”
A 7-year-old girl from Ilocos was among 11 who were reported on Thursday to
have died, the DOH said. The girl, identified as Patient 2415, is the country’s
youngest to have succumbed to COVID-19 so far.
The 10 other casualties were on average 60 years old. Except for one patient
who was a resident of Davao City, all were from Metro Manila.
“It is clear to us that the number of cases now has yet to go down,” Ho said.
The government has also been preparing various venues to serve as

quarantine facilities or temporary hospitals, including the Philippine Arena in
Bulacan which will be turned into a “megaquarantine facility” for COVID-19
cases, PUIs and PUMs, according to Vince Dizon, president of the Bases
Conversion and Development Authority.
New quarantine sites

Other sites to be used as quarantine areas include Amoranto Stadium,
Quezon Institute, Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Quezon Memorial Circle
in Quezon City; PhilSports Complex in Pasig City; Rizal Memorial Complex in
Manila; Philippine International Convention Center and World Trade Center in
Pasay City; Duty Free Philippines in Parañaque City; Food Terminal Inc. in
Taguig City; Filinvest Tent in Muntinlupa City.
Dizon said three other venues in Clark City will also be converted into COVID-
19 facilities—the Asean Convention Center and New Clark City Athletes’
Village as quarantine centers, and two buildings of the New Clark City
Government Center, which will be converted into a COVID-19 hospital.
The quarantine facilities in Metro Manila will accommodate residents from

nearby cities. —WITH REPORTS FROM JULIE M. AURELIO AND MELVIN
GASCON
Heroes among us:
Battling the coronavirus
pandemic
Crisis births heroes. In this time of national public health emergency due to
the coronavirus pandemic, Filipinos, regardless of their status in life, go out of
their way to reach out and help others. These are their stories.
NORTHERN AND CENTRAL LUZON: ‘Bayanihan’ spirit alive

Instead of creating ball gowns and fancy clothes, a family of dressmakers in
Alaminos City, Pangasinan province, is making face masks out of fashion
fabrics as the country faces a shortage of protective shields for medical
professionals fighting to stop the spread of the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19).
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In one corner of her family’s shop, Apple Joy Boutique, Apple Joy Bacay, 25,
helps her parents and brother sew the masks that will be donated to front-
liners against the virus outbreak.
Her mother, Apolonia, a city councilor, thought of giving masks for free after
learning that stores were running out of supply. She had stocks of fabrics, like
satin, which could no longer be sewn into gowns as demand for these
materials had dropped after events were canceled due to COVID-19.
In Mangaldan town, also in Pangasinan, Noella Penullar, a single mother of

two teenage girls, has made more than 300 face shields that were given to the
Region I Medical Center, Pangasinan Provincial Hospital and Mangaldan
Infirmary.
“All the materials I use are donations from former classmates and friends. I
only make them,” Penullar said.
In Pampanga province, top couturiers made more than 4,000 washable masks
in a week, which they donated to health workers and policemen manning
checkpoints.
Going by the name “Pampanga Designers,” the couturiers and their staff are
still busy sewing masks at their ateliers.
In Subic Bay Freeport, businessmen have improvised face shields for doctors
and health workers, while a group of women in the port’s Binictican area is
helping an Aeta community in Pastolan Village sell vegetables and other
products.
In Bulacan province, some workers in the training centers of the Technical

Education and Skills Development Authority have made more than 12,000
face masks for front-liners.
In Nueva Ecija province, scientists and researchers from Central Luzon State
University started producing ethyl alcohol and hand sanitizer to augment the
dwindling supply in the market.
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Some farmers and stall owners in Benguet’s provincial capital of La Trinidad

donated vegetables to ease hunger in communities that were put on
lockdown.
SOUTHERN LUZON: Cooks feed front-liners

Shortly after the Batangas provincial government announced a massive
community quarantine, Precious Leaño left their home for Lipa City.
That same week, she and four others in her team had gathered enough fresh
food ingredients, arranged the deliveries through several checkpoints, and
dished out the first 250 meals of beef broccoli and rice for the health workers
of Batangas Medical Center.
“Be a person for others. This is the call of the times,” said Leaño, a cultural
worker and cofounder of Art Relief Mobile Kitchen (ARMK).
Founded in 2013 by Leaño and photojournalist Alex Baluyut, ARMK

advocates for community kitchens to serve hot meals during distressed
situations. It has been through many typhoons, fires, armed conflict in
Mindanao, and just recently, the Taal Volcano eruption in Batangas.
This time, the group found itself in the middle of a public health crisis triggered
by COVID-19.
Leaño and her team stayed in their “locked down kitchen” at Redemptorist
Church in Lipa, preparing hundreds of set meals every day for doctors, nurses
and medical staff members of hospitals in Batangas, which by now are
swamped with people infected by the virus.
About 45 kilometers away from home, Leaño couldn’t help but long for her
family, where her partner, Baluyut, would later open up a community kitchen
in Los Baños, Laguna. Baluyut’s team started cooking meals for the hundreds
of University of the Philippines Los Baños students stranded in their
dormitories.
Later, ARMK-Los Baños would also cook for the hospital staff, supermarket
employees and village watchmen in the town from its kitchen set up in a
barangay basketball court.
Leaño said the only way to beat the virus was to stay healthy and to also look
after the health of the community.
In Camarines Sur province, Bernadette de los Santos, artist and founder of

BidiBidi Bags, and her team have donated 3,000 masks to hospital workers
and other front-liners in the Bicol region.
The Tabak Sangre Organization in Albay province made washable masks,

while teachers and staff from Bicol University in Legazpi City pooled
resources to produce face shields for front-liners.
LOOKING AFTER EACH OTHER Protective equipment and medical supplies
for hospital workers, meals for communities, and masks for other front-liners
are among the donations pooled by groups of citizens, rich or poor, across the
nation as they contribute to efforts in fighting the spread of the new
coronavirus disease in the country. —PHOTOS BY KARLSTON LAPNITEN,
ADRIAN PE AND ARMK
VISAYAS: Color positivity in hospitals
Nurses and other health workers in Iloilo province are bringing color to their
hospitals to counter the gloom while caring for COVID-19 patients.
Their hazardous material (hazmat) suits come in violet, yellow, yellow green
and red colors, and designed and produced by volunteers.
“We want to spread positivity among patients and front-line workers and boost
morale by using vibrant colors,” said Adrian Pe, a nurse at The Medical City
Iloilo, who is also a fashion designer.
Pe, 28, said his team could not find neutral-colored materials for their own
hazmat suits. But when he got 100 meters of fabric in violet, an idea hit him:
colorful suits.
“It became a hit as nurses and other health workers were excited to wear suits
based on their preferred color,” Pe told the Inquirer.
“We sent prototypes of the suits to other provinces who have asked our help
so they can produce locally and provide livelihood to seamsters who are out of
work,” Pe said.
In Aklan province, a family of teachers and a policeman in the town of Lezo

has been sewing cotton face masks that they give out to hospital workers and
police officers.
In Cebu province, a group of eight young women led a fund drive called
#CourageCebu, in support of front-liners.
As of March 31, they had collected P1.5 million to buy supplies for front-liners
at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital,
Perpetual Succor, Eversley Child Sanitarium and General Hospital, and the
police.
They also bought multivitamins, canned goods, noodles, biscuits, coffee, milk
and packed meals for daily wage earners who were affected by business
shutdown due to the enhanced community quarantine.
Dianne Gandionco-Huang said her group, through #CourageCebu, had also
extended help to front-liners in Bohol province and in Dumaguete City, Negros
Oriental province.
In Negros Occidental province, the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC)

has been making hospital gowns and face shields to help fill the shortage of
personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as provide food assistance to
families who have lost their means of livelihood since mid-March.
The foundation had so far delivered 6,000 face shields and 2,000 PPE to
more than 50 hospitals and health centers across the province, said its
president, Millie Kilayko.
NVC also delivered 266,233 meals to the needy through partner

organizations, churches and the provincial government.
MINDANAO: Help in various forms

Young entrepreneurs in Cagayan de Oro City have pooled their resources to
produce face shields for health personnel at Northern Mindanao Medical
Center (NMMC), the center of the COVID-19 response in the region.
Raven Duran, 25, founder of the information technology firm XDevs, said he
first wanted to manufacture 3D-printed ventilators. But he opted to make face
shields instead, hooking up with the CDO Makers Response Group, which
produces materials for medical front-liners.
As of March 26, the team had sent 348 face shields to NMMC.
In Butuan City, youth volunteers have started sewing face masks, aiming to
produce about 500 pieces to distribute to front-line health workers in the city,
said Cynth Zhepanee Nietes, president of the local Sangguniang Kabataan
federation.
“While waiting for the masks, we distribute food in all the checkpoints in
solidarity with our police, soldiers and medical personnel in the front lines,”
she said.
The performing arts group, Kulture Revival Events Core, also plans to donate
1,000 masks.
In Surigao City, Hotel Tavern hired tailors to make hundreds of double-ply

washable cloth masks out of spare linens.
“We distributed the second batch of 300 masks to the front-liners at
checkpoints,” said Jake Miranda, one of the hotel owners.
A group of artists also crafted hundreds of improvised face shields out of

transparent PVC and foam strips. “We used to print shirts but now we want to
help and contribute in the fight against COVID-19,” said Mark Gonzaga of
Diseño Creative Arts & Prints.
—REPORTS FROM YOLANDA SOTELO, CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE,

TONETTE OREJAS, JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT, ARMAND GALANG,
KIMBERLIE QUITASOL, MARICAR CINCO, REY ANTHONY OSTRIA, MA.
APRIL MIER-MANJARES, AUREA LYNNE PAZ, HAZEL VILLA, NESTOR
BURGOS JR., CONNIE FERNANDEZ-BROJAN, CARLA GOMEZ, JIGGER
JERUSALEM AND ERWIN MASCARIÑAS
Gov’t to launch COVID-

19 contact tracing app
By: Miguel R. Camus - Reporter / @miguelrcamusINQ
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government is testing a new contact

tracing smartphone app to aid its fight against the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19).
National Privacy Commission (NPC) chair Raymund Liboro told the Inquirer
they were assisting a team of 15 software engineers and designers from the
University of the Philippines (UP) to launch the app to the public soon.
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“We are now ready to do beta testing,” Liboro said, referring to the stage of
testing where real users will be invited to sample the technology. “The tech
group from UP has stepped up to the plate.”
Identify infected people

Contact tracing is used to identify people that had encounters with someone
infected with COVID-19. This allows health authorities to quickly isolate
potential new cases, slowing or halting the spread of the disease.
Liboro said the NPC was helping ensure that the privacy of users would be
protected.
He said the UP-developed app would share features with the Singaporean
government’s TraceTogether mobile app. It would also have enhancements to
deal with the country’s unique situation, such as the still-extensive number of
Filipinos without a smartphone.
TraceTogether uses Bluetooth to keep records of phones that also have the
app installed.
Once a COVID-19 case is confirmed, the Singaporean government can

access the user’s data within app, which stores information such as physical
distance and the length of time contact was made over the last 21 days.
Bluetooth tech
Liboro said their version would also use Bluetooth technology. But it has the
added feature of detecting Bluetooth signals from more basic feature phones
without the app.
There is still no definitive launch date, Liboro said. But more contact tracing
options will be necessary as the government mulls the lifting of a lockdown in
Luzon in the coming weeks.
Technology solutions are thus being explored to hasten the arduous contact
tracing process, which is led by the Bureau of Quarantine.
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Local government units also carry out their own contact tracing. Some LGUs
are ahead of the national government in this regard.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia recently required Cebuanos to install the

locally-developed WeTrace app, which is currently available for Android
mobile devices.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) had

separately sought assistance from Singapore.
Singapore assistance
According to the DICT, Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II wrote Singaporean
Ambassador Gerard Ho Wei Hong for information about TraceTogether.
“In response, Ambassador Ho Wei Hong said Singapore is willing to provide

technical assistance to DICT regarding the matter,” the DICT, a member of
the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease, said in a
statement on Sunday.
TraceTogether, launched last March 20, is a valuable tool in the city state’s
efforts to contain COVID-19.
Singapore has 1,189 confirmed COVID-19 cases and five deaths while the
Philippines has 3,094 cases and 144 deaths, latest data from the World
Health Organization showed. INQ
Task force urges public

to support decision on
lockdown
By: Jovic Yee, Julie M. Aurelio - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of

Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has appealed to the public to
support whatever recommendation they will give President Rodrigo Duterte on
the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, the IATF-EID spokesperson, said the body
must decide soon whether to lift, extend or expand the scope of the lockdown
which will end on April 12.
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“We have to make a decision and we have to make it as soon as possible. But
it will not be an easy decision … It’s very, very difficult because there are
many factors that we have to look at,” Nograles said in a virtual press briefing
on Monday.
He added that the IATF-EID is grateful for all the recommendations it is

getting from all sectors, such as the business and the academe, as he
assured the public that the IATF-EID’s decision will be “scientific and data
driven.”
Clear trend
The IATF-EIDis expected to meet on Monday afternoon and tackle the
implications of recent COVID-19 data over the weekend, particularly if there is
a clear trend in the infection rate.Over the weekend, National Task Force on
COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government was
studying the possibility of extending the lockdown by 15 to 20 days.
The ECQ is initially set to end on Easter Sunday, while the mass testing will
begin on April 14.
Nograles said a technical working group (TWG), led by the Department of

Health, has been directed to “apply the parameters” in deciding the fate of the
ECQ—either for its total or partial lifting, its possible extension or expansion to
other areas.
Nograles said the TWG is taking into consideration the trends in the COVID-
19 epidemiological curve, such as the doubling time, acceleration or
deceleration of new cases.
Decision ‘very soon’

According to presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, Duterte is expected
to announce his decision on the ECQ “very soon.”
“The President is seriously evaluating the inputs and suggestions given by

various sectors of society for either the extension or the lifting of the enhanced
community quarantine or lockdown and will take the best option that will purge
us of this pandemic disease,” Panelo said in a statement.
He also urged everyone to take the lockdown seriously as a public health

measure, saying violators will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
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“The President appeals to all our countrymen to take seriously the matter of
following the protocols and procedures established by the national
government to ensure the success of our fight against the pandemic,” Panelo
said.
Should it be decided that the ECQ will be extended by a few more weeks,
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Monday that he would recommend
for the extension of the cash grant for workers displaced by the lockdown.
Bello said the extension would allow them to reach more workers in need of
financial assistance.
PhilHealth sets new

rates for virus cases
starting April 15
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on

Tuesday released a new case rate package for patients afflicted with the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) who will be hospitalized starting April 15.
PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales pointed out that while the
state health insurer had “sufficient” funds, it needed to implement the rate
package for COVID-19 patients to ensure its sustainability.
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All Filipinos are covered by PhilHealth under the Universal Health Care Law,
but a case rate package sets the maximum amount that the state insurer will
pay for the treatment of a patient for a certain ailment. A patient would have to
pay hospital charges over this amount out of pocket or through a personal
health insurance.
“The PhilHealth fund is sufficient, but it’s not unlimited. That’s why we have to
exercise due prudence,” Morales said in a briefing on Tuesday.
Morales said PhilHealth is currently paying for all the hospitalization and
treatment costs incurred by patients who contracted SARS-CoV-2, the virus
that causes the acute respiratory disease.
President Duterte on Monday night said PhilHealth benefits for COVID-19

cases would cover medical expenses ranging from P8,150 for testing to
P786,834 for critical cases of pneumonia.
“The PhilHealth shall pay for all COVID-19 tests conducted outside hospitals
or in nonhospital facilities, such as laboratories and drive-thrus, provided that
the facilities are accredited by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine,”
the President said.
4 pneumonia categories
He added that the coverage of the benefit packages both for COVID-19-
related pneumonia and community isolation will be reviewed over the next 30
days in order to adjust the rates.
Morales said PhilHealth had already paid an unnamed hospital P1.8 million.
Another hospital has a running bill that now amounts to P3.2 million, he
added.
Under the new package, coverage for COVID-19 patients is segregated into
four categories, depending on the gravity of their conditions.
No official notice yet

Coverage for mild pneumonia is set at P43,997, moderate pneumonia at
P143,267, severe pneumonia at P333,519, and critical pneumonia at
P786,384.
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Morales explained that the package was so designed since pneumonia was a
serious complication brought about by COVID-19. It will be enforced on April
15, which means that PhilHealth will still cover all costs incurred by patients
hospitalized prior to that date.
Some hospitals, however, said that while PhilHeath had publicly announced
that it would cover the hospitalization of COVID-19 patients, they had yet to
receive any official notice stating that from the state insurer.
For instance, VRP Medical Center director Dr. Veronica Regina Garcia said
that as of Tuesday “we have not received any communication from PhilHealth
that we’re not supposed to bill our patients right now.”
“We’re still waiting for that [notice],” Garcia said.
Morales acknowledged that not all hospitals may have been informed of the
policy.
That’s why, he said, he had instructed regional vice presidents and personnel
to relay the information to the hospital administrators under their jurisdictions.
PhilHealth has set aside P30 billion to pay hospitals that will claim
reimbursements for patients covered by the state health insurance system
and has already paid out P6 billion from that amount, Morales said.
Banks are currently unable to release as much PhilHealth funds because they
are operating only with a skeleton staff, he said.
He assured hospitals that PhilHealth was already coordinating with the banks
to expedite the fund releases.
Also on Tuesday, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office said it would

transfer about P420.6 million to PhilHealth to cover its COVID-19-related
packages. —WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO INQ
Metro Manila mayors

want all poor on their
lists to get aid
By: Krixia Subingsubing, Leila B. Salaverria - @inquirerdotnet

MANILA, Philippines — The local governments that make up Metro Manila,
which bear the brunt of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, have
urged the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the
Department of Finance (DOF) to set the right number of beneficiaries among
their constituents that will receive cash subsidies during the national health
emergency.
The mayors in the sprawling capital region have criticized the rigid “quota
system” that was imposed by the DSWD and the DOF on who should receive
the cash aid among would-be beneficiaries based on the 2015 census.
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They said the two agencies’ figures did not match the current much bigger
number of their poor constituents.
On Tuesday, the Metro Manila Council (MMC) passed a resolution signed by

all 17 mayors asking the DSWD and the DOF to reinstate the “original
number” of beneficiaries of the social amelioration fund “in the higher interest
of preserving public order, safety and health, and for the 17 LGUs (local
government units) to effectively perform their duties and functions” during the
lockdown.
The capital region, the mayors noted, had the biggest number of confirmed
COVID-19 cases and patients under investigation and monitoring in the
country. It also had the most number of affected daily wage earners due to the
Luzon-wide economic shutdown, they said.
Fixed amount
Under the quota system, each local government was given a fixed amount
from the P200-billion social amelioration program (SAP) fund for a specific
number of beneficiaries, which was based on the five-year-old census.
The local governments say their own funds have been channeled to other
social services like health, leaving them with not enough for cash aid for the
remainder of the target beneficiaries who will not receive subsidies.
The MMC, the highest decision-making body in Metro Manila, did not cite the
original figures of aid recipients supposedly given by the government.
But a partial list culled from the local governments shows that the target
beneficiaries who should each receive P8,000 in some high-density cities like
Manila (with 435,000 households) were barely half the number of their total
households.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday called on the DSWD, the
Philippine Statistics Authority, other departments and the local governments to
work closely in updating the database on the income levels of Filipino
households.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesperson for the Inter-Agency Task

Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), on
Wednesday said nine Metro Manila cities had already received their social
amelioration funds.
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These are Manila, P1.48 billion; Parañaque, P621.39 million; Caloocan, P1.72
billion; Marikina, P449.99 million; Pasig, P750.93 million; Quezon City, P3.02
billion; Mandaluyong, P368.37 million; Muntinlupa, P430.68 million; and
Taguig, P739.97 million.
Manila and Parañaque have started distributing the money.
Excluded from SAP

Nograles said indigent senior citizens and those receiving social pensions
were not excluded from the social amelioration program.
As for complaints about families excluded from the program, he said the
President had formed a group to deal with such problems.
The government has heard the complaints from local governments that have
qualified constituents who were excluded from receiving aid, he added.
Reacting to suggestions to include middle-income families as beneficiaries of

government cash aid, Nograles said the government had not decided whether
to also give aid to middle income families during the national health
emergency, but if it did, the aid for poor households that had already started
receiving cash assistance would not be diminished.
Addressing the nation on Monday night, President Duterte said Cavite Gov.
Jonvic Remulla raised a valid point in pushing for cash subsidies for the
middle class since many of them had been affected by work stoppages and
travel restrictions due to COVID-19, the acute respiratory ailment caused by
SARS-CoV-2 virus.
“We’ll try to remedy it with whatever we find down the road,” Mr. Duterte said.
Still under study

Nograles said officials were still studying a proposal to provide relief to middle-
income earners who were also struggling amid the enhanced community
quarantine imposed on Luzon to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
“For the poor, marginalized and members of the informal sector, they are
under the social amelioration program. For the middle-income or middle class,
it would be a different program. It would be separate. So our budget for the
poor would not be affected,” he said in a televised briefing.
Sotto on Wednesday also urged the government to aid the middle class.
“I totally agree that we should help the poor deal with the current situation. But
we should also provide assistance to the other sectors of our society,” he said
in a statement.
The P200-billion SAP fund was intended as cash grants for 18 million poor
households nationwide.
No need for new law

Under the Bayanihan Act, each household will receive P5,000 to P8,000
monthly for two months, depending on the wage rate of the region where they
reside, with Metro Manila getting the biggest amount.
Nograles said no new law was needed for any funding for middle income
families as the Bayanihan Act could provide for these.
One of the first things the IATF-EID needed to do, however, is to define the
middle class and who among those in the sector will qualify for any
government aid.
“Would they qualify for social amelioration if they lose their jobs? Things like
these are what we will talk about,” Nograles said.
The IATF-EID is an adhoc government body that formulates policies to deal

with the COVID-19 outbreak.
—WITH A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS
Street sweeper is
Baguio’s 15th COVID-19
patient
By: Vincent Cabreza - Reporter / @Inquirer_Baguio
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 03:40 PM April 10, 2020

UNDYING COLORS. City environment workers replace wilted flowers at a
roadside green carpet which was put up for the now-postponed 2020 Baguio
Flower Festival. The landscapes help brighten up a city that was forced to
shutdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease. Photo by Vincent
Cabreza
BAGUIO CITY –– A street sweeper has become the city’s 15th patient, who
has contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), ending Baguio’s streak
of zero infections since March 28.
The 47-year-old woman is employed by a barangay to clean streets in Scout

Barrio village, but is a resident of Barangay Dagsian, according to the city
public information office.
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She was swabbed for a rapid diagnostic test on Maundy Thursday (April 9),
and her confirmatory result was released on Good Friday (March 10).
The Baguio epidemiology team is tracking down people with whom she had
interacted.
Nine of Baguio’s COVID-19 patients have recovered as of Thursday.
DOH revises how virus

cases are categorized
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) has modified the

classification of people on whether they have been afflicted with the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to ensure a more “uniformed reporting” of
cases across the country ahead of the extension of the enhanced community
quarantine on Luzon next week.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that due to evidence of local and
community transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the acute
respiratory ailment, there was a need to reclassify the cases to ensure early
detection and laboratory confirmation, especially among high-risk and
vulnerable populations.
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“The country is also challenged on how to cope with the sudden surge of
confirmed cases and must identify measures to ensure that the health system
will capably respond to this emergency to reduce the number of serious and
critically ill cases and fatalities while maintaining essential and other routine
health services,” Duque said in Administrative Order No. 2020-0013.
His order was signed on Thursday but was released to the media on
Saturday.
As of Saturday, the total confirmed cases in the country rose to 4,428 with an
additional 233. The death toll spiked yet again as 26 new fatalities were
recorded, bringing the current count to 247. The total number of recovered
patients is 157 with the recovery of 17 more.
PUIs, PUMs dropped

Under the new classification, the DOH will no longer use the labels “patients
under investigation (PUIs)” and “persons under monitoring (PUMs)” as
COVID-19 patients will now be categorized as either suspect, probable or
confirmed cases.
PUMs or those who have had exposure to a known positive case or had gone
abroad recently but are asymptomatic are no longer included in the DOH’s
new classification.
The DOH maintained that only those patients whose results came back
positive using the polymerase chain reaction-based tests are to be classified
as confirmed cases.
A person is considered a suspect COVID-19 case if he suffers from fever,

cough or sore throat two weeks after he had come in contact with a confirmed
case or had visited a place with local transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
Those who exhibit the same symptoms and belong to the vulnerable
population, such as the elderly, those with preexisting ailments, pregnant
women and health-care workers also belong to this group.
A suspect patient becomes a probable case if his lab test results are
inconclusive. He would remain in that category, even if his results came back
positive, if his test was “not conducted in a national or subnational reference
laboratory or officially accredited laboratory for COVID-19 confirmatory
testing.”
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Severe and critical cases, whether they are suspect, probable or confirmed,
are to be admitted to any of the three COVID-19 referral hospitals—Philippine
General Hospital (PGH) in Manila, Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon
City and Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center in Caloocan City.
Community quarantines
The DOH earlier said that all mild cases and the confirmed cases who are
asymptomatic would be brought to the community quarantines. There are
three currently: the World Trade Center, the Philippine International
Convention Center and the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, which could
accommodate about 900 patients.
There are also 11 recognized testing centers across the country.
These are the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, San Lazaro Hospital,
Lung Center of the Philippines, St. Luke’s Medical Center Quezon City, The
Medical City and the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health
in Metro Manila.
The others are Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center in Baguio City;
Bicol Public Health Laboratory in Legazpi City, Albay; Vicente Sotto Memorial
Medical Center in Cebu City; Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City;
and the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.
The DOH gave no figures for the number of suspected and probable cases.
When they were still using the previous tags, Health Undersecretary Maria
Rosario Vergeire said the 6,002 PUIs and 6,021 PUMs recorded last week
were just cumulative figures.
In its last report of tests for SARS-CoV-2 on April 6, the DOH said it had
tested 20,092 individuals and only 3,246 had tested positive for the virus.
No order to conceal
Responding to allegations on social media that he issued a directive to
hospitals to stop doing a census on patients who have died from COVID-19,
Duque said on Twitter that the DOH “did not and will never issue a directive
for hospitals to conceal the number of COVID-19 deaths.”
But an investigation of the alleged hospital involved was under way, according
to Duque.
Also on Saturday, the PGH said it had received plasma from four COVID-19
survivors.
Plasma, which is the liquid portion of the blood, contains antibodies against
the virus, which could be used to treat other patients.
PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario said they planned the first plasma
treatment on Monday.
In the United States, which has the most number of confirmed COVID-19
cases worldwide, its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently allowed its
emergency use.
“It is possible that convalescent plasma that contains antibodies to SARS-

CoV-2 might be effective against the infection,” the US FDA said in a March
24 advisory.
The use of convalescent plasma has been studied in outbreaks of other

respiratory infections, including the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza virus
pandemic, 2003 SARS-CoV-1 epidemic and the 2012 MERS-CoV epidemic, it
said.
Mass testing in Metro

Manila under way
By: Mariejo S. Ramos, Nikka G. Valenzuela - @inquirerdotnet

LATEST IN STREET FASHION A man out for groceries is cocooned in a
personal protective suit, a precautionary measure to minimize transmission of
the new coronavirus. Without mass testing, people would just have to be extra
careful, health officials say. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — The first localized, targeted COVID-19 mass testing
began in Valenzuela City on Saturday, with the procedure being administered
for free to medical front-liners, returning overseas Filipino workers and
residents being monitored for coronavirus symptoms.
The family members of two nurses earlier found positive for the virus were
among the first to be tested using South Korean-made kits approved by the
Food and Drug Administration, Mayor Rex Gatchalian said in a press briefing.
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The samples taken will be subjected to confirmatory tests at The Medical City
(TMC) in Pasig City. The hospital can accommodate a minimum of 25
samples from Valenzuela in a day, and can produce results two days from the
time the samples are submitted, Gatchalian said.
The tests were the result of an agreement reached by the Valenzuela City
government and the private hospital on April 3. At that time, the TMC was only
one step away from being accredited as a laboratory by the Department of
Health (DOH).
Polymerase chain reaction

TMC’s laboratory uses a polymerase chain reaction machine that is
compatible with the test kits procured by the city government. Each test costs
a total of P5,100, including the P2,500 laboratory processing fee. The cost of
each test will be shouldered by the city government.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, the mayor’s brother who also helped facilitate the
testing in Valenzuela, said local government units must rise to the challenge
“in the next 18 days (the remaining period of the Luzon lockdown) to ramp up
the volume of mass testing all the way up to 10,000 tests a day.
“That is a very important milestone because if we can’t do this, we [can] not

assess the real situation of the country,” the senator said, noting that the
limited number of DOH-accredited laboratories remained a problem.
Meanwhile, Quezon City, which so far has the largest number of COVID-19
cases among local government units, is also set to begin community-based
testing next week.
The local health department chief, Dr. Esperanza Arias, said the city would be
using the initial 1,300 test kits provided by the DOH.
After this, the city government will get an additional batch of 1,500 test kits
through a partnership with the Philippine Red Cross, she said.
According to Dr. Rolando Cruz, head of the department’s epidemiology and

surveillance unit, only people showing COVID-19 symptoms would be tested
in Quezon City.
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“We will test people with cough and colds, influenza-like symptoms or those
experiencing flu and acute respiratory infection,” Cruz said.
Temporary isolation sites

Those who will test positive, along with residents from urban poor
communities who are monitored for symptoms, will be referred to the city’s
temporary isolation sites that were set up to relieve hospitals that have
already reached full capacity.
The Quezon City testing centers will be equipped with swab booths that will
limit the need for personal protective equipment. The samples will then be
sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for testing.
Arias said the results can be expected in two to three days.
“Right now, only RITM runs the tests, that’s why it will take that long. But we
are setting up partnerships [also] with Red Cross, St. Luke’s [Medical Center]
and the Lung Center [of the Philippines],” Arias said.
Task force: Virus cases

to be identified to speed
up contact tracing

GRATITUDE A resident of Eastwood City shows support for medical front-
liners on Easter Sunday. (Photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily
Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The government will now disclose the identities of
confirmed COVID-19 cases to speed up the tracing of the patients’ contacts
and their treatment in a bid to halt the spread of the new coronavirus that
causes the deadly disease.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Sunday said the Inter-Agency Task

Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases had adopted a policy of “mandatory
public disclosure” of the personal information of COVID-19 patients to enable
the government to find all of their contacts and isolate them to stop the spread
of the virus.
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It is also expected that with the disclosure, the patients’ contacts will
voluntarily come forward to be tested.
In the past weeks, the task force had to urge hospitals to seek the patients’
consent before disclosing their identities and condition.
Civil defense takes over
Nograles, the spokesperson for the task force, said the Office of Civil Defense
was now in charge of finding the patients’ contacts, taking over the job from
the Department of Health (DOH).
The DOH reported 50 new deaths from the coronavirus disease on Sunday,
the deadliest day since the beginning of the local outbreak, bringing the toll to
297.
The health department also reported 220 new infections, pushing the
nationwide total to 4,648, and 40 recoveries, raising the number of survivors
to 197.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the new deaths and
recoveries included unreported cases and cases from the DOH backlog.
“We are catching up on our backlogs, having expanded our testing

capacities,” Vergeire said in a video briefing.
She didn’t explain, however, whether the new cases were people who caught
the coronavirus during the last 24 hours or backlog cases whose tests
returned positive during the same period.
Without an explanation, it is unclear whether the virus is spreading or the

DOH backlog is just yielding positive results.
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Gov’t satisfied
But Nograles said the government was satisfied with the DOH handling of the
health crisis.
“So far, we are satisfied with the performance [of the] DOH. To put it in
context, look at other countries and you will be surprised at how many COVID-
19 positives and deaths they have,” he said. “Other richer nations are really
struggling. If you compare our situation, their level is different from ours. So
we are doing everything [we] can.”
The task force also warned the public against “experimenting” with drugs
touted as a cure for COVID-19.
“If it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the
Department of Health, do not experiment with [it, as its] efficacy [is] unknown,”
Nograles said.
“I’m not a doctor, and I don’t have the expertise. But this [is] the call of the
DOH. If it’s not an approved drug, do not take risks or experiment with it,” he
added.
The warning came amid calls on social media for the government to consider
unlicensed an unapproved drugs for treating COVID-19, such as Prodex and
the Fabunan antiviral injections.
The FDA has said there are no applications for the registration of these drugs
and that these cannot make therapeutic claims or be sold to the public.
According to the FDA, clinical trials are going on to test the efficacy and safety
of existing medicines such as antiviral, antibacterial and antimalarial agents in
treating COVID-19.
Rapid testing kits

Nograles also said the DOH had been directed to issue updated guidelines on
the use of rapid test kits in the Philippines.
The FDA has approved 32 COVID-19 real-time polymerase chain reaction test
kits for commercial use, including the first Philippine-made test kit for the new
coronavirus.
GenAmplify, the rapid test kit developed by a University of the Philippines

scientist, costs P1,320 or about a quarter of the price of imported testing kits.
Its FDA approval came in time with the government’s rapid contact tracing.
Raul Destura of the UP National Institutes of Health (NIH), however, has

proposed “pooled” testing for every household as an alternative to mass
testing.
“If you want to test vulnerable communities to determine how big the cases of
infection in [those] communities are, you don’t need to test everyone. For
example, if there four members in one household, we collect sample[s] from
all four. All of those swabs are placed in one viral transport container and it is
held as one test,” Destura said in an interview with the Inquirer.
“If it comes out positive, it means one or all of them may be [have been]
exposed. They are living in one house, which means they have exposed each
other [to the virus], so there’s no point in discriminating. All of them must come
under monitoring, even the asymptomatic ones,” he said.
Destura is the founder of Manila HealthTek, maker of GenAmplify. Currently,

the company produces 10,000 testing kits a day. It will soon expand that
capacity to 16,000 kits.
—WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS AND DORIS DUMLAO-

ABADILLA
COVID-19 mass testing

begins in QC, Manila
Hardest-hit Metro cities launch initiative to curb spread of coronavirus
By: Matthew Reysio-Cruz, Meg Adonis - @inquirerdotnet

COMMUNITY-BASED TESTING Health workers get samples from one of 150
residents in Quezon City chosen for the first day of mass testing on Monday.
The city government hopes to conduct 1,300 tests this week. —NIÑO JESUS
ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City and Manila, two of the cities in Metro
Manila hit hardest by the outbreak of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19), piloted their community-based testing on Monday.
Quezon City, which has recorded 764 confirmed cases so far, tested 150
residents at QCX, a former museum inside the Quezon Memorial Circle
grounds.
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Those tested were identified by district health officers and all showed
symptoms consistent with COVID-19, according to project director Joseph
Juico. Samples from the community-based testing would be sent to the
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), with the results expected
within three to five days, said Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head
Rolando Cruz.
“If a patient is tested positive, he or she will be automatically referred to [a
facility] under the care of health practitioners equipped to deal with mild
symptoms,” Cruz said.
Those who test negative, on the other hand, will be allowed to stay home, but
are still required to finish a 14-day quarantine.
In Manila, no figure was immediately available on the number of residents

who took part in the first day of mass testing for COVID-19 in the city.
The local government, however, said that it was capable of conducting 1,624
COVID-19 swab tests per week in the six district hospitals and the city health
department’s quarantine facility. These would be processed either by the
RITM or the Philippine General Hospital. INQ
Rapid test kits get

Duterte nod despite DOH
rejection

SAY AHH A laboratory technician gets a swab test in a hospital at Santa
Rosa, Laguna province, on Tuesday under a mandatory test program for
health workers who have been exposed to coronavirus patients. The
government has launched an aggressive mass testing program to locate as
many as 15,000 possible carriers of the virus that causes COVID-19. —
EARVIN PERIAS
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the
procurement of rapid test kits to boost the country’s screening for the new
coronavirus to 900,000 tests in the next three months, despite their rejection
by the Department of Health (DOH) for use in mass testing.
The fresh kits will be in addition to the 100,000 now in use to find carriers of
the virus that has infected more than 5,000 Filipinos.
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The government introduced a more aggressive testing program for the

coronavirus to locate as many as 15,000 unknown infections, despite having
implemented some of Asia’s strictest and earliest lockdown measures.
Report to Congress
Mr. Duterte announced the expansion early on Tuesday in his third weekly
report to Congress on how his administration was using a multibillion-peso
emergency spending program it approved in March to enable the government
to respond to the coronavirus crisis.
The President said the DOH had designated 11 laboratories and hospitals to
do the testing for SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a
severe respiratory disease that had downed more than 5,000 Filipinos, killing
over 300 of them as of Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesperson for the

Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, said there were 15
laboratories in the country accredited to run coronavirus tests.
The task force earlier said the government could reach 3,000 tests a day this
week with the accreditation of more testing centers.
Nograles said 28 institutions were undergoing the DOH certification process

and 37 others had signified intention to seek accreditation. (See related story
in Regions, Page A7.)With the expanded capacity, the task force said the
government would be able to process 8,000 to 10,000 tests a day by the end
of April, when strict lockdown measures imposed on the entire island of Luzon
would be lifted.
Not stand-alone tests

The DOH, however, said the rapid test kits the government was buying would
not be used in the mass testing because their results needed further
validation.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the test based on

polymerase chain reaction (PCR) remained the “gold standard” in determining
if patients had contracted the new coronavirus.
If patients test negative or positive using the rapid antibody test kit, their
results need to be confirmed using the PCR test, Vergeire said.
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“We reiterate that the rapid antibody test kits are not stand-alone tests. [Its
results] are still to be validated and confirmed by our PCR tests,” she said.
Vergeire, however, did not explain why there was a need for the government
to spend billions of pesos to acquire rapid test kits. But she noted that the
purchase of the kits by the Office of Civil Defense was “in line with the
expansion of the country’s testing capacity.”
Nograles explained that the President had decided to use both the rapid test
and the PCR test kits to reduce the country’s reliance on donated kits.
“Basically, he is saying, ‘OK, let’s use both and I am ordering the government
through the Office of Civil Defense or the Department of Budget and
Management to already now start purchasing those rapid test kits.’ Before that
decision, we only received donated rapid test kits. But now the President has
given the go-signal to already start purchasing rapid test kits so we won’t rely
on donors,” Nograles said.
He said the rapid test kits the government wanted to buy were approved by
the US Food and Drug Administration and that the government was sure
about their safety.
In his report to Congress, Duterte said the DOH was taking part in the World
Health Organization Solidarity Trial, an international clinical search for drugs
that could be used to treat COVID-19 patients.
He said the DOH was considering use of favipiravir, an anti-influenza drug

made in Japan and sold under the brand Avigan, in its clinical trials and was
looking for sources in Japan and China.
FDA approval
Duterte said the Food and Drug Administration required pharmaceutical
companies to register drugs that they claimed could be used in treating
COVID-19.
“Until such products are proven safe and effective, they cannot be dispensed
to the public and even therapeutic claims cannot be permitted,” he said.
The President said the government continued to look for extra space for
coronavirus patients, with the Commission on Higher Education approving the
conversion of five universities and colleges into quarantines.
He said the Department of Education had also allowed the use of 473 public
schools as quarantines on the request of 95 local governments.
Currently, the country has 3,194 beds in government and private hospitals
and in converted venues for sports and entertainment events dedicated to
coronavirus cases.
Of the total, 2,031 beds are in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the local
coronavirus outbreak, and 544 are in other parts of Luzon. The Visayas has
370 beds and Mindanao has 249.
So far, 1,760 of the beds are occupied and 209 of 1,051 ventilators are being
used.
No clear testing guidelines

On Tuesday, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged the DOH to quickly issue
guidelines to local governments for the mass testing.
Gatchalian said it was not clear whether local governments were required to
report to the DOH the results of the tests they were carrying out.
“The rules for [local governments] doing mass testing are not clear,” he said.
“In fact, there’s no guideline on how local governments should conduct mass
testing. Many local governments are doing it on their own.”
Gatchalian said uniform guidelines would also prevent the implementation of

conflicting safety programs, such as the misting and spraying of disinfectants
in residential areas that local governments had started to do before the DOH
declared that there was no evidence these practices were effective in killing
the coronavirus.
—WITH REPORTS FROM JOVIC YEE, AND MARLON RAMOS
Survivor’s fight vs
COVID-19 took 18 days,
cost over P1M
By: Cathy Cañares Yamsuan - @inquirerdotnet

MANILA, Philippines — Jorge “Jojy” Azurin, a 56-year-old health technology
entrepreneur and father of five, considers himself lucky despite the grueling
18 days he was confined at The Medical City (TMC) battling the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
By his own computations, the businessman said his recovery from the severe
respiratory ailment at the hospital in Pasig City from late March to early April
had cost “between P1.2 million and P1.5 million.”
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Thirty percent of his expenses went to medicines and 25 percent to his

accommodation, including eight days in the emergency room, five days at the
intensive care unit (ICU) and five days in a private room, Azurin said in a
phone interview on Tuesday.
Another 15 percent went to nursing services and medical supplies, 10 percent

for professional fees of the medical staff and the rest for other expenses,
including charges from the hospital’s cardiac center and pulmonary diagnostic
center.
P70,000-P80,000 per day

On average, his confinement had cost P70,000 to P80,000 per day, Azurin
said.
“I could just imagine the hospital bills of the others who are still there, around
25 patients. I remain hopeful that my survival would also be their story,” he
said. “This is now my second life.”
Azurin, president and CEO of MediXserve.com, said he was still recuperating

in isolation at home and had lost a lot of weight. Sometimes he steps out in
the garden, “just to listen to the children’s voices, feel the grass beneath my
feet and enjoy the breeze,” he said.
That feeling is a far and thankful cry from those days in the hospital, when
aside from his agony, Azurin was worrying about the mounting bills. Although
he had personal health insurance, the coverage was usually just over
P100,000 and would be used up in just two days, he said.
“We had to put a hefty down payment (to TMC). My eldest son said not to
worry about it, and we’ll take care of the problem of expenses later,” Azurin
said.
PhilHealth coverage
And as fate would have it, he was one of the “fortunate” COVID-19 patients
whose total hospital expenses were still shouldered by the state-run Philippine
Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) before it set limits to the amounts it would
pay after April 14.
Days after he was discharged on April 5, PhilHealth announced it would no

longer pay the full cost of treatment of COVID-19 cases beginning April 15.
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Invoking the need to remain sustainable, the state health insurance company
said it would implement a “new case rate benefit package” to subsidize
COVID-19 cases, depending on the severity of the illness.
PhilHealth president and CEO Ricardo Morales announced the four new
categories on April 8: P43,997 for “mild” pneumonia; P143,267 for “moderate”
pneumonia; P333,519 for “severe” pneumonia; and P786,384 for “critical”
pneumonia.
In his case, Azurin said he would have been under the severe pneumonia
package.
Trips without mask

In a social media post, Azurin said it was possible he acquired the virus during
several domestic trips he made without a protective mask about two weeks
before Luzon was placed under lockdown. He began feeling “chills and
fatigue” on March 5.
While it was still unclear whether he was positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus
that causes COVID-19, Azurin said his family took a “proactive” stance and
brought him to Quirino Medical Center in Quezon City. He was turned down
for admission because he was asymptomatic and did not travel abroad.
On March 16, Azurin went to TMC’s satellite office in Cainta, Rizal province,
where his chest X-ray and blood samples were taken.
A representative from the Department of Health arrived at his doorstep two

days later to take a swab sample as his results at the satellite office showed
he already had pneumonia. By that time, he was already breathing hard and
coughing heavily.
Azurin said the family took him to TMC in Pasig on March 19. “We didn’t want
to wait until I got worse. It was a good decision on our part,” he said.
Hospital emergency room

But TMC’s ICU was already full of patients then. His eldest son inquired from
21 other hospitals for any vacancy. Finding none, Azurin decided to stay at
the TMC emergency room (ER).
“I spent eight days there, but (the medical staff) cannot treat me, only to
intubate. Their job only was to keep me alive until a slot at the ICU becomes
available,” he recalled.
Azurin said he never had a good night’s sleep at the ER. Within his small
space, he endured three to four tubes in his mouth and two more in his
nostrils.
“I was fed with Ensure milk through the nose. Sometimes I would gag on my
own phlegm and saliva. They would pump me with a foul-smelling liquid so I
would throw up all saliva and phlegm so these would not collect inside my
lungs,” he said.
“It was a struggle to breathe. Life at the ER was a horrible experience. Your
body is not well, sometimes you are in pain. I could feel the tubes stuck into
me,” he added.
Surprised doctors
Azurin said doctors noted that his condition was improving while still at the
ER.
“They were surprised. By the time I was transferred to the ICU, I responded
positively to the medicines. On my third day in the ICU, they removed my
tubes,” he said.
By the fourth day, he said he was breathing normally and was wheeled out of
the ICU the next day.
“It astounded everyone. They said I was the only one wheeled out alive,” he
said.
Azurin said the ICU staff greeted him “Happy birthday!” when he transferred to
a regular private room. He was also surprised to learn that his bill for
accommodation in the ICU was much smaller than in the ER—P6,000 to
P7,000 a day.
“I was charged more than P20,000 a day, I think, at the ER and it was just a
small space covered by a curtain,” he said.
Azurin said his eldest child later explained that his stay at the ICU was still
costly as his medicines amounted to over P300,000, aside from expenses for
the use of a ventilator and laboratory works, and nursing services.
When he left the ICU, PhilHealth declared that it would pay all the expenses of
COVID-19 patients.
“That saved the day for us,” he said.
Expense caps opposed

When he was discharged, his family gave a promissory note to the hospital
although they knew that PhilHealth would pay for all his expenses.
One legislator, however, wants to ensure that PhilHealth does pay for all
COVID-19 cases and without any cap.
On Wednesday, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged President

Duterte to reverse PhilHealth’s decision to set limits to its COVID-19
payments.
“It is the poor who will suffer from that decision, and I am sure the President
will not allow that,” he said.
Rodriguez made the statement in reaction to news reports that an unnamed

private hospital in Metro Manila billed a “moderate case” for P1.1 million for an
18-day confinement and treatment.
“Patients who are poor and even those belonging to the middle class certainly
cannot afford P61,000 or even much less than that a day. The government,
through PhilHealth, has to help them by shouldering the full cost of treatment,”
Rodriguez said.
Azurin felt confident that his family’s “huge down payment” to TMC would be
refunded by the hospital.
He said he felt sad imagining the huge bills awaiting other patients.
Looking at his “second life” makes him muse about what may be in store in his
future.
“When I reflect, I think maybe it would be revealed to me in the coming days

why I am still here,” Azurin said.
“I’m happy to be alive, to see my family. I also feel bittersweet for the others
who did not make it. I can just imagine the sorrow of those families. There is
just this gratitude that I am alive,” he said. —WITH A REPORT FROM
MELVIN GASCON
Isolation helps island

towns in Luzon ward off
COVID-19
By: Yolanda Sotelo - Correspondent / @yzsoteloINQ
DAGUPAN CITY—Being an island town may have helped Anda in western

Pangasinan ward off the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as it has yet to
record any infection there.
Access to that town is through a concrete and steel bridge across the
Kakiputan Channel.
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Right after the province enforced the enhanced community quarantine, the
local government and the police established a checkpoint at the end of the
bridge. A bamboo pole is raised up and down for motorists who have been
cleared of the disease, said Leonil Caalim, the municipality’s disaster risk
reduction and management officer.
The initial quarantine period expired on April 14, but the national government
extended the Luzon-wide lockdown until April 30.
Mayor Joganie Rarang explained to the villagers about the rules and reasons
for the community quarantine after some of them returned from Metro Manila
before the lockdown, which initially covered the capital region, on March 15.
But they were immediately taken to the rural health center for medical
checkup and were ordered to undergo 14-day isolation at their homes.
Anda (population: 42,000) can also be reached by boat through its ports, but
village officials have been vigilant in reporting passengers who arrive from
other towns, Caalim said.
No travel permits
He said the local government would no longer issue travel permits to residents
to ensure that they stay at home.
Anda has 18 villages, including the island barangay of Siapar. But residents in
Siapar need not go to the town center for supplies because there are mobile
stores.
For medicines, they can order through the village council. The list is
transmitted to the local government, which makes the purchases and delivers
them at the doorsteps of those who placed orders.
Batanes restrictions
In Batanes, isolation also helped the province to remain virus-free. The island
town of Itbayat continues to monitor and restrict new arrivals while the Luzon
lockdown is in effect.
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Residents cope with the quarantine by helping one another, according to

Board Member Juliet Cataluña.
On Easter Sunday, some residents in Basco, the capital town, slaughtered a

cow and shared the meat with the community, she said.
Vegetables like tomatoes, yams and beans, fish and baked goods like bread
are also given out for free, she said.
Palace: Gov’t may tap
AFP vs hardheaded ECQ
violators
The possibility of a martial law-like takeover of the Luzon lockdown should

remind the public that President Rodrigo Duterte can compel security forces to
impose order if people continue to flaunt quarantine rules, the Inter-Agency
Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) said on Friday.
“What the President said [on Thursday] night is very clear,” IATF-EID
spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said. “If violators will
continue to be hardheaded, we will really employ and ask the military to come
in and help the police,” he added.
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Nograles admitted that while the crisis does not meet the constitutional
requirements for the declaration of martial law, the President wanted to
emphasize the need for people to comply with the quarantine to end the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) contagion.
“[Our] decisions are based on the assumptions of how the Filipino people will
behave and cooperate … That’s based on the assumption that people will
follow the rules. If they don’t follow the rules … the assumptions and the
model are destroyed,” he said.
‘I will impose order’

“That’s why the President said … ‘I will impose order.’ Because [people] are
ruining our assumptions and projections. How many will get sick,
hospitalized? How many will recover? That will be ruined because of
violators,” Nograles added.
Mr. Duterte warned on Thursday that he would order security forces to
enforce the lockdown amid increased violations of quarantine restrictions.
Local officials in Caloocan City were even caught in an illegal cockfight with
participants admitting they used as bet the money they received from the
government.
Duterte said he would withhold aid to violators of quarantine restrictions and

those joining cockfights and drinking spree on the streets.
“You who are engaged in cockfights and drinking on the streets, it only means
that you have money … Do not expect any help from me,” the President said.
“I will just give to the truly needy and who have nowhere to go,” he added.
Mr. Duterte estimated that 80 percent of Filipinos follow quarantine rules but
there remains 20 percent who are “jerks” and keep on disobeying government
directives.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque later said that speculations that the
government would totally lock down Metro Manila were unfounded and rumors
that the enhanced community quarantine would be extended were false.
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Nograles affirmed that “we are not talking about that” and the IATF-EID is, in
fact, set to meet on Monday to discuss plans to be implemented after the
lockdown ends on April 30.
For Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the President should also tap security forces against
local officials who repeatedly defy the lockdown guidelines.
“If there are local officials who are themselves part of the problem, I think [the
President] is correct to call on the police to more effectively enforce the
enhanced community quarantine, with the military assisting,” he said. —WITH
A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS
Task force asks LGUs
told to step up contact
tracing
By: Leila B. Salaverria - Reporter / @LeilasINQ
MANILA, Philippines — The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging

Infectious Diseases has tasked local government units (LGUs) to take the
lead in identifying people who may have been in contact with COVID-19
patients.
IATF spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles announced the

move in a televised briefing on Saturday, 12 days before the end of the Luzon
quarantine on April 30, in a bid to stop the spread of the disease that has
already claimed 397 lives.
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As of Saturday, the number of cases in the country has topped 6,000 with 209
new cases, 29 recoveries and 10 deaths.
The task of contact tracing was initially assigned to the Department of

National Defense’s Office of Civil Defense but the Department of the Interior
and Local Government (DILG) will now be the lead implementer in
coordination with LGUs.
Nograles said the DILG and the Department of Health (DOH) were directed to
agree on a system of data sharing in accordance with the data privacy law.
He also said that involved agencies must come up with sector-specific

recommendations.
“In materializing the aforementioned general principles, all agencies are

directed to recommend sector-specific plans, strategies, and targets to the
IATF,” Nograles said
The National Task Force COVID-19 was also tasked to develop operational
plans while LGUs were asked to pursue regional cooperation in leading the
fight against COVID-19, he said. Some local governments have implemented
their own projects in the fight against COVID-19, apart from those mandated
by the national government.
Marikina, for instance, has put up its own COVID-19 testing center and is now
awaiting accreditation from the DOH.
Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief implementer of the national action plan against
COVID-19, said there was also a move to decentralize operations to address
logistics challenges amid the health crisis.
Mindanao, for instance, can produce its own resources. If these are not
enough, the government deploys flights and ships to bring them what they
need, he said.
“Being archipelagic is a geographic logistical challenge,” he said in an

interview over the Cabinet Report Sa Teleradyo. But it also has an advantage
as this helps contain the disease, he added.
Duque calls Marikina’s

COVID-19 testing
laboratory one of the
best in PH
By: Matthew Reysio-Cruz - Reporter / @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — Nearly a month after it was initially set to start

operating, Marikina City’s testing center for the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) will likely open on Tuesday, April 21, according to the Department
of Health (DOH).
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has confirmed that a license would
finally be granted to the laboratory — which he praised as one of the best in
the country — after the DOH was ordered by the task force in charge of the
national COVID-19 response to hasten accreditation of the facility.
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“Proficiency tests will end on Monday, so most likely on Tuesday it can start
running,” Duque said after personally inspecting the center on Friday. “Yes,
we will provide an accreditation certificate.”
The lack of approval from the DOH has been the biggest obstacle faced by
the Marikina City government which has worked for over a month to start
localized testing. A laboratory inside the City Health Office was ready almost
immediately after the Luzon-wide lockdown began, but the DOH said the
facility should be housed separately for safety reasons.
Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said last week that he would open the laboratory at
its new location at Barangay Concepcion Uno with or without a nod from the
DOH, citing its unresponsiveness. Within minutes of his announcement, the
health department sent an inspection team.
The drawn-out process of approving Marikina’s testing center was even cited
in a Senate resolution that had called for Duque’s resignation.
Duque heaped praises on the laboratory, however, after his inspection.
“I hope this laboratory will be a model to other local government units in order
to expand testing capacity,” he said. “It is one of the best laboratories I’ve
seen. It was built nicely, the layout is organized, the furnishing tastefully
executed.”
The local government said the testing facility could process 400 to 500
COVID-19 tests per day.
Teodoro earlier said testing would be free for Marikina residents and those
from neighboring areas, including the hard-hit province of Rizal. The initial
laboratory was set to start operating when testing for poorer Filipinos had still
been scarce.
Several local governments have since begun community-based testing to

contain the spread of COVID-19.
Metro Manila lockdown
extension seen
By: Julie M. Aurelio, Marlon Ramos - @inquirerdotnet
STRICTER ENFORCEMENT Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, Joint Task

Force COVID Shield commander, leads an inspection at a checkpoint on
Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, on Monday. The police and the military
make their presence more visible amid persistent violation of lockdown
measures by private motorists in Metro Manila. (Photo by NIÑO JESUS
ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manilans may have to stay home longer after
April 30, as the number of new coronavirus infections keeps rising with only
10 days left before the extended Luzon lockdown ends.
President Rodrigo Duterte decides this week whether to extend the lockdown
or reduce its enforcement to parts of the island with large numbers of
coronavirus infections, his spokesperson Harry Roque said on Monday.
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Several senators supported a proposed “selective quarantine,” but stressed

the need for restarting the economy.
Lift it in the provinces

But Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, Duterte’s former longtime aide who is now
chief of the Senate health committee, said he was more inclined to
recommend the extension of the lockdown in Metro Manila because of the
continuing increase in the number of fresh infections in the metropolis.
Go, however, echoed the view of some of his Senate colleagues on easing
the restrictions in parts of Luzon with fewer coronavirus cases.
“As a senator, I’m in favor of extending the [lockdown] in the [National Capital
Region] because of the increasing [coronavirus] cases. We really have to
contain [the rate of transmission] because our health-care system may not be
enough if this worsened,” Go said in a video message.
“In other provinces, it could be lifted and converted to a modified community

quarantine. What’s important is to make sure that Filipinos will be able to eat
[regularly] because that’s the reason why they are going outside their homes,”
Go said.
Mr. Duterte’s decision would be based on the recommendations of health

experts and former heads of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Inter-
Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, with whom he was
meeting on Monday, Roque said.
He said the task force was also meeting to draft recommendations to the
President on public health measures and possible loosening of quarantine
restrictions to allow a phased resumption of economic activity after April 30.
Mr. Duterte is expected to make a decision this week, Roque said.
Balanced decision
That decision would balance the state’s duty to protect public health and the
citizens’ right to make a living, he added.
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Like most governments across the globe, the Duterte administration is under
pressure to restart the economy to arrest a slide to recession. Businessmen
have recommended phased reopenings, starting with manufacturing and its
supply chains and essential services to breathe life back into the economy
while the government cleans up the viral mess through mass testing.
A full-blown return to economic activity, which includes restarting public

transportation, depends on the speed by which the government suppresses
the spread of the virus.
Presenting a graph during his virtual press briefing, Roque claimed a slight
decrease in coronavirus infections after his call to the public last week to stay
at home to help halt the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the new
coronavirus disease, COVID-19.
The DOH has been reporting increasing recoveries from the disease since
last week. But the infections and deaths were seesawing and Monday’s
figures were again worrying. The DOH reported 19 new deaths, seven more
than the 12 deaths on Sunday and bringing the toll to 428.
It also reported 200 additional infections, 28 more than on Sunday and

pushing the total to 6,459. Only 41 patients recovered, 15 fewer than the 56
reported on Sunday. That, however, raised the number of survivors to 613,
still greater than the death toll.
Modification
If the fall in infections becomes sustained, Duterte may modify the lockdown
to limit the strict measures to localities with high numbers of infections, Roque
said.
That means a review after a certain period to see how the country is tracking.
For Roque, however, another extension is insurance against a resurgence of

the virus, although that will prolong the economic plight of the citizens. He
noted that the government had been able to extend economic assistance only
to impoverished families.
“Whatever [the President’s] decision is, we need to prepare for its

implementation,” Roque said. “We expect that the recommendations of the
experts and the [task force] will be finished this week so that the President can
make his choice,” he added.
Several senators on Monday expressed support for the proposal of a phased

reopening of the economy.
Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said the government should produce a risk
assessment and action plan to determine the economic impact of extending
the lockdown beyond April 30.
“While we value the primacy of life and public health, it cannot be denied that
the country’s economy should not be ignored,” Lacson said in a Viber
message.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros reiterated her call for mass testing, particularly for
sectors of the population most vulnerable to infection.
Senators Francis Pangilinan, Sherwin Gatchalian and Joel Villanueva agreed

with Lacson, underscoring the importance of a postlockdown plan for moving
the economy.
Pangilinan said the lockdown “should be extended, but certain essential

services should be allowed to begin to operate.”
“But that requires more testing as we prepare for that calibrated lifting,” he
added.
Villanueva said an extended economic shutdown would be hard to sustain as

he cited a study done by experts from the University of the Philippines that
showed certain areas in Luzon were not in danger of high numbers of
coronavirus infections.
Safety measures
“We should lift the [lockdown] in these areas with the caveat that social
distancing, proper wearing of masks and hand-washing are strictly practiced,”
Villanueva said.
“I would also recommend that we balance economic and public health

interests. We can start operating some industries that are big economic
contributors like construction and manufacturing,” he added.
Gatchalian said small businesses such as beauty salons and barbershops
may be reopened while allowing the partial operation of public transportation,
including tricycles, jeepneys and buses.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said allowing businesses in

areas with low numbers of coronavirus infections would “allow people to work,
earn and provide for their families.” That, he said, “will help in restarting our
economy.”
WHO: Lifting lockdown

should be gradual
STOPPING LOCKDOWN VIOLATORS Constables from the Philippine

National Police Highway Patrol Group check vehicles at a checkpoint along
Edsa on Tuesday as the government enforces tougher measures to keep
people at home during the remaining days of the Luzon lockdown. Motorists
found on the road without acceptable reasons are cited and fined. —GRIG C.
MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — The World Health Organization (WHO) said on
Tuesday that any plans to ease quarantine restrictions should be carried out
gradually to prevent a likely resurgence of infections as President Rodrigo
Duterte weighed whether to lift, extend or loosen the lockdown he imposed on
Luzon nearly two months ago to halt the spread the new coronavirus in the
Philippines.
According to Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the WHO Western Pacific regional director,
the lockdowns and other stringent measures have been “proven to be
effective in slowing down and reducing the transmission” of SARS-CoV-2, the
new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which has downed 2.46 million
people globally and killed 169,863 of them as of Tuesday.
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But Kasai acknowledged that the restrictions had upended millions of lives
and had had a major impact on economies that governments are now
deciding how best to remove them without rolling back their gains in trying to
suppress the contagion.
Public health principles

He noted that while there was no one-size-fits-all solution to this issue, the
WHO strongly urged governments to make decisions guided by public health
principles and that any easing of measures should be gradually done.
“If restrictions are relaxed too soon before a strong system is in place to
identify, isolate, care for the sick and trace their contacts, this will likely lead to
a resurgence of the disease,” Kasai said in an online press conference.
“The important key principles are: [decisions] should be based on data and
public health principles, the lifting [of the lockdown] should be gradual and in a
phased manner, and individual interventions should betransmission
addressed in a risk-based manner by checking its effectiveness depending on
the cultural context,” he added
As of Monday, the Western Pacific region, home to 22 countries including the

Philippines, had 132,438 confirmed coronavirus cases. It accounted for nearly
5 percent of all fatalities, or 5,648 patients.
Within the week, Duterte is expected to decide whether to prolong the Luzon
lockdown or enforce it only in parts of the island where there is active
transmission of the virus.
“This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new
way of living in the foreseeable future,” Kasai said. “As we move forward in
this difficult time, our lives, our health system and approach to stopping
transmission must continue to adapt and evolve along with the epidemic, at
least until a vaccine or very effective treatment is found,” he added.
There are currently more than 70 candidate vaccines, of which three are in the
first phase of clinical trials while one is in the second phase, the WHO said.
No country is safe“As long as the new coronavirus is circulating, no country is

safe from potentially overwhelming outbreaks. We can only get out of this
together,” Kasai said.
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“Citizens should accept the responsibility of protecting themselves, their family

and community through social distancing, frequent hand washing and staying
at home. The private sector should also adopt new ways of working from
home and other measures to reduce infection in the workplace,” he added.
Asked what industries might be allowed to reopen without causing a second

wave of infection, Kasai said such businesses included those with low
concentration of contact as well as those that could modify their operations to
minimize risk of infection
“What is important is to have a system where we could monitor whether we’re

lifting [the measures] in the right way or would need to bring back certain
interventions,” he said.
Some Asian and European governments have gradually eased or started

relaxing lockdown measures like quarantines, school and business closures
and restrictions on public gatherings, citing a decline in the growth coronavirus
case counts and deaths.
Easing Luzon lockdown

In the Philippines, health experts are pushing for a gradual easing of the
Luzon lockdown, recommending the imposition of restrictions on parts of the
island with high infection rates.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Tuesday that no one among
the health experts consulted by the government had recommended a “total
lockdown,” a threat being spread by some people on social media.
The President met with the health experts and former heads of the
Department of Health (DOH) and listened to their recommendations on what
steps his administration could take after April 30, when the lockdown ends.
Present at the meeting were former health secretaries Janette Garin,

Esperanza Cabral and Jaime Galvez-Tan.
Roque said Duterte made no decision, as he still had to hear from the DOH,
National Economic and Development Authority, and the Inter-Agency Task
Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary government body
overseeing the administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“He said his decision may come today or may come on April 30. Because
whatever his decision will be, people might leave their houses. But what is
clear is that no one recommended [ a total lockdown] in Luzon. They said
there is a need to relax or lift the quarantine [in] areas where there are few
cases of COVID-19,” Roque said.
Metro lockdown extension

Several senators on Tuesday supported a proposal for the extension of the
lockdown in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the
country.
Sen. Sonny Angara, the Senate finance committee chair who survived
COVID-19, said he agreed with the proposal of Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go to
further extend the lockdown after April 30, but the government should inform
the public about it ahead of the extension.
“[Go’s proposal] sounds like a reasonable proposal,” Angara said in a Viber

message. He said the government should open the ports and allow the free
movement of food and other necessities throughout the country.
Sen. Joel Villanueva also supported Go’s proposal, saying certain businesses
like food manufacturing, logistics and construction might be allowed to resume
operations in Bulacan, Cebu, Davao and even in some parts of Metro Manila.
But people who would be allowed to return to work should be strictly required
to follow public health measures, he added.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said commerce should be
allowed to resume in coronavirus-free parts of the country, but local
government and the private sector should jointly conduct mass testing
Virus infects 123 inmates

in Cebu City
Jail is next COVID-19 hot zone after Barangay Luz; total cases reach 312
By: Dale Israel, Nestle Semilla - @inquirerdotnet
INFECTION ZONE An outbreak of the coronavirus has been reported in the

Cebu City Jail three days after a detainee died of the disease. The jail,
designed for only 1,500 inmates, holds more than 6,000 people. —DALE
ISRAEL
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — At least 123 inmates at the jail here tested
positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Wednesday, bringing
the total number of cases in the city to 312.
The jail, with a total of 127 inmates contracting the virus, has become the
second area in this city with a high number of COVID-19 cases after Barangay
Luz, where 138 people were infected.
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Two female officers of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)
in Central Visayas also tested positive for the disease and had undergone
home isolation.
The new cases in the overcrowded city jail were discovered during a mass
testing after a 41-year-old detainee died of the disease on April 19.
Senior Insp. Jay Ylanan, the BJMP regional information officer, said jail
officers had implemented a lockdown even before any of the inmates and jail
personnel tested positive for the virus. Jail visits were also suspended.
But jail officials were clueless on how the inmates and the two BJMP
personnel acquired the virus. The facility, originally designed for just 1,800
inmates, is now packed with 6,582.
Spike
Cebu City has seen a spike in its cases in the past two weeks, mostly in the
city jail and Sitio Zapatera in Barangay Luz.
At a press briefing via Facebook on Wednesday, Mayor Edgardo Labella

hinted at a possible extension of the enhanced community quarantine in the
city, which now has 312 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
“We might extend the [quarantine] for about two weeks more or maybe until
May 30 as the need arises,” Labella said. The lockdown began on March 28
and was supposed to end on April 28.
On Wednesday, 139 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the city, bringing
the total number of cases to 312, with six deaths and 16 recoveries.
Nine new cases were also found in Barangay Labangon, three in Luz, and
one each in Barangay Kasambagan, C. Padilla and Inayawan, said the city
health department.
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Luz alone reported 138 cases. Of this, 63 had been taken on Tuesday night to
the village’s school, which serves as a temporary quarantine facility for the
community.
Lockdown
City Councilor Dave Tumulak said 50 asymptomatic patients were placed in
one building, while 13 others with mild symptoms were housed in another
within the school compound.
Tumulak said the city health department was trying to convince the rest of the
COVID-19 patients in Zapatera to transfer to Barrio Luz Elementary School to
avoid infecting their neighbors.
Zapatera, a poor village with a dense population of 9,000, has been on

lockdown after health officials feared community transmission.
Ronilio Sab-a, village chief of Luz, said he was grateful to the city government
and private donors for providing the residents food, water, and other basic
necessities.
“We have been looking for ways to solve the problem and I’m happy that our
people here now obey the stay-at-home policy,” he said as testing in Zapatera
continues.“We just have to keep praying and discipline ourselves. Nothing is
impossible if we pray to God and help one another,” Sab-a said.
Each night, he added, residents of Zapatera pray the rosary. “In moments like
this, we should cling to God because only Him can help us,” he said.
Davao eases lockdown;

Cebu extends isolation
By: Dale Israel, Karlos Manlupig - @inquirerdotnet

BIKE PATROL Policemen on bicycles patrol Davao City’s streets to ensure
that residents follow the strict quarantine guidelines and health protocols set
by the local government. —KARLOS MANLUPIG
As Davao City prepares to ease community quarantine rules after April 26,
Cebu City has decided to extend its lockdown until May 15.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte said she based her decision on the
recommendation of the city’s public health advisory panel, composed of
experts in epidemiology and infectious diseases, following the decrease in the
rate of new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections in the city in the past
days.
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As of Thursday, the city had 98 confirmed COVID-19 patients, 17 of whom

had died while 49 had recovered.
According to Duterte, the city’s interagency task force on COVID-19 will draw
up specific quarantine modifications that will be introduced on April 27. A key
feature is the return of public utility vehicles and buses on the road but with a
limited number of passengers, she said.
Some industries may also reopen, while others are encouraged to maintain a
skeleton workforce in offices and continue work-from-home arrangements.
The city, Duterte said, was also looking at shortening work schedules.But the
mayor said residents would still be required to wear face masks and follow
physical distancing.
She said limitations on movement outside of the home through the use of food
and medicine passes, scheduling of errands and essential activities through
the odd-even scheme, clustering of the population and total lockdown in the
city every Sunday would remain.
Duterte assured residents that food rations would be delivered to their houses.
Cebu spike
In Cebu City, Mayor Edgardo Labella extended the lockdown, originally set to
expire on April 28, to May 15, after COVID-19 cases in the city reached 330
on Thursday.
“There is a need to extend our [quarantine] as COVID-19 cases continue to

rise due to the fact that we have been doing targeted, massive testing of
residents in [villages] where there are positive cases,” Labella said in a
statement on Wednesday.
The city has seen a spike in cases in the past two weeks, mostly at the city jail
and at Sitio Zapatera in Barangay Luz.
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On Thursday, another densely populated village, Labangon, recorded 15

cases, accounting for most of the confirmed cases for the day.
Cebu recorded a total of 360 cases—330 in Cebu City, 18 in Lapu-Lapu City,

nine in Mandaue City and three elsewhere on the island.
In Iloilo, Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. said the provincial government was planning
to implement “modified” quarantine measures until May 15.
Defensor said adjustments would be made, hoping to “maximize available

quarantine measures while sustaining the economy.” —WITH REPORTS
FROM NESTLE SEMILLA AND NESTOR BURGOS JR.
Duterte to lift lockdown
once COVID-19 vaccine
is found
The enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and other at-risk
regions will be lifted once a working vaccine is developed, according to
President Rodrigo Duterte.
“I am telling you: The moment this vaccine is out, I will lift it (ECQ)
immediately. No need for ceremony. You don’t need to wait as long as there’s
a vaccine,” Mr. Duterte said in a taped address that aired on Friday.
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The President also upped the ante in the hunt for a Philippine-made
coronavirus vaccine by raising the promised reward from P10 million to P50
million—and possibly to as much as P100 million “if I am overjoyed.”
The President said Filipino scientists were just as learned as American and
European researchers.
“Filipinos know what they know, too, so it’s a race,” Mr. Duterte said.
The President also pledged additional funding for the scientists working on a
vaccine for COVID-19.
At one point during the broadcast, he turned to Health Secretary Francisco

Duque III to ask if Filipino scientists needed funding.
Duque said the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development,
whose scientists were researching vaccines, had funds.
“But I’m not sure if this particular vaccine that they are developing is
specifically for COVID-19,” he added.
Makati seeks medical

volunteers for its COVID-
19 mass testing
MANILA, Philippines — The Makati City government is now calling for medical
volunteers to help in its mass testing efforts, as the city’s confirmed
coronavirus cases breached the 300 mark.
The city government said it was looking for residents who are at least 18
years old with a medical background.
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If accepted, they would subsequently be hired under job order status. But the
exact salary is still under discussion.
They would be mobilized mostly on the city’s swabbing teams who are doing
free mass testing against the deadly virus, which as of Friday has killed 32 in
the city.
Interested applicants may submit their duly accomplished application form, a

copy of their resume, a copy of their license and a copy of their government-
issued ID with Makati address to the following email address:
[email protected] and [email protected].
—Krixia Subingsubing
Discrimination rears
ugly head in Cebu,
Nueva Ecija
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Armand Galang - @inquirerdotnet
LOCKDOWN AREA Lapu-Lapu City personnel notify the community if a

resident is positive of the coronavirus disease by installing a “keep out”
tarpaulin on his/her residence’s gate. —PHOTO COURTESY OF NAGIEL
BAÑACIA, LAPU-LAPU CITY DISASTER RESPONSE OFFICE CHIEF
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines —The acting social welfare chief of Lapu-Lapu
City in Cebu province and a nurse in Nueva Ecija province have something in
common: the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and target of
discrimination.
Annabeth Cuizon, acting head of the Lapu-Lapu City Social Welfare and
Development (CSWD) Office, and Jezreel Padolina, an emergency room
nurse in Dr. Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center
(PJGMRMC) in Cabanatuan City, found social media as a platform to air their
dismay at the discrimination that they and their families face.
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Cuizon was aghast that even the social workers in her office, who were
supposed to distribute amelioration cash cards to city residents, were denied
the use of a vehicle simply because they were working with her. She did not
specify from which office in the city the vehicle was coming from.
Mayor Junard Chan could not be reached for comment.
Cuizon is now confined at the hospital. All the CSWD personnel tested
negative for COVID-19, but they became suspected cases and were treated
like pariahs by the very residents they were helping in communities on
quarantine to stem the spread of the disease.
Although asymptomatic, Cuizon had to be isolated for two weeks and was
expected to be discharged after four days. She was, however, more
apprehensive than happy about leaving the hospital.
“I’m anxious as to how people will look at me as soon as I step out of this
hospital room,” she said in a Facebook Live post on Saturday.
“I was told by my social workers that they have been discriminated by people
simply because their head tested positive for COVID-19. I am still here at the
hospital and that is how people look at me. How much more if I’ll be
discharged?” she said in Cebuano.
“I pity people, who like me, tested positive for COVID-19. We can’t do
anything about it. We bear the illness and yet here goes some individuals who
treat us like this.”
Since March, the CSWD led by Cuizon had been distributing relief goods to
the people in Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island and attending to their needs. As of
Sunday, Lapu-Lapu has recorded 30 COVID-19 cases, while Cebu City
reported a rise to 400.
“Because of this work, I got infected by the virus. I didn’t mind it although I
really have to undergo a 14-day quarantine as part of the government’s
protocol,” Cuizon said.
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She appealed to the city’s legislators to enact an ordinance to stop the

discrimination against those who tested positive for the coronavirus. “All we …
need is your respect, compassion and understanding,” she said.
Fight not over

Padolina is worried about his family being shunned by the public.
“Yes, I am a nurse and I am Patient 33 of Nueva Ecija and I am not ashamed

of it,” he said in a social media post. “Please don’t add to the burden of
families with infected patients. Tragedy has struck their lives because no one
wants to be contaminated.”
Padolina was exposed to the virus when he assisted a patient in PJGMRMC,

a referral hospital for COVID-19 cases in Cabanatuan.
“Bringing home a disease is what scares most front-liners,” he said. For this
reason, he decided not to tell his family about his assignment so they would
not worry about him.
“I never exposed my family nor did I infect my siblings, one of them a nurse
while the other a midwife. I did not infect a cousin who is a pharmacist. We did
not cross paths at the hospital because COVID-19 treatment areas are off-
limits. So if you need to talk about me, leave my family out of it,” he said.
Should he recover, Padolina informed the hospital about his willingness to

return to the front line. “My fight is not yet over. I’ll come back strong.” INQ
DOH must identify
COVID-19 strain types
affecting Pinoys
By: Jake J. Maderazo - @inquirerdotnet
Malaysia can be considered a medical wonder if one looks at its 98 fatalities

out of 5,780 confirmed new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases with 3,682
recoveries.
These numbers tell us that Malaysians may have a better hospital care
system because of the 1.7-percent fatality rate.
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In comparison, our country has 7,579 confirmed cases with 862 recoveries
and 501 fatalities. This makes our fatality rate a higher 6.2 percent.
Last week, Malaysia’s Health Director General Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah
provided an interesting assessment of how the country is handling the
COVID-19 problem. Strain samples were collected from residents returning
from other countries with the purpose of identifying which type infected them.
In the first wave in January, 22 of the patients came from abroad, including
China, while most of the patients in the second wave were from Italy, the
United States, United Kingdom and Japan.
After the government’s Institute of Medical Research cultured the samples,

they found that in the United States, the type A strain was prevalent, while in
China, it was type B. In Malaysia, Singapore and most of Europe, the type C
strain was most common.
Dr. Noor believes the type A virus from the United States is a “mutation”
because when compared to samples from the first and second waves, it is
similar to the one in Wuhan, China, which is type B.
Nextstrains.org (real time trackers of pathogen evolution) confirms that
COVID-19 strains from China traveled to the Middle East, Europe and then
crossed to the United States.
This interesting discovery is clearly reflected in Malaysia’s medical diagnosis

and treatment of its COVID-19 patients, which may account for its low fatality
rate and high recovery rate.
Attention, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, which type of COVID-19

strains are we battling in our country? Is it the United States’ type A, the
Chinese type B, or the European type C?
***
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Confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide have reached 3 million with over 1

million coming from the United States. Deaths are now at more than 206,000
with the highest number of casualties in Europe (122,000) and again, the
United States (56,000).
Our Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbors Vietnam,

Cambodia and Laos have yet to report a fatality.
Vietnam leads in test efficiencies with 212,965 over Thailand (142,589),

Malaysia (131,491), Singapore (121,974), Philippines (84,789), Indonesia
(72,299) and Myanmar (Burma) with 6,678.
We can understand Vietnam having a zero death toll with its massive testing
program, but Cambodia has tested only 11,576 and Laos, 1,735. Yet both
have zero fatalities. What are they doing and what can we learn from them?
***
With the enhanced community quarantine extended until May 15, there is
enough time to try to correct the snags in the implementation of the national
government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP). These are caused by the
“unrealistic” list of beneficiaries from the Department of Social Welfare and
Development and the Department of Finance compared to the one coming
from local government units (LGUs).
Even the additional “Bayanihan” Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) funds
distributed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government to LGUs
were of no help.
Why? Simply because the IRA cannot be given in cash to disgruntled non-
SAP recipients but only in the form of relief goods.
WHO tells PH to prepare

for antiCOVID-19 vaccine
MANILA, Philippines — While a vaccine against the coronavirus disease

(COVID-19) is still under development, the World Health Organization (WHO)
advised the Philippine government Monday to already set up mechanisms that
would help expedite the processing, accreditation and deployment of the
vaccine in the country.
WHO acting country representative Socorro Escalante said that because it

would take between a year and a half for the vaccine for COVID-19 to be
available in the market, the Philippines should in the meantime formulate its
strategy on how its rollout can be fast-tracked.
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“We encourage the country to prepare its regulatory processes, in terms of the
assessment and evaluation of the vaccine to help fast-track the registration of
the vaccine. The government should also have a vaccine strategy, which
would prioritize the most susceptible, such as the health care workers and
those with comorbidities,” Escalante said.
198 new cases

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country was 7,777 as of Monday
with the addition of 198 new cases.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said a total of 932 people had
recovered from COVID-19 with the recovery of 70 more patients.
But the death toll climbed to 511 as 10 more patients were reported to have
died.
Nearly 70 percent of those who succumbed to the severe respiratory disease,

or 353 patients, belonged to the elderly population, most of whom were not
vaccinated against influenza and pneumonia.
Escalante added that a feasibility study should also be done on how the
vaccine can be locally produced. While the Research Institute for Tropical
Medicine is capable of doing this, she said that it could only do so now on a
“small scale.”
“There is also a need to develop the laboratories so it can test the quality and
safety of the vaccine because the Philippines doesn’t have that right now,”
she said.
6 vaccines
Earlier, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that
though vaccine research for COVID-19 was progressing “at an incredible
speed,” it would still take time for it to become available to the public.
Escalante explained that this was because the research and development
phase alone would take around six months. After that, laboratory and animal
studies would be done, followed by three phases of clinical trials to determine
its safety and efficacy.
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Once these steps have been completed, the Food and Drug Administration
will evaluate the vaccine and issue the necessary marketing authorization.
To date, Escalante said there are six vaccines under development in various
countries.
Pending the availability of the vaccine, the WHO launched the Solidarity Trial,
which aims to test the safety and effectiveness of several potential medicines.
Among these are remdesivir, a drug that is under research for the treatment of
other coronaviruses; the anti-HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir, and the
combination of the two and interferon; and the antimalaria drug chloroquine.
QC wants ECQ enforcers
probed for hitting vendor
By: Mariejo S. Ramos - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — The head of Quezon City’s Task Force Disiplina

(TFD) has recommended the suspension of his men who were caught on
video beating a fish vendor in front of a condominium on Panay Avenue.
But the QC TFD action officer, Councilor Rannie Ludovica, said that despite
his recommendation, he would follow the decision of the city’s legal affairs
department which was now investigating the matter.
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The Quezon City government said it had ordered a full-blown investigation of

the incident as it ordered its personnel to “observe compassion and tolerance”
in enforcing enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) protocols.
It added that any TFD member found to have acted unlawfully or improperly
would face charges.
“The city government shall never condone any acts of violence or violation of
human rights, regardless of reason or justification, especially when committed
by an official or employee of the city government or any of the city’s
barangays,” it added in a statement.
Viral video
On Monday, at least five TFD members were captured in a viral video beating
with a stick and arresting 38-year-old fish vendor Michael Rubuia.
Ludovica, however, defended the use of a stick, saying it was a form of

“reasonable force” against violators who refused to follow authorities.
Rubuia, who sustained several wounds and abrasions from the incident, was
brought by barangay officials to Quezon City General Hospital. He has since
been detained at the Kamuning police station on charges of resistance and
disobedience to persons of authority.
Rubuia is not the first vendor to be arrested in the city. Two groups of vendors
were earlier arrested, detained and then freed on bail for selling goods despite
the ECQ.
In an emergency meeting with task force members on Wednesday, Ludovica

told them to be more considerate and “sacrifice their ego and pride.”
MAY-REVISED
Getting inside Davao

market takes 3 hours as
execs tighten COVID-19
controls
By: Karlos Manlupig - Correspondent / @kmanlupigINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:07 PM May 01, 2020

Residents form a long line along Bankerohan Bridge as local authorities try to
manage the crowd inside the Farmers Market Center in Davao City. KARLOS
MANLUPIG
DAVAO CITY—-Residents queued for at least three hours as local authorities
enforced restrictions to manage the crowd in one of the biggest markets in the
city on Friday (May 1)
A sidewalk vendor, who wants to be named only as Nelia, told the Inquirer
that she started falling in line around 5 a.m. but was able to enter the Farmers
Market Center in Bankerohan three hours after.
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“I went to the market on my regular schedule but I was shocked to see a

longer line. The line spanned across the Bankerohan Bridge,” Nelia said.
She said she assumed that one of the reasons for the longer line is that local
authorities are now more meticulous in crosschecking the food and medicine
passes, making sure these correspond to daily schedules, consistent with the
coding scheme.
In the coding scheme implemented by the Davao local government, passes
with control numbers ending in odd numbers can only be used on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays. Residents with passes ending in even numbers can
go out on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The local government confirmed on Friday that several shops, including in the
massive market complex, were shut down for violating lockdown rules,
causing buyers to gather in open stalls.
Nelia added that social distancing also caused the stretch of the duration of
queueing and buying which, in turn, caused the spillover of the queue to the
other side of the bridge.
“It is a hassle but I do not mind queuing as long as social distancing is

observed,” she said.
“The problem is there are other people who do not follow the social distancing.
We end up like dancing the cha-cha because we need to step forward or
backward if the person next to us would move closer,” Nelia said.
Asked why she would risk going out despite the rising number of COVID-19
cases in the city, she said she is making the gamble for the survival of her
family.
“I need to make a living especially in our situation right now. I know it is

dangerous but we are also trying to make precautions,” Nelia explained.
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Mayor Sara Duterte said that as of Friday morning, there are 127 patients and
suspected cases admitted in the Southern Philippines Medical Center and
different COVID-19 isolation facilities in the city.
The total number of confirmed cases in Davao City is now 119 with at least 20
deaths.
As a response, the local government and health workers stepped up contact

tracing and conducting random tests especially in densely populated areas.
Davao City is also preparing to establish additional laboratories to make

COVID-19 testing more accessible and faster in a bustling city with a
population of at least 1.6 million.
Some LGUs on GCQ
keep border control
rules
The fight against COVID-19 is far from over, a Dumaguete official said
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:04 AM May 02, 2020
DAY ONE Despite the request of some mayors in Albay to extend their
lockdown, the general community quarantine takes effect in the province on
May 1. But checkpoints remain in place, such as this one in Daraga town. —
MARK ALVIC ESPLANA
A number of provinces and cities that were supposed to transition to general
community quarantine (GCQ) on Labor Day have opted to maintain some
aspects of the strict lockdown guidelines, fearing new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) infections in their localities should they relax the rules.
In Batanes province, farming and some sectors in the manufacturing, service

and care industries, including barbershops, were allowed to reopen on May 1
under the GCQ. But the provincial board has rejected lifting the air travel ban
and the border lockdown.
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Only essential cargo would be allowed to enter Batanes until a cure for
COVID-19 has become available, the provincial government said. Batanes is
one of the provinces that remain free of virus infection.
Under the new lockdown rules set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on
Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), only the following areas are to
remain on enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) until May 15: Metro Manila,
Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal,
Quezon, Pangasinan and Benguet in Luzon; Cebu City and Cebu province,
Iloilo City and Iloilo province, and Bacolod City in the Visayas; and Davao City
in Mindanao.
Far from over

But in Negros Oriental, Gov. Roel Degamo warned uniformed personnel not to
let their guards down at the provincial boundaries even if the province is now
on GCQ, as the neighboring province of Cebu continues to register COVID-19
cases.
At the capital of Negros Oriental, Dumaguete City, things have apparently

returned to normal on Friday.
Local businessman Albert Tecson was surprised to see a restaurant along the
boulevard frequented by expatriates that was doing business-as-usual on the
first day of the GCQ.
‍ e took a photo of the restaurant “bursting with dining-in people” and posted it
H
on his Facebook account.
“People seem to think that the coronavirus has been eradicated,” rued
Dumaguete Councilor Michael Bandal, “as if nothing happened and there’s no
virus.”
Bandal warned that the fight against COVID-19 is far from over.
In Negros Occidental, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said the province’s borders
would stay closed even under GCQ, while airports and seaports should
operate only for the movement of goods and cargo.
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In its capital, Bacolod City, the ECQ remained in effect until May 15 after the
city government’s request to remain on lockdown was approved by President
Duterte.
In Legazpi City in Albay province, checkpoints have been pulled out under
GCQ but enforcers are still positioned in areas to enforce the continued
wearing of face masks and the practice of social distancing.
QUEUE Residents form a long line on Bankerohan Bridge as authorities try to

manage the crowd inside Farmers Market Center in Davao City on Friday
morning. —KARLOS MANLUPIG
No to ECQ
In Cagayan de Oro City, the capital of Misamis Oriental province, 26 of the
city’s 80 barangay chairs have called on the city government to place the city
under ECQ.
The village chiefs’ petition was received by Mayor Oscar Moreno but the latter
turned down the request.
Moreno said his decision against an ECQ was based on the recommendation
of the IATF and the Department of Health.
So far, there have been only three COVID-19 cases in the city. Two had died
and one has recovered. —REPORTS FROM NATHAN ALCANTARA,
JIGGER J. JERUSALEM, CARLA P. GOMEZ AND IRMA FAITH PAL
COVID-19 pandemic:
How’s the Philippine
‘curve’?
MANILA, Philippines — It has been almost two months since the country was
nearly ground to a halt by the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak
which has sickened close to 9,000 Filipinos, and health authorities are
ramping up tests to see whether the contagion has been contained.
Though the majority in the country had started to phase in to the “new
normal,” it remains to be seen if the worst is over and whether the
government’s efforts have been successful in containing the spread of SARS-
CoV-2, the virus which causes the severe respiratory disease.
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The Department of Health (DOH) is cautious about saying that it had

“flattened the curve,” acknowledging that there are limitations in the data
available to the agency.
As of Saturday, the DOH recorded an additional 156 infections, bringing the
national total to 8,928 cases. The number of recovered patients increased by
40 to 1,124. The death toll, though, rose to 603 with 24 patients who had
succumbed to the disease. Worldwide, more than 3.3 million are afflicted.
About 200 new cases daily

Over the last month, the reported number of new cases has stayed at around
200 daily. A spike was seen only on April 6 when 414 new infections were
reported.
Similarly, daily reported deaths during the same period was around 20, except
on April 12 when the number rose to 50.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said that there were
“indications” the epidemic curve was flattening. For one thing, she said, the
case doubling time had increased from three days to five days. That meant
that it took more time for more people to be infected than previously.
“But since we should be looking at one’s onset of symptoms, we couldn’t say

yet that we have flattened the curve. But we are improving in our case
doubling time,” she said.
“It’s too early for us to say that we have already reached the peak of our
cases. Remember, we are doing expanded testing in different areas of the
country and we expect the numbers to increase because of that since we will
be able to detect more cases,” Vergeire said.
According to Johns Hopkins University, a country is flattening the curve, or is

able to control the spread of the disease, when it is able to “reduce the
number of new COVID-19 cases from one day to the next.”
“This helps prevent health care systems from becoming overwhelmed. When
a country has fewer new COVID-19 cases emerging today than it did on a
previous day, that’s a sign that the country is flattening the curve,” it said.
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Factors to consider
According to Dr. Beverly Ho, the DOH’s director for health promotion and
communication service, they couldn’t categorically say that the curve had
flattened.
That is due to several factors such as the gaps in reporting as well as the
limited capacity to test suspected cases, she said.
“Why are we so careful about it? It’s because we know the issues with the
data. We know the limitations. To call it as such would be irresponsible from
our end. We don’t want to say it because it might be scientifically inaccurate,”
Ho earlier told reporters.
“But if you’re talking about if there are indications that it’s flattening, yes it is.
We all want the good news. It’s just difficult to say it scientifically,” she added.
Target daily tests

The DOH earlier targeted an average daily testing capacity of 8,000 by April
30.
The department, however, failed to meet its target. As of Friday, the 20

laboratories nationwide it had accredited to do tests could only process a
maximum of 6,420.
The highest actual number of tests being conducted was 4,907.
Vergeire explained that if they could conduct at least 8,000 daily tests they
would be “able to somehow correctly detect and see the actual picture” of the
outbreak in the country.
Also, this would mean that more individuals under their expanded testing
protocol could be accommodated. Currently, priority is given to persons and
healthcare workers who are severely ill, and those who are symptomatic with
preexisting ailments and belong to the vulnerable population such as the
elderly and pregnant women.
As the testing capacity increases, those with mild symptoms as well as the
asymptomatics but have been exposed to a known case or recently went
abroad would also be tested.
87% of cases in 2 areas

On Friday, Vergeire said 87 percent of the new cases came from only two
areas—in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Barangay Kalunasan, where
the Cebu City Jail, the most populous jail in the country, is located.
“The DOH is closely coordinating with the local government units to contain
the virus in NCR and in closed-setting facilities such as the jail in Barangay
Kalunasan,” she said.
According to DOH data, more than half of the country’s 81 provinces have not
reported any COVID-19 case for the past two weeks.
These are: Agusan del Sur, Aklan, Apayao, Aurora, Basilan, Batanes, Biliran,
Bohol, Bukidnon, Camarines Norte, Camiguin, Capiz, Compostela Valley,
Cotabato, Davao Occidental, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Dinagat
Islands, Eastern Samar, Guimaras, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and Kalinga.
The others are: Lanao del Norte, Maguindanao, Masbate, Mountain Province,
Misamis Occidental, Negros Oriental, Northern Samar, Pangasinan, Quirino,
Romblon, Sarangani, Siquijor, Sorsogon, South Cotabato, Southern Leyte,
Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Tawi-tawi, Zamboanga del Norte and
Zamboanga Sibugay.
Virus cases in Cebu,

Zamboanga soar
Most of those who tested positive for COVID-19 are prisoners
By: Dale G. Israel, Julie Alipala - @inquirerdotnet

PACKED Prisoners look out from their packed cells at the Cebu City Jail in
Barangay Kalunasan where 333 inmates have been tested positive for
COVID-19 as of Sunday. The highly congested jail facility has more than
6,000 inmates. —DALE ISRAEL
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines —Two more persons died of the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Cebu on Sunday, as the number of cases
on the island breached the 1,000-mark.
As of Sunday afternoon, Cebu had a total of 1,084 COVID-19 cases with 13

deaths, the majority of which were recorded in Cebu City.
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The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) said the new fatalities
were a 39-year-old inmate at Mandaue City Jail and an 80-year-old woman
from one of the towns which DOH-7 declined to disclose for fear of causing
panic among residents.
The inmate died at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City on
May 2.
As of Sunday, Mandaue’s jail had 18 cases, including one death, and the
Cebu City Jail, 333. The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center,
which is operated by the provincial government and located beside the Cebu
City Jail, had 18 cases, including one death.
The 80-year-woman died on April 30, but the results of her swab test came
out only on Saturday. The DOH said those who had made contact with her
were already being traced.
No interaction
Cebu City continues to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 infections on the
island with 910 cases, followed by Mandaue City (89), Lapu-Lapu City (38),
and Cebu province (27).
Also tested positive for the virus were at least 17 overseas Filipino workers
who were repatriated to Cebu and three health workers.
The DOH did not specify their towns or cities, but said the those infected had
not really interacted with the local residents.
Hospital workers taking care of COVID-19 patients are no longer allowed to

go outside of their facilities as part of protocol.
“This group (health workers) needs to be separated since the contact tracing
activities will be primarily done among hospital staff and interventions will be
focused in the hospital setting,” said Jaime Bernadas, DOH regional director.
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Jail infection
Cebu City and the province have remained on stringent lockdown even as
most areas in the country have eased their situation to general community
quarantine (GCQ).
In Zamboanga City, the warden of Zamboanga City Reformatory Center

(ZCRC) appealed for prayers and understanding as the number of COVID-19
cases rose among inmates.
“We hope we can overcome this,” said Jail Chief Insp. Nathaniel Aljas, who
was among the officers who opted to remain inside the ZCRC. So far, he has
not contracted the virus.
All of the city’s 29 new confirmed cases were reported at the ZCRC, involving
two jail officers and 27 inmates, according to Dr. Dulce Miravite, the city health
officer and head of the Zamboanga City Task Force COVID-19.
This brought to 50 the total number of COVID-19 cases inside the jail, which
accounts for over 83 percent of the 60 cases now recorded in the city.
Originally set to transition to GCQ on May 1, the city remains on lockdown

until May 15.
High-risk areas
“The city jail is one of our high-risk areas,” said Miravite. “Since we have
cases here, the chances of transmission are very high. The place cannot
practice physical distancing, so it’s high risk for infection, really contagious.”
She warned that conditions could get worse inside the jail, which is located on
Varela Street and only 1.3 kilometers from City Hall.
The spike of cases inside the jail followed the death on April 20 of a 47-year-
old inmate suspected for COVID-19 at Zamboanga City Medical Center
(ZCMC). The results of his test, which were released five days after his death,
showed him to be positive for COVID-19.
Another inmate who tested positive has been confined at ZCMC since April
26.
Aljas said the jail was “beyond 1,000 percent” congested and “very
susceptible to contagion.” It currently has 3,319 inmates and 128 jail
personnel.
No physical distancing
“Given the over 3,000 individuals inside the facility, social distancing is not
applied,” he said.
To isolate those infected, the warden said two cells, several kiosks and a
basketball court had been converted into quarantines and isolation areas.
Aljas said jail personnel had been misting the facility three times a day but
were now running out of disinfectants. “We also distributed face masks and
required everyone to observe personal hygiene every day,” he added.
The city’s isolation facilities in the Lantaka area and the regional training
center of the DOH in Barangay Cabatangan have long been filled to capacity.
Dr. Justin Paber, public information officer of ZCMC, said the hospital was
already taking care of 200 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases, way
beyond its 104-bed capacity. INQ
DOH to expand testing

despite missed target
TO INCREASE TESTING CAPACITY Swab booths are due to be delivered to

hospitals in Manila. The city government has teamed up with the private
sector in an effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus in the
country’s capital. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — Although it has yet to reach its initial target daily
testing capacity of 8,000, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday
that it is working to expand by the end of the month to up to six times the
current number of new coronavirus tests it can process every day.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the goal was 30,000 tests
by May 31, as she stressed that early detection was critical to the
government’s efforts to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the new
coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory disease COVID-19.
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“We cannot defeat this pandemic and proceed to the new normal if we do not
find and isolate cases early. Hence, we need to test our vulnerable population,
such as our front-line health-care workers, high-risk individuals and those who
had close contact with the confirmed cases,” Vergeire said in an online press
briefing.
Way below target

As of May 3, however, the DOH’s accredited laboratories conducted a
combined 5,264 tests. While this was higher than the 4,501 tests done the day
before, the figure was way below the DOH’s target of 8,000 tests by April 30.
Vergeire earlier explained that the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine’s
decision to scale down its operation for a week affected the DOH daily testing
output. The country’s main reference laboratory had to slow down after 45 of
its staff members tested positive for the virus.
While she did not say when 8,000 tests daily could be reached, Vergeire said
the DOH was doing all it could to shorten the turnaround time and hasten the
processing of results.
For the DOH to reach its new target, Vergeire said it was working with the
Department of Transportation and the Bases Conversion and Development
Authority for the construction of four “megaswabbing” centers, which were
expected to open within the week. These are at the Philippine Arena in
Bulacan, Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Enderun Tent in Taguig and Palacio de
Manila Tent in Manila.
On top of this, she said the DOH had also hired additional encoders to speed
up the release of results.
On Monday, the department reported 262 new coronavirus infections, pushing
the nationwide total to 9,485. The majority of the new cases were reported in
Metro Manila (122) and Central Visayas (88).
The DOH also saw the biggest single-day increase in recoveries to date with
101 patients, bringing the current tally to 1,315.
The death toll, however, increased to 623 as 16 patients succumbed to the

disease.
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Health-care workers
Vergeire said that while health-care workers still accounted for one out of
every five infections, a slowing in the number of medical front-liners testing
positive for the virus has been seen in recent days. To date, 1,772 health-care
workers have contracted the virus, of whom 319 have already recovered.
Thirty-four medical workers have died of COVID-19.
Of the 1,419 active cases among health-care workers, 958 are mild, 452 are
asymptomatic and nine are severe.
Vergeire said the DOH was working closely with the Bureau of Jail
Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Philippine Red Cross to test,
isolate and treat early prisoners, as well as prison staff, to prevent an outbreak
in jails.
To date, 38 BJMP staff have tested positive for the virus, she said. Of the 373
prisoners who had been tested, 195 were confirmed to have contracted the
virus.
In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said it was too early

to decide whether the extension of the lockdown in Metro Manila to May 15
would be the last as the intensive-care space in the metropolis was “almost
exhausted.”
The lockdown was originally set to end on April 15, but President Duterte
extended it by two weeks. On April 27, he eased the lockdown in several parts
of the country but extended it in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the local
coronavirus epidemic.
“We’re just on our fourth day of the two-week extension. We are carefully
studying the data—on science and the economy,” Roque said at a press
briefing.
Albay, Zamboanga City

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said Mr. Duterte had approved the
recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious
Diseases to place Albay province and Zamboanga City on lockdown until May
15.
The lockdown would take effect at midnight on Monday and end at midnight
on May 15, Medialdea said.
—WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO
Virus ‘hot spot’ in

Mandaluyong on ‘total
lockdown’
Mass testing set in Mandaluyong’s Addition Hills which has highest COVID-19 cases in city,
Metro

STOCKING UP ON ESSENTIALS Residents of Barangay Addition Hills buy
food and other supplies in preparation for a weeklong“total lockdown” in their
village starting on May 7.—GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — Mandaluyong’s Barangay Addition Hills, which has
the highest number of confirmed new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases
not just in the city, but also in Metro Manila, will be placed under a weeklong
“total lockdown” starting on Thursday.
Mayor Menchie Abalos announced the lockdown on Facebook after village

officials, the City Health Department, City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit,
Mandaluyong Medical Center, the Army and police convened a joint meeting
to address the sharp rise in cases.
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Barangay Addition Hills had 59 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Monday

afternoon, accounting for nearly 14 percent of Mandaluyong’s 420 cases
overall. Of the 59, six have died—the highest fatality rate among the city’s 27
villages.
The city government will administer 3,000 rapid tests on randomly chosen
residents while the barangay is under lockdown, according to Abalos. She
said that they had been distributing food packs to each household in the area
since Monday.
“Other villages in the city with a high number of confirmed COVID-19 cases
are presently being studied to determine our course of action,” Abalos added.
“We will release our plans for these villages in the coming days.”
City officials have said that the higher number of cases overall is the result of
more aggressive testing of residents in recent days. Mandaluyong has
partnered with the Philippine Red Cross, which is headquartered in the city, to
conduct the tests.
Almost 20 percent of residents live in the sprawling Barangay Addition Hills,

which has a population of 69,885. It is flanked on one side by the exclusive
Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, while city hall is situated mere meters
away from its southern border.
There were no details about what the implications of a total lockdown would
be, however, particularly as the whole of Metro Manila remained under
enhanced community quarantine that already prohibited all nonessential
errands.
Abalos said she would soon issue an executive order with guidelines for the
lockdown.
Two districts in Manila—Sampaloc and Tondo 1—were earlier placed on “hard

lockdown” for 48 hours to pave the way for mass testing of residents to curb
the spread of COVID-19.
During the lockdown, all commercial establishments, except for drug stores
and funeral homes, were not allowed to operate while all residents, save for
workers in establishments offering essential services, were restricted to their
houses.
Policemen and soldiers were deployed to both areas to strictly enforce the
hard lockdown. INQ
LRT, MRT ban for elderly,
moms-to-be under GCQ
DOTr says sectors vulnerable to COVID-19 won’t be allowed in 4 rail systems
KEEP YOUR DISTANCE, PLEASE The Department of Transportation is now

drawing the line—literally—across the four major railways in the country in
preparation for the resumption of operations with the lifting of the enhanced
community quarantine. —Photo courtesy of DOTR
MANILA, Philippines — People considered highly vulnerable to the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19), particularly pregnant women or those below
age 20 or 60 and above, will not be allowed to ride in Metro Manila’s four
railway systems once these resume operations with the lifting of the enhanced
community quarantine.
The new protocols are based on the guidelines set by the Interagency Task
Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for areas
under general community quarantine (GCQ).
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These include requiring senior citizens to remain at home at all times, “except
when indispensable under the circumstances for obtaining essential goods
and services or for work in permitted industries and offices.”
The same goes for minors and pregnant women although the exceptions are
applicable only to trains.
“Whatever the consideration of the IATF, that’s also what we are going to
implement,” said Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran.
Long wait
Passengers of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2, Metro Rail Transit
(MRT) 3 and Philippine National Railways (PNR) should also brace
themselves for long lines and waiting time in between trains as the
Department of Transportation (DOTr) will strictly enforce the physical
distancing policy.
In preparation for the reopening of the mass transport systems, lines

measuring 1ʊ1 meter have been drawn on the seats and floors of LRT, MRT
and PNR coaches as well as on platforms to ensure adequate spacing
between passengers to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The distancing protocol, while necessary, is expected to further limit the

carrying capacity of the railway systems.
If the one-meter-apart rule is to be followed, each LRT 1 train can carry only
158 passengers (12 percent of its capacity) per trip; 160 (10 percent) for the
LRT 2 and 153 (13 percent) for the MRT 3. All three normally carry over 1,000
passengers per trip.
A PNR train, on the other hand, will be limited to 148 passengers per trip, only
20 percent of its normal capacity.
Necessary protocol
But Transport Undersecretary for Railways TJ Batan said this was necessary
to “reduce passenger concentration in trains, station platforms, concourses
and elevators… We have to remember that this protocol aims to prevent the
virus from spreading. We want to put an end to this health crisis, as we want
to help our front-liners, our essential workers in going to their places of
destination during the GCQ.”
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The DOTr said it was preparing the deployment of more skip trains—or trains
bypassing certain stations—to manage passenger volume, and a block
system to control the entry of passengers into stations.
Face masks required

Following guidelines set by the Department of Health, the DOTr will ban
passengers without face masks, those showing coronavirus symptoms or with
registered body temperatures of 37.8 degrees Celsius or higher.
All station personnel will also be required to wear face masks and gloves,
while security guards in charge of inspecting passengers’ bags or stationed at
the Commuter Welfare Desk will have to wear face shields.
Regular disinfection and sanitation of train interiors, station premises and

facilities will be conducted and hand washing or disinfectant stations will be
set up.
Guidelines for Masses:

Thermal scans, less
singing, no processions

The Archdiocese of Manila has laid down guidelines on the conduct of
religious activities, including the Mass, once the government allows their
resumption.
Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Manila apostolic administrator, issued the pastoral

guidelines on Thursday, 10 days before the easing of the lockdown in Metro
Manila to general community quarantine.
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“Religious services are also essential services,” he pointed out.
Pabillo and other Church leaders have been urging the government to allow
religious activities to resume under strict precautions.
The pastoral guidelines were issued to prevent the spread of the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during religious services, the bishop said. He
said these were temporary, and could change depending on the situation or
directives from the government or the Church.
Half-hour gap
“These guidelines are given so that we are prepared when religious services
will be allowed,” he said.
There will be a half-hour gap between Masses to allow the church to be

disinfected after each service, Pabillo said.
He encouraged priests to hold more services on weekdays and additional

Masses on Saturdays.
“The presence of difficulty, and in some cases impossibility, of fulfilling the

Sunday obligation renders the obligation suspended during these
extraordinary circumstances,” Pabillo said.
He said the streaming of Masses would continue at least on Sundays for

those unable to take part in community celebrations due to sickness, old age,
fear and caution. He added that children and the elderly would be advised to
stay home and hear Mass online.
Wearing face masks will be obligatory for everyone attending Mass and other
church services, as well as for priests, altar servers and lay ministers.
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Low-priced face masks should be available at parish offices.
No more offerings
There will no longer be offertory processions, Pabillo said. Offerings may be
dropped in a box or basket at the back of the church and people will be
assigned to bring these to the front of the altar during offertory. There will be
no more offering of bread and wine from the faithful.
Hand-holding and handshaking will be disallowed during the “Our Father” and
the peace greeting. “A bow with a [smile] can already be a good sign of
peace,” Pabillo said.
When the host is placed on the hands of the communicant during

Communion, there will no longer be any conversation between the minister
and the communicant.
The flow of communicants should be managed to prevent any meeting of the

faithful.
Pabillo said ministers could bring Communion to the sick and the elderly. He
said arrangements could be made for Communion in chapels for those
indisposed to join community celebrations due to fear and caution.
Communion may also be given outside houses in areas without chapels, he

said, adding that the faithful would be catechized on the proper internal
disposition before receiving Communion.
The “Oratio Imperata” is to be prayed during Mass. The “Mass in Time of

Pandemic,” recently provided by the Holy See, may also be celebrated,
Pabillo said.
Physical distancing
The body temperature of those entering the church will be taken using a
thermal body scan, and church entrances and exits should have a foot bath
container, as well as hand sanitizers.
Physical distancing will be observed at the pews and monitored by ushers and
marshals.
No more people will be allowed inside the church when the indicated spaces
are filled, Pabillo said. They may stand outside with proper physical
distancing.
Pabillo suggested that appropriate TV monitors and sound systems be set up
in parking areas within church compounds so that the faithful could still take
part in a Mass even in their cars if the church is full.
If there are enough priests, Masses may be celebrated in, say, gymnasiums,
but still observing physical distancing, he said.
Empty fonts
There may be less singing during Mass, the bishop said. He said that instead
of a choir, a song leader and an instrumentalist could be assigned to lead the
faithful in singing.
Touching or wiping religious images will still be discouraged, and holy water
fonts should remain empty and covered.
Pabillo advised against opening small and enclosed adoration chapels. He

discouraged the use of air conditioners and urged churches to maximize the
use of open areas, stressing that this is a better way to ward off the virus.
The bishop also raised the need to recruit younger volunteers as collectors,
lay ministers and ushers to lessen the possibility of infection among elderly
servers.
Metro mayors may push

for 15 more days under
ECQ
By: Jovic Yee, Krixia Subingsubing - @inquirerdotnet
Mayors of the local governments making up the National Capital Region

(NCR) are likely to recommend in their meeting today another 15-day
extension of the lockdown being imposed on the metropolis since March 16,
to allow their respective health departments to conduct more tests for
coronavirus infection.
In an interview with the Inquirer on Friday, Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez
said that while there had been major improvements under the two-month
enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), “we still haven’t flattened the curve,”
he said.
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“What we’re really afraid of is a more severe second wave if we fail to isolate
COVID-19 patients,” said Olivarez, who also chairs the Metro Manila Council
(MMC), the capital’s top policymaking body. “What we’re looking at is the
capacity of each city government to carry out its mass testing so they can
better identify confirmed cases,” he added.
Recommendations
The MMC can only make recommendations which will still be subject to the
approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious
Diseases, which manages the country’s coronavirus strategies.
Olivarez said he expected that the new extension, if approved by the task
force, would only be up to May 30 — not June 15, as the mayors earlier
suggested.
“We’re looking at a possible two-week extension to allow city governments to

cope with their mass testing demands and capacity. We think May 30 is a
[sufficient] deadline,” the Parañaque mayor said.
Olivarez was the first among the 17 NCR mayors to call for another extension,
especially since four cities —San Juan, Mandaluyong, Parañaque and Makati
—were still recording high number of cases per capita.
All cities in Metro Manila currently have their own accredited laboratories
facilitating mass testing in their own localities.
In saying that the NCR has not yet flattened the curve, Olivarez appeared to
disagree with the statements made on Tuesday by Dr. John Wong, an
epidemiologist advising the task force. In an IATF briefing, Wong then said
data from 10 to 14 days ago showed that the ‘’curve has already flattened,’’
and that among its indicators was the longer time in now took for the number
of cases and deaths to double.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año earlier suggested easing the ECQ on some
cities, but the MMC wanted the entire capital region placed under a single
lockdown status.
“Metro Manila is very interconnected, and it’s impossible for one city to be
under GCQ (the more relaxed “general community quarantine”) while others
are in ECQ,” Olivarez said. “So what we’re aiming for is one unified decision
for the entire capital region.”
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‘Contiguous area’
A Department of Health (DOH) official shared the same view on Friday.
“Since we started the lockdown, one of the arguments is that you can’t
separate the cities because we are in a contiguous area and there is cross-
border movement of people due to work,” Health Undersecretary Maria
Rosario Vergeire said during her regular online press briefing on the country’s
Covid-9 situation.
But the DOH still could not say if cities in the NCR are prepared for any
possibility that may arise from easing the lockdown. “No country is really
ready to face this kind of uncertainty. Even if we are saying that we have
flattened the curve, we still have to prepare for the next fight,” Vergeire said.
“We’ll continuously prepare so that we can keep up with the situation,” she
also said.
Asked if the DOH is keen to recommend another extension of the lockdown,

Vergeire said this decision is best left to the task force. “When we discuss in
the IATF, we give the facts. And the facts are the number of cases we have
[and] the hotspot areas, and IATF decides collectively on the lockdown.”
Critical care
Vergeire also said the country’s “critical care utilization” has yet to go beyond
capacity, which means there are still enough beds, mechanical ventilators and
isolation rooms for coronavirus cases.
“But, of course, we will not hide that in NCR we are almost at that point where
we are about to reach the maximum,’’ she said. “But there are still available
beds, ICU (intensive care unit) rooms and mechanical ventilators.”
Of the 1,243 ICU beds nationwide, 513 are occupied. Of the combined 11,344
isolation and ward beds, 4,749, are occupied. Of the nearly 2,000 mechanical
ventilators, 493 are in use. The DOH did not give a breakdown of how many
of these are in the NCR.
Palace: Parts of Metro

Manila may remain
under ECQ
By: Krixia Subingsubing, Leila B. Salaverria, Mariejo S. Ramos - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — Only certain parts of the National Capital Region,

which accounts for the majority of the COVID-19 cases in the country, may be
placed under general community quarantine (GCQ) after May 15, according to
presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
The other areas in the metropolis, which is composed of 16 cities and one
municipality, will remain under the more restrictive enhanced community
quarantine (ECQ), Roque said at the Laging Handa briefing on Saturday.
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The decision by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of

Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) would depend on the severity of the
contagion in specific localities, he explained.
MORE DAYS LIKE THIS? Police checkpoints will remain at borders between
cities and towns even if the enhanced community quarantine is lifted and the
less restrictive general community quarantine is implemented in several areas
of Metro Manila after May 15. (Photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine
Daily Inquirer)
No final decision yet
Roque reminded the public of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año’s
pronouncement that localities with a high number of cases would not be
placed under GCQ.
“There’s no final decision, but the whole of Metro Manila would not be under
GCQ and the whole of Metro Manila would not remain under ECQ,” Roque
said.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported that Metro Manila has 6,916 cases
with 506 deaths and 1,316 who had recovered from the severe respiratory
disease as of Saturday.
Nationwide, the total was 10,610 cases, with 704 deaths and 1,842
recoveries.
The IATF-EID will submit its recommendations on which places the ECQ may
be lifted to President Duterte on Monday, Roque said.
The President extended the monthlong ECQ in Metro Manila from May 1 to
May 15.
‘Slowly but surely’

Sen. Richard Gordon, who also heads the Philippine Red Cross, said he
preferred a selective lifting of the ECQ.
In a radio interview on Saturday, he said he would rather have the reopening

of the places under quarantine done “slowly but surely.”
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“I would be very, very selective,” Gordon said.
He noted that Manila, for instance, still had a lot of cases.
Ramping up mass testing, including by the Red Cross, is crucial to

determining if the country had flattened the curve, or had contained the
spread of the new coronavirus, Gordon added.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged local governments to pass ordinances

specifying their own guidelines for the “new normal” ahead of the lifting of the
lockdown.
The guidelines could include prohibitions on mass gatherings, and the

continued observance of physical distancing, Gatchalian said.
Mayors’ 3 options
The 17 mayors comprising the Metro Manila Council met on Saturday to
discuss the level of quarantine they wanted for the capital after the lapse of
the extended ECQ but they could not agree on a single recommendation to
the IATF-EID.
Instead, they decided to let the task force decide on one of three options that
they had “unanimously agreed” to present to the ad hoc government body in
charge of measures to contain the contagion, according to Jojo Garcia,
general manager of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
The first option was to extend the ECQ until May 30. The second was the
more lax GCQ, and the third was a “modified” GCQ where local executives
would be authorized to lock down certain barangays when necessary.
A barangay with “too many cases” would be locked down, Garcia explained.
“If there are barangays where there are no new cases we can reopen them.”
he said.
But because Metro Manila is one contiguous area, “you can’t just lock down
one city, [so] this could be hard to implement,” Garcia said.
Representatives of the Philippine National Police and the DOH attended the
meeting.
CONTIGUOUS CITIES Mayors sitting as members of the Metro Manila

Council meet via Zoom for five hours on Saturday to discuss the level of
quarantine restrictions that may be imposed on the national capital after May
15. Also taking part in the online meeting are police and health department
officials. —SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MANILA
DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
Health or economy?
Earlier, it was thought that the council would decide on only one
recommendation. But balancing public health and the economy proved
challenging for the mayors, who were forced to reckon with the reality that
“some people may not be dying of the virus, but they will be killed by hunger,”
Garcia said.
Mayor Joy Belmonte of Quezon City, the hardest-hit locality in Metro Manila
with 1,523 cases, wanted her city to be allowed to shift to a “transition period”
toward GCQ after May 15.
“While the health of our residents remains our primary priority, we also need
to look after the local economy, which has been affected severely by the
dreaded virus,” Belmonte said.
Health, safety measures

She said certain measures would be put in place for the health and safety of
workers and customers before local businesses were allowed to operate
again.
They include requiring establishments to check the state of health of their

employees prior to their return to work, facilitating testing and quarantining of
workers as needed, thermal scanning and social distancing in the workplace
and scheduling disinfection.
There would be daily cleaning by the staff plus a whole day closure for a more
thorough disinfection by the local government.
Local businesses will also be required to report their production capacities and
workforce requirements.
Rise in Cebu virus cases

not alarming, says exec
Cebu City ranks second among five highest in infections but lowest in death rate
MASS TESTING Residents of Cebu City undergo mass testing, the result of
which will determine if it can transition to general community quarantine by
May 21. —CEBU CITY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Cebuanos should not be alarmed by the
rise of new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Cebu, the highest
outside Metro Manila, since the island has the lowest death rate from the
disease in the country, according to a top government official.
“I can understand the fear of our kababayan (countrymen) in Cebu when you
see a number like 1,385, 1,400 then 1,500 etc. What we have to understand is
this: The most important thing to look at now is how the communities prepare
to control the spread of the virus,” said Vivencio Dizon, deputy chief
implementer of the government’s coronavirus response.
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As of May 9, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that Cebu City had
1,469 COVID-19, cases surpassed only by Quezon City (1,523) and followed
by Manila (833), Parañaque City (500) and Makati City (477).
But based on records, Cebu had a mortality rate of less than 1 percent
compared to the top four Metro Manila cities whose mortality rates ranged
from 6 percent to 8 percent. Metro Manila is currently the epicenter of the
coronavirus outbreak in the Philippines.
Cebu City had a mortality rate of 0.75 percent (11 deaths), while Makati had
6.29 percent (30 deaths); Quezon City, 7.94 percent (121 deaths);
Parañaque, 7.8 percent (39 deaths); and Manila, 8.28 percent (69 deaths).
Community response
“So while those numbers are scary when you look at them, what we have to
look at is really how the communities respond. And I think, for the entire
country, we greatly benefited from the immediate response of the President to
lock down very early and to stop flights from China as early as February,”
Dizon said.
The official visited Cebu upon the invitation of Presidential Assistant for the
Visayas Michael Dino, four days after the start of the strategic mass testing in
the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
Depending on the mass testing results, the three cities, where the bulk of the
working population on the island is found, may transition from enhanced
community quarantine to general community quarantine on May 21.
The strategic testing aims to cover 10 percent of the total number of

households in each barangay of the three cities.
As of May 10, Cebu Island had 1,610 COVID-19 cases with 21 deaths.
Dizon believed that local officials and health authorities were doing a good job
in keeping the number of fatalities low. He noted that local hospitals taking
care of COVID-19 patients were only operating 40 percent of their total
capacity since most of those infected showed no symptoms of the disease.
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Aggressive testingDizon, however, emphasized that Cebu should not let its
guard down and continue to “test and test more aggressively.”
He said the subnational testing laboratory at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical

Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City would soon be upgraded to enable the hospital
to conduct 3,000 to 3,500 tests a day from the current 200 to 500 tests.
In Eastern Visayas, all swab samples taken from suspected COVID-19

patients would be tested at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center
(EVRMC) in Tacloban City starting May 11 instead of sending these to the
VSMMC.
The EVMRC’s testing center would examine 90 swab samples on Monday,
the majority of which were taken from individuals in Tarangnan town, Samar
province, said Dr. Minerva Molon, DOH regional director.
Tarangnan is considered the epicenter of COVID-19 in Eastern Visayas with

14 cases. The entire region only has 19 cases so far.
—DALE G. ISRAEL AND JOEY GABIETA
End ECQ now and let the

people go back to work
For almost two months, people in Luzon, including Metro Manila, have been
restricted to their houses, helping the government battle the new coronavirus
disease (COVID-19). The “public health emergency” has killed jobs,
businesses and industries, driving our country’s gross domestic product
(GDP) down to 0.2 percent. The last time the GDP shrank was in the last
quarter of 1998.
According to scientists and the Department of Health (DOH), we are

“flattening the curve” as there are fewer confirmed COVID-19 cases and
fatalities. The number of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests being
conducted has increased dramatically with 26 laboratories and the huge
backlog at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine is being addressed.
Case doubling time has improved from two days to seven days today.
Quarantine and intensive care unit facilities for patients are now available,
taking some of the weight off from our health-care system.
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Businessmen are now saying the economy cannot afford a two-week

extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). It is almost
inevitable that we will go into recession from September onward. It will be
worse, if we delay jumpstarting the economy. The estimated loss to the
economic is now P2 trillion with 25 million citizens out of jobs.
All small and medium scale businesses, even the underground economy, are
closed. Cash assistance is depleting government coffers. There are no
revenues coming from either dead or recovering businesses.
Our ECQ lockdown was the strictest in Asia with the “average decline in public
mobility” at 50.83 percent, beating India’s 47.83 percent, according to Nikkei
Asian Review. The government brought down public mobility by 85 percent in
transit stations, 79 percent in retail/recreation and 71 percent in workplaces.
Ironically, both the Philippines and India continue to have an increasing
number of confirmed cases.
In comparison, Thailand had a 31.66 percent average decline in public

mobility; Vietnam, 29.50 percent; Japan, 13.83 percent; South Korea, 11
percent and Taiwan, 2.16 percent. However, they were able to control the rise
in COVID-19 cases in their countries.
Another example is Sweden which defied World Health Organization

mathematical models that around 30,000 to 70,000 of its citizens would die
without a lockdown. Instead, its citizens practiced social distancing. The death
toll was not 30,000 as predicted but 3,500. Sweden’s economy also continued
to flourish just like Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea.
Another ECQ extension will make our situation more worrisome. There is so
much hunger and unemployment.
Unlike two months ago, Filipinos are now aware of how COVID-19 can be
transmitted and how to avoid being infected. The “new normal” may pose
challenges but people know that it is necessary for our nation’s sake.
The government listened to scientists when it imposed the ECQ. But now,
every family’s future is threatened by a deep economic recession.
Should we continue to listen to scientists? Or should we work now on our

economy and future?
Let’s end this ECQ, go back to work and revive the economy. INQ
Mass testing pushed
even for people without
symptoms
By: DJ Yap, Jovic Yee - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — The House minority bloc on Tuesday pushed for mass
testing for the coronavirus with focus on health-care workers and others in the
front lines, including those in media, to prevent a second wave of the
contagion as the country moved to the “new normal” and relaxed quarantine
protocols by mid-May.
Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. said his group supported the “Crushing
COVID Act” proposed by Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, a former health secretary,
which would expand the testing to include individuals who have symptoms of
COVID-19 or not.
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House Bill No. 6707 will also create the “COVID Testing Assistance Fund
(CTAF)” to subsidize testing of people belonging to priority and vulnerable
sectors, including food handlers, supermarket and public market vendors,
house helpers, pregnant women, and workers at salons, factories and
construction sites.
The subsidy could range from P1,700 to P1,800 per test, Garin said.
Gov’t’s job
“As we shift to the new normal, it is time that we expand the testing that the
public demands and needs. As we all return to work, it is the government’s job
to ensure the safety of everyone,” she said in a privilege speech on Monday.
Due to its limited capability, the current testing protocol of the Department of
Health (DOH) is only for those who show symptoms, Garin noted.
“[While] people gradually enter the new normal, equipped with the knowledge
of personal hygiene and physical distancing, the fact remains that the
unaccounted percentage of the population that is asymptomatic will definitely
trigger a second wave of infections,” Garin said.
Abante said many doctors and medical experts had said that “if we want to
succeed in the fight against COVID-19, we need to TEST, TEST, TEST.”
“As the title of this bill suggests, we believe that ending the COVID-19
outbreak is contingent on comprehensive testing, especially of the most
vulnerable sectors in our country,” Abante said.
Cutting party lines

The House leader called on his colleagues to cross party lines to enact
Garin’s bill.
“The only thing that matters is saving lives; we know the economy is important
and we know people have to work, but keeping our people safe from the virus
is the only way we will be able to open our economy and get back to work,”
the Manila lawmaker said.
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“There is no majority or minority in the middle of a crisis. There is neither

administration nor opposition. We all want to help,” he said.The DOH is
constantly upgrading its capacity to conduct more tests daily and is confident
it could do up to 30,000 per day by May 30, according to Health
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
The DOH completed more than 8,000 tests in one on Sunday, a target it had
missed by 10 days.
To achieve its goal, Vergeire said the DOH was maximizing the testing
capacity of the certified laboratories, engaging their private sector partners
and using other means to test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-
19, such as making use of the GeneXpert machines that are available
nationwide.
“We will achieve our goal of 30,000 tests per day by May 30 through [these]
strategies,” Vergeire said.
“We continue to improve our testing capacity to ensure that all Filipinos have
access to COVID-19 testing as needed,” she added.
Testing backlog
As of Tuesday, 181,668 tests have been done on 166,473 individuals since
February. But the DOH has a backlog of 3,894.
Vergeire explained that testing was hampered by, among others, maintenance
work on the laboratory equipment, the scaling down of operations of some
laboratories, and the need for some personnel to go on quarantine due to
possible infection.
One solution is the mass hiring of encoders. Vergeire had described encoding
data as a “tedious” part of the testing process.
On Tuesday, the DOH reported 264 new COVID-19 cases, raising the number
to 11,350 cases nationwide. Of the 264, 165 were from Metro Manila and 74,
from Central Visayas.
With the addition of 107 more, the number of patients who had recovered
climbed to 2,106. The death toll rose to 751 with 25 more who died.
The DOH said 2,067 health-care workers had contracted the virus, including
643 who recovered and 35 who died.
It has hired 1,187 medical front-liners to augment the health workforce.
Surge in cases
As the country eases the lockdown measures this weekend, except in Metro
Manila, Laguna and Cebu City, Vergeire reminded the public to remain vigilant
and maintain health protocols. She said that a surge in cases followed easing
of restrictions were observed other countries.
“We saw this in South Korea, Japan, China and Singapore. We assure that
the government is doing its best to be better prepared and enhance its efforts
in testing, isolation, hospital capacity, equipment and manpower in the event
that we find ourselves in a similar situation,” she said.
Until a vaccine against COVID-19 is found, everyone remains to be at risk of

getting infected, Vergeire said.
“This is the reality of ‘World War C.’ If we do not take precautions, the
enhanced community quarantine or lockdown may again be implemented,”
she said.
She added that preventive measures like physical distancing, the wearing of
masks, frequent handwashing and observing proper cough etiquette remain
“effective” against the virus.
Metro Manila transport

problems seen as
workers go back to work
By: Roy Stephen C. Canivel - Reporter / @roycanivel_inq
MANILA, Philippines — Commuting is bound to be a problem when workers

troop back to offices and factories in Metro Manila on May 16, the first day of
the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), business groups said
on Wednesday.
Malacañang officials announced that certain industries will be allowed to

operate at half of their workforce under MECQ, but said that public transport
were still banned.
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While companies could deploy shuttle buses, they could prove inadequate to
ferry all the workers since no jeepneys, buses, or trains, will be operating that
day.
“That will pose a problem because many employees do not have their own
private vehicles. Employers will have to provide shuttle buses and that’s an
added cost of doing business during these difficult times,’’ said Francis Lim,
president of Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), in an
interview. ‍
Walk to work
“Maybe it will be like the first day of the lockdown,” said Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr.,
president of Employers Confederation of the Philippines, when asked for
comment.
In the first few days of lockdown, the government suspended mass

transportation but allowed essential companies to operate. This forced many
workers to walk to work.
Luis said he did not expect all permitted companies to open right away, given
the lack of basic rules on how the MECQ would work.
“There should be [an information] campaign telling workers that they should
not go to work unless advised by the company, since not everyone would be
hired back,” he said, referring to the 50 percent workforce limit set by the inter-
agency task force (IATF).
250,000 workers
“That’s the challenge,” said Ebb Hinchliffe, executive director of American
Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, noting that “the private sector can’t
provide sufficient transportation.” Back in April, MAP suggested to the
Department of Transportation and the IATF that the current fleet of buses and
trains was capable of ferrying some 250,000 workers, the estimated number
of skeleton workforce in essential industries in the metropolis.
MAP proposed to ramp up the operations of buses and trains based on

demand until the entire metro workforce would be able to commute to work.
Adopting MAP’s proposal, however, would entail more responsibilities for the
government, including subsidizing bus operators who would not be able to run
at full capacity.
1 in 4 COVID-19 patients
in QC a health worker
By: Mariejo S. Ramos - @inquirerdotnet
The local government of Quezon City has expressed concern over the rising
number of new coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-positive city health workers
who now account for nearly 25 percent of its total cases.
According to the data of the Department of Health, 390 healthcare workers

based in Quezon City were infected with COVID-19, or almost a quarter of the
city’s 1,578 cases, as of Monday.
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The city government said that among the affected health workers were
doctors, nurses, radio technologists, attendants and drivers from both public
and private hospitals.
Many of the city’s recorded cases could be directly traced to health workers’
family and household members, it added.
One example of this, said the city’s chief epidemiologist Dr. Rolando Cruz,
was the recent case of a healthcare worker from Barangay South Triangle
who tested positive for the coronavirus and infected some of her family
members.
A study conducted by the city’s planners also revealed that barangays close
to hospitals, where many health workers live, have the highest viral attack
rates in Quezon City.
“Besides putting our own front-liners at risk, leaving them unprotected and
untested may cause them to become carriers of the deadly disease to their
family and community,” Cruz said.
To slow down the infection rate, Mayor Joy Belmonte appealed to hospital
owners and administrators in Metro Manila to provide safer working
conditions, more personal protective equipment and free virus testing for their
staff and medical professionals.
Cruz also recommended that hospitals put up temporary housing facilities for
their personnel, where they could rest physically and mentally without
“worrying that they were putting loved ones at risk.”
2nd tranche of cash aid
only for ECQ areas
SOCIAL DISTANCING? NEVER MIND Quezon City residents line up for the
cash aid distribution at Bagong Pagasa Elementary School in a photo taken
on May 10. —RICHARD A. REYES
The government on Thursday defended its policy of limiting the second
tranche of cash assistance to areas under enhanced community quarantine
(ECQ).
“Since the funds given by Congress are limited, the Inter-Agency Task Force
on Emerging Infectious Diseases thought it was better to limit the second
tranche to areas under ECQ … [which have] 13 million beneficiaries,”
presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a press briefing.
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Detained opposition Sen. Leila de Lima had questioned the exclusion of areas
no longer under ECQ from the second tranche of the government’s subsidy
for low-income families.
“The government may have forgotten that the emergency subsidy functions
not only as a social safety net to cushion the adverse impacts of the pandemic
among our poor families and other disadvantaged groups. It is a lifeline for
many in these perilous times,” De Lima said in a statement.
‘President’s decision’Roque said the decision to focus the cash aid on ECQ
areas took into consideration the government’s limited funds.
He said areas under general community quarantine now allow work in certain
sectors, unlike areas under ECQ that still observe more restrictions.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea was expected to release a

memorandum on the distribution of the second tranche of the cash aid for low-
income families.
Asked to comment on other sectors appealing for government aid, Roque said
financial assistance would “first be given to our poorest Filipinos.”
But the ultimate decision, he said, “will lie with the President.”Roque said the
President “had ordered the inclusion of 5 million more families. If he thinks
everyone should receive aid, he will find a way to do it,” he added.
Show cause orders

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will issue show
cause orders to 43 mayors for them to explain why they should not be
sanctioned for failing to complete the payout of the first tranche.
“While the vast majority of local government units (LGUs) were able to
distribute [the money] before the deadline leading to a national pay-out rate of
97 percent, there are still a few who failed to do so until [Wednesday], thus,
the DILG and the public deserve to know why they failed to complete their
distribution,” Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a statement on Thursday.
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Of the 43 mayors slammed for their poor performance in distributing the

subsidy, four come from Metro Manila; 11 from Western Visayas; eight from
Mimaropa; five from Central Visayas; four from the Davao region; two each
from the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Eastern Visayas and Northern
Mindanao regions; and one from Central Luzon.
DILG spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said graft and corruption cases

pertaining to the cash assistance program would no longer be investigated by
the DILG but by the Philippine National Police.
But administrative offenses, as well as violations by local officials of

quarantine protocols, will remain within the purview of the DILG, Malaya said.
—WITH REPORTS FROM JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND LEILA B.
SALAVERRIA
Mass testing, tracing

eyed as 15M return to
work
By: Ben O. de Vera, DJ Yap - @inquirerdotnet
There must be “exhaustive” testing and contact tracing of suspected

coronavirus cases in the next two weeks as almost 15 million workers return
to their workplaces under relaxed lockdown guidelines on May 16, a House
leader said on Thursday.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chair of the House ways and means panel, warned
of a fresh wave of COVID-19 cases due to the easing of quarantine protocols
and in the absence of the government’s promised mass testing regimen.
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Salceda said the government’s response was “near optimal” as it sought to

strike a balance between managing the COVID-19 contagion and reopening
the economy.
New outbreaks feared

But he said there might be new outbreaks if the Department of Health did not
perform enough testing, tracing and isolation of suspected cases.
“In terms of letting people go to work without causing too many new cases,
the [Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases] decision gets
it roughly right,” Salceda wrote in the paper.
“But that’s under the assumption that we are testing and tracing enough. We
need to test and trace without fail,” he added.
This is a consequence of a “tradeoff between allowing workers to resume

employment while keeping the volume of infections under control,” he wrote.
Salceda said his office had initially recommended 40,000 tests a day to flatten
the curve of new cases.
But the government admitted this week it had missed its COVID-19 testing
targets with only some 8,000 tests a day on Monday. Only about 158,000
people have been tested for the virus as of Tuesday, representing less than 1
percent of the total population, according to reports.
14.6M workers allowed

Under the new quarantine regimen, some 14.6 million workers will be allowed
to go to work on-site, on top of the 27.4 million who are currently allowed to
work, Salceda said.
The government plans to hire up to 500,000 among those who lost their jobs
during the pandemic and its resulting local lockdown to do contract tracing to
better contain COVID-19 from spreading.
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Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that besides dole-outs, the
government wanted to create new employment opportunities for displaced
workers.
“We are doing a lot of testing, but we are not doing enough contact tracing,”
Dominguez said.
“That is a very tedious job and that needs a lot of input,” he noted.
“We can probably hire 300,000, 400,000, maybe even 500,000 people to do
contact tracing. It’s not a very difficult job to do, but you need some kind of
training—probably one or two days’ training,” he added.
8 areas back on strict

quarantine as virus
cases keep rising
By: Krixia Subingsubing, Leila B. Salaverria - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — Cebu City and Mandaue City opted to remain under
restrictive lockdown even as six other areas were allowed to stay under
enhanced quarantine to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Some shopping malls and retail outlets reopened to test new public health
regulations on the first day of a “modified enhanced community quarantine”
(MECQ) that allows workers in select industries to return to work.
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The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) also noted swells of

traffic in the metropolis as security forces tightened checkpoints to verify if the
people on the streets were authorized to leave their homes.
MMDA spokesperson Celine Pialago said the build-up along the Balintawak
stretch of Edsa, North Luzon Expressway and Marcos Highway in Marikina
City was not caused by vehicles but by the checkpoints.
So far, most of the vehicles observed on the road were cargo trucks and vans,
presumed to be private shuttles of companies finally allowed to operate during
MECQ, she said.
“There’s nothing to worry about yet,” Pialago said. “We haven’t returned to our
normal volume of vehicles before coronavirus. And it would probably take a
long time before we return to that same level of traffic again.”
Still, she said, the MMDA is bracing itself for a traffic rush on Monday when
more cars are expected on Metro Manila roads.
Motorists are advised to have their IDs and other verification documents ready
for inspection, she said.
Caution
Also on Saturday, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious
Diseases (IATF) kept Angeles City, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga
and Zambales under MECQ until the end of the month, instead of the less
restrictive “general community quarantine (GCQ)” as requested by their local
officials.
The IATF earlier placed the entire country under GCQ, except for Metro
Manila, Cebu City and Laguna, but officials of Cebu and Mandaue asked to
remain under ECQ until the end of the month because of the high number of
cases in their areas.
As of May 16, the entire island of Cebu had 1,960 cases—1,723 in Cebu City,
112 in Mandaue City, 43 in Lapu-Lapu City. There were 60 other cases in the
rest of the island province.
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Eighteen overseas Filipino workers who arrived in Cebu as well as four health
workers also tested positive for COVID-19.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said he made the request because the city,
along with Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, was still finalizing data from the
“strategic community testing” the three cities had been conducting since May
6.
Low turnout for tests

The three adjacent cities, where the bulk of Metro Cebu’s workers reside, had
targeted 39,564 residents, or 10 percent of the total number of households in
these localities, to undergo rapid diagnostic tests but there had been a low
turnout of test takers.
As of May 15, only 25,498 had been tested and the three cities want to extend
the mass testing to May 21 so they could reach their target.
But Lapu-Lapu City was not included in the extended ECQ and would have to
relax quarantine measures under GCQ guidelines.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan welcomed the decision to put the city
under GCQ but insisted that it was still not safe to proceed with the GCQ.
But the IATF, in its May 15 resolution, indicated that the local governments of
such areas could declare localized enhanced community quarantine in critical
areas.
The IATF also urged local government units to enforce curfew only for
nonworkers and to penalize quarantine violators in a “fair and humane
manner.”
More guidelines
It also said the industries and establishments allowed to operate are subject to
the inspection of the Department of Labor and Employment and Department
of Trade and Industry to ensure their compliance with the maximum allowable
operational capacity and health protocols.
The testing of returning workers should not be construed as a requirement for

their return, the task force stressed.
Supermarkets, wet markets, grocery stores, agri-fishery supply stores,

veterinary supplies stores, pharmacies, drug stores and the like are strongly
encouraged to extend their operations to a maximum of 12 hours.
Religious gatherings
Local governments are encouraged to adopt schemes to ensure compliance
with physical distancing rules in wet markets.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said religious gatherings remained

“highly restricted” in MECQ areas and should be limited to not more than five
people.
Pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and other ministers are allowed to hold
religious services inside homes, but precautions should still be observed.
For areas under general community quarantine, religious gatherings are

allowed but should be limited to not more than 10 people.
Still prohibited are gatherings related to entertainment or nonessential work.

Roque said the IATF also added recruitment and job placement agencies, as
well as firearms and ammunition shops, to the list of businesses in MECQ
areas that can operate with 50 percent of their workforce on site.
—WITH REPORTS FROM NESTLE SEMILLA, DALE ISRAEL AND ADOR

VINCENT MAYOL
Local governments
issue guidelines for ‘new
normal’

BACK ONTHE ROAD A sheet of plastic is installed on a tricycle in Barangay
Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City, to maintain social distancing between the driver
and passenger. Beginning today, May 18, tricycle drivers can again ply their
routes provided they follow the guidelines set by the city government such as
wearing face masks and limiting their passengers to just one. NIÑO JESUS
ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila might be inching its way toward life after
lockdown, but a spate of new guidelines issued by different cities for
businesses showed that operations would be far from normal.
The local government of San Juan City, one of the country’s earliest new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hot spots, released a list of minimum
standards on Sunday that businesses must adhere to before they could
reopen under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) starting
on May 16.
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Similar to guidelines released by Quezon City, employers will be required to

pay for COVID-19 testing for employees using Food and Drug Administration-
approved testing kits. Failure to comply could lead to their business permits
being suspended or revoked outright.
The testing requirement in Quezon City applied to businesses with 10 or more

employees, while all establishments in San Juan were covered by the
directive. Workers who tested positive in San Juan would be subjected to
further testing at the City Health Office, also at their employers’ cost.
Other requirements in San Juan included workplace disinfection every two

hours, provision of free transportation for employees and reconfigured work
spaces that would allot for a minimum 1-meter distance between people.
Protective gear like face masks and hygiene essentials like sanitizers and
doormat disinfectant would also be required for the use of workers at any
business opening in San Juan under the MECQ.
In both San Juan and Quezon City, establishments were also ordered to
designate a specific safety officer to ensure that all COVID-19-related
guidelines were strictly implemented.
Quezon City, which has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in
Metro Manila, has allowed tricycles to operate during the MECQ to ease the
strain on employees who were often forced to walk—at times for hours — to
get to work during the lockdown.
Private establishments were also encouraged to hire public buses, jeepneys

and other high-occupancy vehicles for the exclusive use of their employees as
a point-to-point service.
The city, like the local government of Pasig, has encouraged residents to use
bicycles as a mode of last-mile transport with Mayor Joy Belmonte asking
barangays to set up free parking spaces for bikes.
Residents traveling to and from permitted establishments may also avail of the
city’s free shuttle program.
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In Marikina City, mass testing would also be applied to returning workers.

Unlike in Quezon City and San Juan, however, the local government would
shoulder both testing and treatment for any employee found to be positive for
COVID-19.
—With a report from Mariejo S. Ramos
Muntinlupa links high

recovery rate to mass
testing
By: Dexter Cabalza - Reporter / @dexcabalzaINQ
MANILA, Philippines — The city government of Muntinlupa has claimed to

have the highest recovery rate for new coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
patients in Metro Manila.
In a report on Monday, city health officer Dr. Teresa Tuliao said that
Muntinlupa’s recovery rate was at 56.85 percent, currently the highest among
local government units in the National Capital Region.
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The average recovery rate in the metropolis stands at 23 percent, compared

to 21 percent nationwide, according to the Department of Health.
As of May 17, there were 197 confirmed cases in Muntinlupa with 113
recoveries and 28 deaths.
Tuliao attributed the high recovery rate to the city’s “intensified targeted mass
testing, including contract tracing, isolation strategies, and treatment of
confirmed and [suspected cases].”
As of Saturday, around 2,005 residents, including front-liners, had been tested

with positive cases referred to quarantine facilities, while their close contacts
and families were isolated.
The city health office also reported that transmission of COVID-19 was
already slowing down based on the improving “doubling time” of confirmed
cases.
As of Monday, the doubling time in Muntinlupa improved to eight days,

compared with the national average of 4.6 days. INQ
Medical groups not

backing rapid antibody
test for workers
MANILA, Philippines — Several medical societies in the country do not

support efforts of companies to have their employees undergo rapid antibody
testing as a requirement for them to be allowed to return to work, saying this
would not only create a “false sense of security” but also further strain
businesses’ and the health-care system’s resources.
Citing available evidence, the Philippine Society of Microbiology and

Infectious Diseases (PSMID) on Tuesday said “there’s no added value” in
requiring antibody testing for workers who neither have symptoms nor have
direct contact or exposure to someone suspected or confirmed to have
COVID-19.
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Dr. Issa Alejandria, the PSMID president, explained that one of the reasons
medical groups do not recommend the mass use of both the IgM
(immunoglobulin) and IgG (immunoglobulin G) antibody tests available in the
market is that “two-thirds” of its results are false positives, as the kits do not
look for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but rather the
antibodies a person has developed from a current or past infection.
Poor performance
“The available rapid antibody test kits will just tell us whether you have or do
not have the antibody. It does not tell you whether that antibody is high
enough to be protective or to neutralize the virus,” Alejandria said.
“The test will perform poorly among asymptomatics. The virus belongs to the
same family of coronavirus as the common cold. Your results may be a false
positive since you have antibodies against the common cold,” she added.
Given the high incidence of false-positive results, the PSMID and the other
medical societies—the Philippine Medical Association, Philippine College of
Physicians, Philippine College of Occupational Medicine (PCOM), Philippine
Society of General and Internal Medicine, Philippine Academy of Family
Physicians, and the Philippine Society of Public Health Physicians (PSPHP)—
are concerned that workers would be unduly forced into isolation and
companies and the health system would unnecessarily be wasting much-
needed resources.
As it is, the Department of Health (DOH) is already pressed into filling the
15,000 slots for health workers under its emergency hiring program.
Latest data also show only about 44,000 beds in local government-run
quarantines nationwide, and barely 1,500 beds in quarantines managed by
the national government.
Alejandria said people who would test positive using the IgG kits may have a
“false sense of security” that they are immune to COVID-19. IgG is the
antibody that stays in one’s body long after infection.
Expensive
“But we do not know [yet] the duration of immunity, the duration of infection
and whether you can be reinfected again if you get exposed to someone
coughing and has the virus,” she said.
As of May 15, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accredited for
public use 47 rapid antibody test kits. Each kit can cost from P900 to P4,500,
which means that a company with 500 workers would easily spend anywhere
from P450,000 to P2.3 million in a single mass testing of its workers.
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Companies who would opt to have all their employees undergo rapid testing
would have to shoulder the cost themselves. This is because under the
universal health-care law, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. cannot pour
in funds on a technology that has not been approved by the Health
Technology Assessment Council.
Dr. Phil Pangilinan, the PCOM president, said that because businesses have
yet to recover from the “economic devastation” brought about by COVID-19,
they should understand that rapid antibody test kits are not a cost-effective
measure.
“The rapid antibody test kits have its advantages, disadvantages and
limitations. These tests do not detect the virus. Thus, it is not recommended
as a screening tool for early infection, let alone used to screen workers prior to
returning to work,” Pangilinan said.
Rather than use the rapid antibody test kits, the medical societies
recommended applying the 14-day test to determine if workers are fit to return
to work. This test requires workers to be symptom-free for two weeks.
On top of this is the observance of physical distancing, the wearing of
protective masks, hand-washing, cough etiquette and daily symptoms
screening by a safety officer in the workplace.
“Implementing these minimum health standards and monitoring the proper

implementation of these health standards remain to be the most cost-effective
measure in preventing the spread of the disease,” Alejandria said.
Dr. Aileen Espina, a PSPHP representative, noted that if businesses would

still insist on using the rapid test kits, “they should lay out a plan on how these
tests can be best used to ensure the safety and welfare of the workplace.”
Build testing labs instead

Civil society group Action for Economic Reforms urged local officials, as well
as companies, to instead use funds they may have allotted for rapid test kits
to put up PCR (polymerase chain reaction) laboratories in their localities to
help increase the country’s testing capacity.
It said workers should also be able to easily go on sick leave to reduce the
likelihood of the virus from spreading.
Earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire appealed to companies

restarting their businesses to review their policies, particularly on the grant of
sick leaves. She pointed out that workers should be allowed to use this benefit
“without fear of any negative consequences.” INQ
41 health workers with

virus in Davao region
DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — Forty-one 41 health workers in

the Davao region have been infected with the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19), highlighting the risks faced by health professionals in the front
lines of the pandemic.
Dr. Ricardo Audan, chief of clinics at Southern Philippines Medical Center
(SPMC), said 24 of the 41 health workers who tested positive for COVID-19
were working at SPMC, the largest COVID-19 referral facility in Mindanao.
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Of the 24 patients at SPMC, 12 are doctors, six are nurses and six are
members of the administrative staff.
Two office staff members had died while 14 had recovered, leaving only eight
patients at SPMC and other isolation centers in the city, Audan said.
In Cagayan de Oro City, health workers and suspected COVID-19 cases will
be given priority for testing at Northern Mindanao Medical Center, which starts
on Thursday.
—ORLANDO DINOY AND JIGGER JERUSALEM
PH loses P200B as
tourism dips
Tourism Congress of the Philippines exec says hospitality sector trying to stay afloat amid
pandemic
By: Nestor P. Burgos Jr. - Reporter / @nestorburgosINQ
ILOILO CITY—The country’s tourism industry has lost around P200 billion
heading into the second quarter as the hospitality sector experienced its worst
slump in recent years amid worldwide travel restrictions due to the new
coronavirus disease pandemic, an industry official said.
Jose Clemente III, president of Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP),

said tourism-related businesses were struggling to stay afloat and cope with
the crisis as losses reached an estimated P150 billion in the first quarter of the
year and up to P200 billion by this time. Losses are projected to hit P500
billion by the third quarter, he added.
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“Our main concerns are continuity and liquidity to keep our heads above
water,” Clemente told the Inquirer in a phone interview this week.
Even if global travel restrictions are relaxed or lifted, travel agency owners,
tour operators, hotels, resorts, restaurants, transport services and other
concerned outfits do not expect tourism-related activities to recover soon.
“We want to be proactive but without a vaccine, tourism will be one of the last
industries to reopen and resume activities,” said Clemente, also president of
the Metro Manila-based travel agency, Rajah Tours Philippines Inc.
He said that in the short-term, tourism activities could resume in destinations

that would require only short travel, such as within provinces or islands.
Travel could also be affected by increased costs due to possible limits on the
number of passengers and the additional requirements of providing personal
protective equipment.
Affected workers
Hotels and resorts may also need to include isolation rooms for infected
guests, while restaurants may reduce the number of tables and guests to
maintain physical distancing, Clemente said.
The tourism slump has affected around 5.2 million workers directly employed
by industry players and about the same number of those indirectly benefiting
from tourism activities, he said.
Concerned parties, he said, had asked the government to provide P71 billion
in loans and subsidies to help them stay afloat and retain their employees.
Western Visayas, which has major tourist destinations such as Boracay Island
in Aklan province, is suffering heavily from the slump.
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In a webinar organized by TCP on May 14, Helen Catalbas, Department of

Tourism (DOT) regional director, said that since the lockdown was
implemented, Western Visayas lost an estimated 1.14 million potential tourists
and P40 billion in tourism revenue.
About 5.8 million tourists visited Western Visayas in 2019, contributing P131
billion to the regional economy.
Catalbas said the DOT had evacuated 2,516 foreign and 297 Filipino tourists
in the region in flights organized or assisted by the agency.
At least 982 tourists, including 621 foreigners, had remained in the region as
of May 13.
Virtual tours, webinars

The DOT is assisting front-liners, workers and establishments to prepare for
recovery through various programs and projects.
It is launching in June virtual tours of Western Visayas covering the provinces

of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.
Filmmaking and culinary webinars will also be organized.
Catalbas said the DOT was banking on domestic tourism, especially targeting
residents in the region, to compensate for the expected slack of foreign
tourists when travel resumed.
Cleofe Albiso, chair of Iloilo Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and

Exhibitions Alliance, said in the webinar that the group did not expect its
activities and events to push through within the year and even up to mid-2021.
While the situation can be depressing and disheartening for many companies,
Albiso, who is also group general manager of Megaworld Hotels, cited the
need to embrace the challenges and for companies to support each other.
They must diversify and maintain social media presence while preparing for
the easing of quarantine restrictions, she stressed.
DOH cracks whip on

hospitals refusing to
admit patients

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday said an oversight
board of the Department of Health (DOH) had issued show-cause orders to
hospitals that have reportedly refused admission to patients as the
coronavirus crisis stretched them to full capacity.
At a press briefing, she said the orders were sent to North Caloocan Doctors
Hospital and Bermudez Polymedic Hospital in Caloocan City; Commonwealth
Hospital Medical Center and Far Eastern University Medical Foundation in
Novaliches, Quezon City; and Skyline Hospital and Medical Center and Grace
General Hospital in Bulacan province.
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She reminded the administrators of these hospitals that they could not turn
away patients as this would be a violation of Republic Act No. 10932, which
strengthened the antihospital deposit law.
Hospital officials found to have violated the law may be imprisoned for not
longer than six years or be made to pay a fine of up to P1 million.
MANILA CATCHES UP Nurses under Manila’s health department conduct

rapid antibody tests for the coronavirus inside City Hall. Scheduled for testing
on Friday were employees of the engineering department and applicants
seeking travel passes. —LYN RILLON
Virus case update
On Friday, the DOH recorded 163 new coronavirus cases in the country,
bringing the current national tally to 13,597.
More than half of the new cases, or 91, are in the National Capital Region,
while a third, or 56 are from Central Visayas.
The total number of recovered patients increased to 3,092, with the recovery
of 92 more patients.
The death toll climbed to 857 as 11 patients died from the severe respiratory
disease.
Medical front-liners account for 1 in 6 infections. There are 2,336 health-care

workers who have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-
19, of whom 1,086 have recovered and 31 have died.
The DOH expressed confidence that it would be able to more than double the
country’s testing capacity in a week’s time to meet its target of 30,000 daily
tests.
Vergeire said that because of various public-private partnership strategies

under Task Force T3—the public-private task force launched last April with
the aim of expanding mass testing—the goal of 30,000 daily tests by the end
of the month “can be reached.”
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Streamline operations
This goal includes the provision of equipment and supplies and their delivery
to various provinces, the setting up of an inventory management system to
streamline laboratory operations, and the possible establishment of “modular
popup laboratories.”
“With these strategies, we expect to reach the 30,000 tests per day by the end
of the month,” Vergeire said.
As of Friday, there are 31 accredited laboratories nationwide that can now test
patients.
Testing capacity
A total of 90 laboratories are on stage 3 or 4 of the accreditation process,
which means that either laboratory personnel are undergoing training or the
laboratory has yet to pass its proficiency test.
Based on DOH data, the most number of tests done in a single day was on
May 14 when 11,508 tests were conducted.
Earlier, the DOH set an end-April target of 8,000 in daily testing capacity. It
reached that target on May 10.
Virus takes luster off PH

festivals
(First of two parts)
Landscape artist Myrna Frago was looking forward to this year’s Anilag
Festival in Laguna province after she was tapped by San Pablo City officials
to design and create the local government’s 21-square-meter booth for the fair
in the capital town of Sta. Cruz.
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“We had to prepare months ahead. We hired laborers to collect the materials
like bamboo and wood from the mountains,” she said.
Anilag Festival, coined from “ani ng Laguna” (harvest of Laguna), is held in

March to showcase the products of Laguna’s 24 towns and six cities. It is also
a competition for the best and most creative booth that local governments are
willing to spend hundreds of thousands of pesos to dress up their entries.
But as with any government transaction, Frago was ready to shell out her own
money, confident that she could collect her fees after the event. “We already
finished about a third [of the booth] and already spent about P100,000,” she
said.
But Frago was not prepared for the festival’s last-minute cancellation because
of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. She was left with a
mounting debt to a hardware store and a closed bank checking account.
Cultural showcase
Frago’s plight is similar to thousands who benefit from the staging of crowd-
drawing community festivals to help promote local products, culture and
natural attractions. Though held only once a year, these events feature other
activities that give local businesses and entrepreneurs opportunities to earn
from tourist traffic.
Local governments have been forced to stop the staging of festivals and other
events starting February, when the number of COVID-19 cases started to
climb in the country. The decision followed health protocols laid out by the
national government to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.
The crisis also led to community lockdowns and travel restrictions that virtually
killed tourism for the first half of the year. At least 65 festivals, including local
government events, scheduled from February to June, had been canceled, or
postponed around the country.
Even before the Luzon-wide lockdown in March, the specter of COVID-19 had
already become the worst nightmare for central and northern Luzon
communities that thrive on summer festivals and other tourism-related
activities.
As early as February, various events were canceled, beginning with Baguio

City’s Panagbenga (Baguio Flower Festival) and Pangasinan’s Limgas na
Pangasinan beauty pageant that would have been staged alongside the
Pista’y Dayat (Sea Festival) celebration.
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Lost opportunities
The lost opportunities from mothballed events were staggering, and swept
immediately through almost every economic sector in many towns.
“Festival season is harvest time for artists, such as choreographers,

performers, wardrobe designers and makeup artists,” said Childe Libertad, a
Pangasinan college instructor who sidelines as a pageant director.
His team was about to screen beauty title aspirants when virus fears forced
the provincial government to cancel the sea festival.
Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim also scrapped the Bangus Festival. “Many
industries benefit from the festival like ‘bangus’ (milkfish) producers who grow
the fish specifically for the festival, and now have to find new markets for
them,” he said.
Twenty-three festivals and 28 town fiestas scheduled from February to June

are no longer happening in Pangasinan, said Malu Amor-Elduayan, the
provincial tourism officer.
No estimates had yet been made as to economic losses but the scrapping of
the Pista’y Dayat alone cost hotels and restaurants, suppliers and those in the
creative industry P50 million in potential revenue.
When the Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) ceremony was called off on April
9 at Mt. Samat Memorial Shrine in Pilar, Bataan province, losses ran up to
P6.2 million, including estimated sales from a trade fair, according to the
Department of Tourism (DOT) in Central Luzon.
In Nueva Ecija province, the lockdown forced residents to abandon their

religious and agriculture-based festivals. The government and local busines-
ses in San Jose City lost a combined P7.8 million when the Pagibang Damara
Festival, usually held in April, was canceled.
In Pampanga province, revenue was lost when the Lubao International

Balloon and Musical Festival was canceled, also in April. The three-day event
used to get P1.2 million in budget support and ticket sales from 40,000 to
50,000 visitors, according to the DOT.
Pasay councilor sorry

for outburst directed at
front-liners conducting
COVID-19 tests
By: Jodee A. Agoncillo - Reporter / @jagoncilloINQ
MANILA, Philippines — Pasay City Councilor Arnel Moti Arceo apologized on

Sunday after he was caught on video swearing and shouting at frontliners who
were testing City Hall employees for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
on May 19.
Arceo told the Inquirer that he was just upset that he and the other councilors
had not been informed that the rapid testing would be done at City Hall,
potentially putting more people at risk.
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“It is true that I cursed. But I just want to clarify that I did not curse anyone.
This was an outburst of emotion. If my cursing was hard to listen to, that was
my mistake. I shouted, yes, but what I felt because of what they were doing
was a mix of shock, anger and fear,” he said.
In a video that went viral after it was posted on social media on Saturday
night, the councilor from the second district could be seen shouting and
swearing at health workers in personal protective equipment (PPE) suits who
were attending to City Hall employees at the session hall.
“Who will not be shocked? When we came back to City Hall, I thought I was
facing an astronaut. I thought they were going to take someone positive from
the city council secretariat,” Arceo said.
He apologized to the front-liners but added that the testing should not have
been done at City Hall since the city council still conducted weekly sessions
there.
“You will put the lives of the employees at risk. They will go [home] to their
families. It’s not just City Hall that is at risk here [but] the whole city,” he said.
Possible carriers
“You are inviting possible carriers inside City Hall. Many people come [here].
They are wearing PPEs but the employees at the session hall do not wear
any,” he pointed out.
Ironically, Arceo himself took the viral video but he said he did not know who
uploaded it.
The incident prompted Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano to schedule a dialogue

between him and officials from the city health office and City Hall.
“I find it regrettable that [this] happened. But as mayor, it is my responsibility

to ensure that we should focus on our real enemy which is COVID-19,”
Rubiano said.
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The testing at the session hall starting on May 19 was announced the day
before through a memorandum issued by lawyer Maverick Sevilla of the
Pasay City human resource management and development office.
According to the memo, the testing will be done from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for
employees from the city treasurer’s office, information and communications
technology office, city assessor’s office, city registry office, people’s
enforcement board, city legal office, city budget office, city urban development
and housing office, and public information office.
“You should have put more thought into this. You should have thought about
doing this beside City Hall, not inside, not at the session hall! Why don’t you
do it in your offices? And then you ask me not to shout?” Arceo could be
heard saying in the video.
Case mulled
He told the Inquirer that he had heard that a case would be filed against him,
and claimed that he tried to talk to the city health officials but did not get a
reply.
“I don’t have plans of prolonging the discussion over the issue,” he said,
adding that he would also file a case against city health officials for
negligence, if necessary.
Arceo is one of the signatories to City Ordinance No. 6100 series of 2020
which prohibits “any act of discrimination, harassment, violence, cyberbullying
that causes stigma, shame, indignity, dishonor, humiliation or harm against
confirmed COVID-19 infected persons, close contact, persons under
investigation, persons under monitoring, health workers, hospital employees
or front-liners.” INQ
Neda survey results

validate our experience
under ECQ, MECQ
With the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila

ending next week, there are talks about another extension or a downgrade to
the general community quarantine (GCQ).
Our experiences under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and MECQ

are validated in the recent National Economic and Development Authority
(Neda) ECQ survey with over 390,000 respondents.
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Based on the results, family income declined by 40 percent during ECQ.

Second, 70 percent of respondents said they lost their source of livelihood.
Third, as a coping mechanism, almost 60 percent reduced their food

consumption, while 13 percent borrowed money from relatives and friends.
Fourth, only about 50 percent got some form of support, mostly relief goods.
And fifth, respondents found it difficult to access groceries, wet markets,

banks and drugstores.
The survey also spelled out their expectations with the lifting of the ECQ. The
majority said their family income would deteriorate, particularly the “low-
income group,” due to low consumer confidence and adjustments to the “new
normal.”
More than 80 percent of the respondents do not intend to buy “durables” while
only 23 percent say they will definitely travel within a year either domestically
or abroad. Most believe that the key to rebuilding consumer confidence is
solving the inadequacies of the country’s health-care system and the
inefficiency of the supply chain and logistics system.
Government leaders should take the results of the survey as a challenge to do

their best to help the people. But for many of us, dealing with the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) under the ECQ/MECQ/GCQ has left us all
spent and in a state akin to shell shock.
***
I got separate calls from Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and Health
Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday.
Bello was emphatic in saying that all 24,000 returning overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs) who underwent swab tests and quarantine would be sent
home upon the President’s orders.
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The first batch of 7,806 left yesterday by land or air while the other batches
will depart today or tomorrow. Most of the returning 44,000 OFWs this week
will directly land in regional airports where they will undergo quarantine and
swab tests. This means the OFW congestion problem was solved instantly by
one directive.
On the other hand, Duque told me that we have already “flattened the curve.”
Whether we are in the first wave or second wave, it won’t matter as the
numbers are down like the “lower doubling time” of infections. Duque also said
he was investigating the allegations about PhilHealth’s “overpriced” real-time
reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests—considered
the “gold standard” of COVID-19 testing.
Later, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. president Ricardo Morales called me

and said there had been no payout yet to hospitals for RT-PCR swab tests.
He insisted that critics had failed to mention that RT-PCR testing for COVID-
19 fall into three price categories: P2,710 (if the equipment was donated),
P5,450 (for another type) and P8,150 (for the “gold standard” purchased and
used by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
Now, because of cheaper global prices for RT-PCR procedures, the cost of
the gold standard test should drop.
***
The increase in electric bills during the ECQ has been resolved by all
stakeholders, including Energy Regulatory Commission chair Agnes
Devanadera, Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) assistant vice president Joe
Zaldarriaga and Laban Konsyumer Inc. president Vic Dimagiba.
Meter readings will now be based on “actual consumption” and we must wait
for the official notice or explanation from Meralco and other distribution
facilities before we pay our bills.
For those consuming 200 kwh and below, you can settle within six months. If
above 200 kwh, payment should be within four months.
All’s well that ends well.
More than 150 Pinoys

join clinical trials for
virus treatment
MANILA, Philippines — More than 150 Filipino COVID-19 patients have

signed up for the global clinical trial of drugs that may be used as treatment
for the severe respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, President
Rodrigo Duterte announced on Monday night.
In his ninth report to Congress on his administration’s response to the
coronavirus crisis, Mr. Duterte said 24 Philippine hospitals were participating
the “Solidarity” trial initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in a
search for drugs that may be used in treating COVID-19 ahead of the
development of a vaccine.
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He said 157 Filipino COVID-19 patients had been enrolled in the trial.
Down to 3 drugs
Earlier, the government said up to 500 Filipino COVID-19 patients would be
enrolled in the WHO trial.
The trial started with four drugs—the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine;

remdesivir, under research for treatment of other coronaviruses; the anti-HIV
drugs lopinavir and ritonavir or a combination of the two; and interferon.
On Monday, the WHO temporarily dropped hydroxychloroquine from its global

study, saying its experts needed to review information in a paper published in
the medical journal Lancet last week that said people taking the drug were at
higher risk of death and heart problems.
The Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday it had stopped giving

hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients following the WHO’s suspension of
the drug from the global trial. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire
announced the DOH decision but did not disclose the condition and number of
COVID-19 patients who had been given hydroxychloroquine.
“We are in the clinical trial phase. But rest assured that we have stopped
giving [hydroxychloroquine] as recommended by [the] WHO,” Vergeire told
reporters.
Drug development
In his televised address to the nation late on Monday, the President said the
government had chosen two additional sites for the clinical trial of Avigan, or
favipiravir, a Japanese-developed treatment for flu, as a possible drug for
COVID-19.
The additional sites brought the number of trial centers for Avigan to five.
Mr. Duterte also reported that the Department of Science and Technology
(DOST) has reactivated its pharmaceutical division to work with drug makers
in the development of a treatment for COVID-19.
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He said the DOST division—the Industrial Technology Development Institute

Pharmaceutical Development Center—would “undertake collaboration on
preclinical trials, formulation, [manufacturing] and other aspects of drug
development, gearing toward the Philippines’ self-sufficiency in COVID-19
treatment.”
—With a report from Jovic Yee
‘Out-of-the box’ tracing

helps Baguio contain
COVID-19 spread

PROTECTED A policeman wearing a set of personal protective equipment
talks to a man passing through a checkpoint in Baguio City’s business district.
—VINCENT CABREZA
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — Computer-aided contact tracing and
information gathered by police and medical investigators are helping the city
stem the local transmission of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
As of Tuesday, no new patients had been added to the 32 COVID-19 cases

recorded in the city since the pandemic was declared in March.
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But the city’s epidemiological team knew the location of 29 patients who beat
the disease as well as those suspected of having been infected with the virus.
‘Like investigating’
Information about their whereabouts, their public activities and the profile and
number of their neighbors was collected in an electronic tracking system,
called “EndCov-19,” to help experts predict the possible transmission behavior
of the disease in the city.
“Contact tracing is like investigating. The result of contact-tracing depends on

the quality of information gathered and capacity of the contact-tracing team,”
said Mayor Benjamin Magalong, a former chief of the police’s Criminal
Investigation and Detection Group.
He outlined the city’s COVID-19 tracking methodology during a virtual briefing

in Malacañang on Tuesday.
In March, Magalong sent personnel of the city health services office to look for
people who had interacted with suspected infection cases.
It skirted a Department of Health (DOH) protocol of deploying contact tracing

teams only after laboratory evidence of transmission had been established.
“Speed is a factor, every second matters,” Magalong said.
“Contact tracing is about speeding up containment,” Dr. Donnabel Tubera-

Panes, head of the epidemiological team, said. “When tied with testing and
the quick release of results, it is the cheapest way of preventing COVID-19.”
Policemen tapped
A key element in this “out-of-the-box” tracking system was the integration of
policemen into the epidemiological team. They were helped by village health
center personnel, data analysts and even volunteer firemen who served as
data encoders.
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Led by Lt. Col. Max Sumegang, 22 police officers were tapped to help patients
remember their activities before they were tested for the virus.
“Recalling where you had been or who you met as far back as 10 days would
be difficult. People we interviewed often had ready details about where they
went a day before, Sumegang said.
“But the effectiveness of tracking down people who may have contracted the
disease from a patient relies on accurate information,” he said.
He added: “They tire from each interview so we let them sleep it over. We
interview them again when their minds are less stressed.”
According to Sumegang, verifying all details they obtained and requiring

policemen or health workers to examine the places a COVID-19 patient last
visited extend the tracking process to several days.
Real-time info
The EndCov-19 system (accessible through www.endcov19.baguio.gov.ph.) is
constantly updated with “real-time information, through a collaboration of the
police, the city’s management information and technical division and medical
staff,” he said.
Sumegang said “good data” has helped doctors draw a picture of the level of
local infection. For instance, the average age of people who caught the
disease here is 46. All 32 cases involved patients as young as 8 days old and
as old as 77 years.
According to a profile of COVID-19 cases in the city, 63 percent of patients

suffered from “preexisting” medical conditions. It said 43 percent of patients
were exposed to the disease at health facilities while 37 percent had traveled
from Metro Manila and 10 percent from abroad.
A government employee is the only Baguio fatality attributed to the virus. She
died before her infection was confirmed by the DOH.
Duterte approves easing

of Metro Manila
quarantine

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte updates the nation on the government’s efforts
in addressing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Malago Clubhouse
in Malacañang on May 28, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL
PHOTO
President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday night announced the further easing of
the coronavirus quarantine in Metro Manila, one of the toughest and longest in
the world, to allow more movement and business reopenings in a phased
return to economic activity and recovery.
Metro Manila’s 17 mayors had recommended the shift to general community

quarantine from the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine
imposed on the metropolis and other areas at high risk for infection with the
new coronavirus on May 16 after one and a half months of lockdown.
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Effective June 1
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary
government body overseeing the Duterte administration’s response to the
coronavirus pandemic, recommended the easing to Mr. Duterte, who
approved it after a meeting with the panel on Thursday night. The shift will
take effect on June 1.
Mr. Duterte also announced the easing of restrictions in Cagayan Valley,

Central Luzon, Calabarzon and Pangasinan and Albay provinces to general
He said Davao City, his hometown, would remain under general community
quarantine, while the rest of the country would be placed under modified
general community quarantine.
The Metro Manila quarantine will this weekend surpass the 76-day isolation of
Wuhan, the city in central China where the new coronavirus that causes the
severe respiratory disease COVID-19 first emerged late last year and had
since spread throughout the world, sickening more than 5.7 million people and
killing over 354,000 of them.
Damaged economy
The easing could help to reduce damage to an economy that unexpectedly
shrank 0.2 percent in the first quarter and is expected to fare worse in the
second quarter.
The task force recommended the easing to Mr. Duterte despite daily infections
this week topping 300, with the Department of Health (DOH) warning of
further increases as it ramped up validation of accumulated positive test
results.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Thursday also warned that

infections would continue to rise until a vaccine for COVID-19 became
available.
Earlier on Thursday, the DOH reported 539 new coronavirus infections, the
highest daily increase since the 538 recorded on March 31, raising the total to
15,588. The bulk of the new cases, 330 or 61 percent, were recorded in Metro
Manila.
The DOH also reported 17 new coronavirus deaths, pushing the toll to 921.
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The task force recommended the easing of the Metro Manila quarantine to
allow more businesses and public transport to resume operations in a limited
capacity.
With restrictions on movement loosened, more people would be able to go out

and return to their jobs or buy essentials and access services.
But minors and senior citizens remain barred from leaving their homes, except
to go to work or buy necessities.
The task force also recommended the easing of the lockdown in Cebu City to
“modified enhanced community quarantine.”
The downgrade saved Cebu City workers from having to test for the new
coronavirus as a requirement for going back to work. But a spokesperson for
the city government said employers would still be encouraged to test their
employees for safety.
Under the more relaxed rules that will be in place in Metro Manila from June 1,
local officials can still place communities deemed as high risk under lockdown.
Gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed, workplaces, shops and some

public transportation will reopen and movement in and out of the capital will be
permitted.
But all schools, tourists destinations, dine-in restaurants, beauty salons and
barbershops will stay closed.
Until two weeks ago, Metro Manila’s quarantine measures were among the
world’s toughest, on a par with those of Wuhan and stricter than curbs at the
peak of contagion in Italy and in Spain, where a combined 484,000 people
were infected, of whom 60,000 died.
In a television interview on Thursday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the

task force had been unable to resolve the questions of public transport and
grooming shops.
Año said the task force was still debating how beauty salons and barbershops
could be allowed to reopen.
“But we assure our barbershop and [beauty] salon workers that they will be
allowed [to go back to work] very soon. We just need to ensure safety and the
trade secretary (Ramon Lopez) and [COVID-19 task force chief implementer
Carlito] Galvez are making the rounds and looking into health [standards in]
the shops,” Año said.
As for public transport, he said the task force had yet to decide which means
of conveyance to allow. He said the Department of Transportation would
conduct a dry run this weekend, but did not give details.
Under general community quarantine, he said, buses are allowed to run but at
50 percent capacity only under strict public health measures.
Taxis and tricycles are also allowed but with only one passenger.
There was talk in recent days of allowing metro trains to run on limited
capacity and strict physical distancing rules.
Año said jeepneys, the backbone of public transportation in the metropolis,

were out of the question. He suggested that jeepneys be repurposed for
delivery service.
Staggered work hours

He also suggested that employers introduce staggered work hours to ease up
on the use of public transport. He encouraged people to use bicycles, which
he described as “very safe and economical,” but did not say whether these
were safe for people to use in riding to their jobs across the metropolis under
heavy rain and through flash floods during the rainy season.
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, commander of the Joint Task Force COVID, said
the public should get used to checkpoints and curfews as these would remain
until a vaccine for the coronavirus disease became available.
“This is not about restraining their rights. This is all about ensuring the
protection of everybody from coronavirus,” Eleazar said. —WITH REPORTS
FROM TINA G. SANTOS, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND NESTLE
SEMILLA
GCQ no reason to relax

travel restrictions–PNP
By: Julie Aurelio, Marlon Ramos, Melvin Gascon, Roy Stephen Canivel - @inquirerdotnet
“Nonessential” travel across borders of towns and provinces may still not be
allowed, even under the general community quarantine (GCQ), a top police
official said on Friday.
Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the Joint Task Force COVID
Shield, said the public should not take the GCQ to mean free movement, as
he warned that “unauthorized persons” attempting to cross borders could still
be arrested and charged.
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Eleazar issued the warning as the Philippine National Police braces for
heightened movement of citizens when quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila
and nearby areas are further relaxed starting June 1.
He admitted that due to the expected high volume of vehicles passing through
PNP checkpoints, checks might only be done at random.
The PNP will also maintain its presence at public areas and business centers
to ensure that minimum health protocols, such as physical distancing, wearing
of face masks and regular sanitation measures, are followed, Eleazar said.
“The shift to GCQ should not mean everyone is now free to travel. What will
only be permitted to cross geographical boundaries are those that are work-
related,” he said.
As Metro Manila transitions to GCQ on Monday, the Management Association

of the Philippines (MAP) urged Filipinos to follow the protocols the
government would impose.
“The government has prescribed the necessary health protocols and we urge
our countrymen to observe these protocols in good faith as the economy
cannot afford a second total lockdown that may result from a recurrence of
mass infection,” said MAP president Francis Lim.
Public transport a concern

Ebb Hinchliffe, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce of
the Philippines, supported the shift to GCQ but said public transport was still a
concern.
“The largest concern is still public transportation in regards to availability as
well as public health care and enforcement of social distancing,” he said.
On Friday, Sen. Risa Hontiveros raised her concern over President Duterte’s
decision to ease travel restrictions in Metro Manila starting June 1, despite the
Department of Health reporting 539 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the
highest in a single day.
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“[T]his easing of the lockdown may expose thousands of Metro Manila

workers and residents to a new wave of community transmission that will
definitely overwhelm our already embattled health system,” Hontiveros said.
But Malacañang defended the easing of quarantine restrictions in Metro

Manila.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque cited the people’s need to have a

source of livelihood and the importance of reviving the shuttered economy.
Barbershops, salons
reopen June 7, but still
no manicures, facials
MANILA, Philipppines — No, unkempt hair will no longer be part of the new
normal after barbershops and salons are allowed to reopen, at reduced
capacity, beginning June 7.
But presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the prohibitions on

manicures, pedicures, facials and eyebrow shaping would remain until after
the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infection Diseases (IATF-EID)
reassesses the situation in the coming weeks.
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“Do not get overexcited because the services of barbershops and salons will
only be limited to haircuts,” Roque said at a Palace briefing on Saturday.
These businesses will also be required to provide disinfection mats at

entrances, place visible floor markers and cover furniture with plastic in
addition to the usual quarantine protocols—face masks, physical distance and
constant sanitization of work stations and tools after every customer.
CUTTING THE BARBERS SOME SLACK A barber installs a plastic shield in

his shop on Timog Avenue, Quezon City, for clients needing protection
against the coronavirus. Starting June 7, barbershops and salons may resume
operations in areas under general community quarantine, but services will still
be limited to haircuts. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
Gradual increase
Under the IATF’s latest resolution, barbershops and salons in general
community quarantine areas will be allowed to operate at 30-percent
operational capacity beginning June 7.
They can increase their capacity to 50 percent after June 21.

For areas under modified general community quarantine—the lowest
quarantine category—barbershops and salons will be allowed to open at 50
percent capacity and may be increased to 100 percent capacity by June 30.
Under the IATF-EID’s latest quarantine classification scheme, Cebu City was
placed under general community quarantine starting June 1 along with
Zamboanga City and Davao City and the regions of Metro Manila,
Pangasinan, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon and Central
Visayas.
The rest of the country will be under modified general community quarantine,
including Dagupan City in Pangasinan.
JUNE-REVISED
Swimming now allowed

on Boracay Island
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:17 AM June 01, 2020
ISLANDERS FIRST Boracay residents will have their beaches to themselves
with tourists still banned on the island. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines — Swimming will be finally allowed on
Boracay Island even if it remains closed to tourists.
Acting Mayor Frolibar Bautista of Malay town said the swimming ban will be
lifted as Boracay Island, which is part of Aklan province, and the rest of
Western Visayas shifted to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ)
starting on Monday.
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Swimming, however, will still be regulated to ensure physical distancing and

other health measures.
“We may designate swimming areas along the 4.5-kilometer beach and
regulate the number of those going there at a time. It will depend on a trial run
in the next few days,” Bautista told the Inquirer on Sunday.
Under the guidelines issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging
Infectious Diseases (IATF), indoor and outdoor noncontact sports including
swimming are allowed under MGCQ provided that minimum public health
standards are followed.
Bautista said no tourists will still be allowed on Boracay Island. But a number
of tourists remain stranded on the island.
Local chief executives of Panay Island’s provinces of Iloilo, Antique, Aklan and
Capiz and of the island-province of Guimaras have also agreed to lift border
restrictions. But Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said they agreed that ports and
airports in Western Visayas would stay closed and would only accommodate
returning overseas Filipino workers and stranded residents.
In Cebu City, Mayor Edgardo Labella asked residents to be vigilant as the city
shifted to general community quarantine (GCQ) on Monday.
“We can never be complacent as long as there is no vaccine. We have to live

with the virus,” he added.
Under GCQ, several nonessential industries will be allowed to reopen. Public

transport will also be allowed to resume operations at a reduced capacity to
ensure proper social distancing. Religious gatherings are permitted but there
should not be more than 10 attendees.
Last May 27, Cebu City was classified as the lone local government unit in the
country that would be on modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ)
starting June 1. This prompted Labella to send a letter to the Department of
the Interior and Local Government Central Visayas Director Leocadio Trovela,
who is also the regional IATF chair, appealing to place Cebu City under GCQ
instead.
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In the evening of May 28, President Duterte appeared on national television

and said only the National Capital Region, Davao City, and some provinces in
Luzon would be on GCQ while the “rest of the country” would transition to
MGCQ, the lowest form of lockdown enforced by the government. The
President did not specifically mention that Cebu City will be on MGCQ,
contrary to an earlier Inquirer report.
It was on May 30 when the IATF announced that it approved the request of
Labella to put Cebu City under GCQ until June 15. But it also placed the rest
of Central Visayas under the same category instead of the expected MGCQ.
—NESTOR BURGOS JR. AND ADOR VINCENT MAYOL
DepEd starts monthlong

‘remote enrollment’ on
June 1 amid COVID-19
pandemic

SILENT CAMPUS The almost empty Isabelo de los Reyes Elementary School
in Tondo, Manila. —LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — Tens of millions of public school students can start
enrolling for this school year on June 1, as the Department of Education
(DepEd) undertakes an unprecedented and monthlong virtual enrollment in K-
12 classes against the backdrop of a global pandemic.
“The first two weeks shall completely be remote enrollment, where there will
absolutely be no face-to-face” interactions, the education department said in
DepEd Order No. 008, which sets guidelines for the enrollment period.
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The order applies even in areas not badly hit by the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19).
Any form of physical enrollment would be allowed in the third week of June,
but only if it was coordinated with the local government unit.
“Making physical appearance in school for enrollment purposes shall be the

last option for parents or guardians or learners,” said Education Secretary
Leonor Briones.
To ease the remote enrollment, students will be contacted primarily by their

class advisers from the previous school year who will take care of collecting
and entering their data into the End-of-School-Year Learner Information
System.
Parents of incoming kindergarten pupils, meanwhile, have been advised to

communicate their intent to enroll their children through digital platforms
established by schools.
Aside from gauging the number of public school students expected to enroll
this school year — which could top last year’s 23 million students given
private school transferees — the enrollment period will allow schools to collect
data that can reshape what learning looks like in the country.
No face-to-face classes
Briones has said that even as DepEd plows ahead with opening classes on
Aug. 24, face-to-face interaction will likely still be prohibited. Depending on
their circumstances, schools could offer online classes, printed modules or
learning through television and radio.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), the country’s largest teachers’
union, said on Sunday that it welcomed the DepEd order that similarly
mandated a work-from-home setup for public school teachers from June 1 to
5.
It added, however, that DepEd had not adequately addressed its concerns
regarding mass testing for education workers and the provision of laptops and
internet allowance.
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“It has yet to issue the comprehensive guidelines on back-to-work

arrangements and how safety will be ensured in the workplace,” said ACT
secretary general Raymond Basilio.
“If this is any indication of how the government will fulfill its obligations relative
to the August school opening, we are in for great dangers.”
ACT also worried that teachers would eventually be forced to report physically
to schools, reiterating its call that a wide swath of workers be tested for
COVID-19 first.
Exodus from private schools

Private schools throughout the country could lose as many as 2 million
students this school year as COVID-19 increasingly restricts families’ ability to
spend, according to Joseph Noel Estrada, managing director of Coordinating
Council of Private Educational Associations.
The lockdown of more than two months, aimed at controlling the spread of
coronavirus, froze many economic activities, leaving many workers
unemployed and others to lose their livelihood.
“Prior to the pandemic there was a steady decline [in private school
enrollment] that reached 25 percent year in year out,” Estrada said at a virtual
Senate hearing on May 21. “But we’re anticipating more.”
There were 4 million private school students in the basic education system
last year, compared with 23 million in public schools.
Officials fear the downward trend in private school enrollment will be

accelerated by COVID-19 in a way that would be exceedingly difficult to
recover from.
Further complicating matters is whether DepEd is prepared to handle a flood
of new enrollees given the perennial classroom shortages. As it stands,
DepEd was already grappling with how to decongest these spaces in an era
of physical distancing.
Cell sites
“Definitely private school kids will either migrate to public schools or will totally
drop out,” Education Undersecretary for Planning Jesus Mateo said at the
hearing. “How do we ensure that children will continue to learn even if they
are at home?”
DepEd is looking into mobilizing parent-teacher associations and envisions a

“new role” for parents in education delivery, but it remains to be seen how
feasible this would be as many parents will likely juggle homeschooling with
finding or retaining employment.
Sen. Grace Poe, meanwhile, appealed on Sunday to President Duterte to

address the delay in establishing 50,000 cell sites nationwide by directing
concerned state agencies to hasten the construction of telco towers as the
country gears for online-based teaching.
In a statement, she said the country lacked the ideal telco infrastructure as it
had only some 20,000 towers, far below Vietnam’s 70,000 sites.
The chair of the Senate public services committee also lamented that the
Philippines’ average internet speed of 21 Mbps ranked 110th among 174
countries in a recent study by Speedtest Global Index.
—WITH A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS
200,000 displaced OFWs

opt not to come home
MANILA, Philippines — Most of the more than 300,000 overseas Filipino

workers (OFWs) affected by the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic do
not want to return to the Philippines.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Tuesday said only 95,000 out of the
341,161 OFWs displaced by COVID-19 were asking the government to
repatriate them to the country.
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“I myself was surprised that more than almost 200,000 of them do not want to
come home. They would rather stay, especially those in America, Europe,
Rome, Madrid, United Kingdom,” Bello told a press briefing.
He added that out of the 42,000 OFWs expected to return to the country this
month, only 16,679 can be repatriated since the others lacked documents.
—Julie M. Aurelio
Gov’t spent P14 billion

on protective gear,
testing kits
MANILA, Philippines — The government has spent over P14 billion to buy
more personal protective gear, testing kits and medical equipment to beef up
its response against the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In his 10th report to Congress, President Duterte said the Department of

Health (DOH) bought 6,062,019 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE)
for P12.1 billion.
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This is on top of 65,330 PPE sets, which were purchased using savings from
a previous procurement.
The President said 1,458,000 PPE sets have been delivered to the
government so far. Around 159,100 PPE bought by the Department of Budget
and Management (DBM) have been distributed to several health facilities.
In addition, the government bought nine different types of polymerase chain

reaction test kits for P1.6 billion, which will be delivered by July.
The DBM’s Procurement Service, on the other hand, bought 10 units of

automated nucleic acid extraction machines for P400 million.
Last week, the President took responsibility for the purchase of expensive
medical equipment and supplies in the early weeks of the COVID-19
pandemic, saying he does not want to compromise the safety of health-care
workers.
Meanwhile, 158 out of 225 local and foreign donations of medical equipment
and supplies have been delivered. The donations include 3,323,950 pieces of
surgical masks, 101 ventilators, 307,940 N95 masks, and 222,779 PPE sets.
The DOH also distributed 14,460 Cepheid Xpert Xpress for COVID-19
cartridges to 12 GeneXpert accredited laboratories.
“The Department of Public Works and Highways and the Bases Conversion
and Development Authority are currently preparing the Quezon Memorial
Circle, Cuneta Astrodome, and Ynares Sports Arena into mega community
quarantine centers,” the President said.
So far, the government has converted 11 facilities into “mega community

quarantine facilities” for mild cases of COVID-19 infections, and suspected
cases.
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Other converted facilities are: the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, World Trade Center,
Philippine International Convention Center-Forum, Rizal Memorial Coliseum,
Philippine Sports Complex, Asean Convention Center, New Clark City-
National Government Administrative Center, Philippine Arena, Filinvest Tent,
Alonte Sports Arena in Biñan City, University of the Philippines-Mindanao
Multi-Purpose Building Human Kinetics Building and Davao City Sports
Complex.
The President said the converted facilities can accommodate 2,584 patients.
COVID-19 testing to be
required before flying at
Davao International
Airport
By: Carmelito Q. Francisco - @inquirerdotnet
MINDANAO GATEWAY The Davao International Airport, a major gateway to

Mindanao, will implement health screening of passengers amid the new
coronavirus pandemic. Commercial flights are expected to resume next week
once the Davao City government sets up a COVID-19 testing center at the
airport. —BING GONZALES
DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — All passengers leaving this city
through the Davao International Airport will soon be required to undergo
health screening at a testing facility for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19) before they are allowed to board their flights.
Rex Obcena, Davao manager of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines
(CAAP), said his agency had acceded to Mayor Sara Duterte’s request to
have the testing center set up, causing a slight delay in the reopening of the
city’s airport.
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He said domestic flights would resume by June 8 and international flights by

June 22.
The testing laboratory, Obcena said, will have to be accredited by the

Department of Health.
“We support this suggestion of the (city government) for seamless movement
in the airport. Passengers should be tested at the airport of departure,” he
said.
Duterte said the city had written the Department of Transportation to suggest
that such procedure be made standard in all airports in the country. Those
who tested positive for the coronavirus will not be allowed to board their
flights.
The city government had proposed that testing would be done one to three
days before a scheduled flight.
Duterte said testing at the airport of departure would spare health workers the
burden of doing contact tracing because this could prevent a potential virus
carrier from boarding a flight.
She said if a passenger would be tested at the airport of arrival, and that
passenger turned out positive for the virus, then there would be a big number
of people who could be considered as potentially infected, including airport
employees and airline crew.
“That would give us many people to quarantine,” Duterte said.
Currently, passengers of sweeper flights are only tested upon arrival at the
city’s airport. At least four had tested positive for COVID-19.
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Duterte had asked agencies assisting stranded individuals from Davao City
not to allow them into a flight if they showed symptoms of the disease.
Other conditions
Prior to the temporary closure of the airport, Davao had flights to Zamboanga,
Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Caticlan, Bohol and Manila.
Apart from the health protocol, the local government also wanted other issues
resolved before the airport reopens.
Obcena said the local government suggested “limiting the flights per week,
per airline” so congestion would be avoided and physical distancing would be
observed well.
Earlier, Duterte projected that the city’s airport could accommodate only 2,000
outbound passengers daily, just 10 percent of its usual load before COVID-19
cases in the country increased in March. The spike in cases had forced the
national government to impose community lockdowns and travel restrictions.
—With a report from Orlando B. Dinoy
Angry’ Duterte gives

DOH 3 days to
compensate health
workers’ kin
By: Julie M. Aurelio, Leila B. Salaverria, Tina G. Santos - @inquirerdotnet

THE LORD WILL PROTECT YOU Catholic priest Hans Magdurulang, from
San FelipeNeri Parish Church in Santa Ana, Manila, blesses front-line workers
at the district hospital on Thursday, the 100th day since the Manila Infectious
Disease Control Center began operating there. The center is the main battle
ground in Manila’s fight against the new coronavirus that causes the severe
respiratory ailment COVID-19. At least 107 patients have recovered from the
disease under the care of the center’s staff. —RICHARD A. REYES
An “angry” and “frustrated” President Rodrigo Duterte has given government
agencies only three working days to distribute P32 million in compensation to
the families of health workers who died on the front line of the battle against
the new coronavirus.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a press briefing on Thursday

that Mr. Duterte got angry when he learned that the heirs of the 32 doctors,
nurses and hospital assistants who died of COVID-19, the severe respiratory
disease caused by the new coronavirus, had not received a single centavo
despite the passage three and a half months ago of a law authorizing the
compensation.
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Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, the families of health workers who
would die fighting the coronavirus would receive P1 million in compensation,
while health workers who would fall ill but survive would receive P100,000.
Until Tuesday
“The President was really angry. Angry, frustrated,” Roque said, describing
Mr. Duterte’s reaction to news about the failure of the Department of Health
(DOH) to implement the compensation provision of the law.
“The President gave until Tuesday for concerned agencies to release the
compensation benefits to health workers who got sick and died of COVID-19
in the line of duty,” Roque said.
Roque announced the presidential solution to the snafu that the DOH blamed
on the absence of implementation rules for the law.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III and several colleagues gave Health
Secretary Francisco Duque III a tongue lashing on Wednesday for the failure,
which they discovered during a hearing on Tuesday.
They said implementation rules were not needed to compensate the health
workers because the provision for it in the law was quite clear.
The 32 health workers who have died are among the more than 2,600 front-
line hospital workers who have contracted the coronavirus at work. More than
1,400 of them have recovered, but two are severely ill.
Process begins
A day after the senators gave Duque a drubbing and the President’s angry
reaction became known, the DOH on Thursday said it had begun the
compensation process after a difficult search for funds.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told an online news conference

that the DOH had contacted the families of the health workers who had died
and asked them to submit required documents.
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“Once the relatives are able to complete the submission of documentary

requirements, we can immediately process the checks since the budget is
ready already,” Vergeire said.
She said Duque had signed an administrative order drawn up jointly with the
Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Labor and
Employment containing guidelines for the payment of compensation to health
workers who would fall in the fight against the coronavirus.
Vergeire said the payout was delayed because the DOH had difficulty finding
the money, which the law requires to come from realigned or reallocated
funds.
After learning that tapping the Social Security System and the Government
Service Insurance System for funding would require a difficult process, the
DOH decided to reallocate P100 million from its medical assistance program
for the health workers’ compensation fund, she said.
Deadline in Bayanihan 2
The senators are making sure there will be no more delay in compensating
health workers by writing in a deadline for payment in Bayanihan 2, the bill
extending the Bayanihan law by three months.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said on Thursday that Bayanihan
2 would set a 90-day time frame within which the government should release
the payout.
“We are imposing a deadline. [The compensation’s] release should not be at

the mercy of red tape,” Recto said.
The provision would also make the compensation tax-free, he said.
Congress, however, adjourned on Thursday without passing Bayanihan 2.

The reason: President Duterte did not certify it as urgent.
In Malacañang, Roque said the President would not certify the bill, but did not
explain why.
Roque dismissed Sen. Risa Hontiveros’ call for an audit of the funds and use
of special powers Congress had given to Mr. Duterte through the Bayanihan
law.
He said Mr. Duterte had been diligently submitting weekly reports to Congress
on his administration’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
“Maybe Sen. Risa Hontiveros only needs to read the weekly report of the
President to Congress,” Roque said.
DOH to test
asymptomatic patients
The Department of Health (DOH) would now test asymptomatic patients for
the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a top DOH official said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, maintained on

Friday that this did not mean that everyone would already be tested.
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“With this expansion, we have a criteria that we have to keep in mind in

determining who should be tested,” Vergeire said in a virtual press briefing
“We understand the call that everyone should be tested even without
symptoms or exposure to COVID-19. But we must think carefully of our
strategy so that we can maximize our resources and reach our overall goal of
preventing the spread of COVID-19,” she added.
On Friday, DOH recorded 244 new cases bringing the national tally to 20,626
cases. Of the new cases, 168 were patients who tested positive within the last
three days. Majority of these cases were from Central Visayas at 127,
followed by the National Capital Region with 24.
There were 76 late cases, or those who tested positive from at least four days
prior. Metro Manila had the most number of such cases at 24.
The total number of recovered patients has reached 4,330 with the recovery
of 82 more patients. The death toll, however, rose to 987 as three patients
succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
Expanded testing protocol

Under the DOH’s Memorandum Circular 2020-0151, which sets the
government’s expanded testing protocol, those included under Subgroup D
were patients or health workers who are asymptomatic but with relevant
history of travel or exposure to a confirmed case.
The order issued in March noted that polymerase chain reaction testing “is not
recommended until there is surplus testing capacity.” It was unclear though if
such a surplus already exists.
It was only on June 2 that all accredited laboratories were again able to
process more than 10,000 test samples. The last time this happened was in
mid-May. Vergeire said that various operational issues, including the shortage
of laboratory supplies, in the last few days had prevented the laboratories
from processing more samples.
Even as the testing numbers have yet to stabilize, Vince Dizon, who is not a
doctor but is the deputy chief implementer of Task Force against COVID-19,
earlier argued that coverage should already be expanded to include
asymptomatic patients.
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While they recognized the intention of mass testing, Vergeire said testing was
just “one part of our overall strategy.”
“Our national response is multifaceted and employs a holistic approach to

combat the disease,” she said.
Kin of 13 out of 32 fallen

front-liners
compensated
By: Jovic Yee, Julie M. Aurelio, Marlon Ramos - @inquirerdotnet

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said it had compensated at least
13 health workers out of the 32 who had died fighting the new coronavirus
disease (COVID-19), a day after President Duterte was reported to have been
angered by the nearly three-month delay in the payments mandated by law.
The Bayanihan to Heal as One Act provides a P1-million compensation to

health workers who die of COVID-19 and P100,000 to those who had fallen ill
with the severe respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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At a press briefing on Friday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire

said one check for P1 million was delivered to relatives of one of the 13 health
workers on Thursday night.
She said P1-million checks were sent on Friday to 10 others in Metro Manila
and two in the Davao Region.
“We have sent the rest of the checks to our Centers for Health Development,
or our regional offices,” she said.
She did not say whether checks for those who had recovered from the
disease had also been sent out.
‘Really shameful’
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Thursday said Mr. Duterte was
“angry and frustrated” after he learned about the delay.
“The President was furious,” he said.
In his Thursday night meeting in Davao City with members of the Inter-Agency
Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the President instructed
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to form a team to oversee the
compensation payments.
Mr. Duterte said the delay was “totally unacceptable.”
During the meeting, which was recorded and broadcast on nationwide

television on Friday morning, Mr. Duterte gave Duque 24 hours to form the
team and a June 9 deadline to complete the compensation.
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Duque, who promised to comply, blamed his staff for the stalled payments.
“It’s really shameful, sir,” he told the President. “The families lost their loved
ones and my people are dillydallying with no sense of urgency. I really feel
bad about it.”
New reason to resign

The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) said the delayed compensation was another
reason Duque should step down.
The Senate passed a resolution in April calling on Duque to resign for his
alleged failure in leadership, lack of foresight and negligence as chair of the
IATF, the temporary state agency tasked with leading the administration’s
response to the pandemic.
FNU president Maristela Abenojar said no one expected Duque to be the one
to craft the implemention guidelines for the compensation. The DOH cited the
lack of guidelines as a reason for the delay.
But as the head of the DOH, it was Duque’s responsibility to check whether it
was being done, she said.
“If he was just waiting for a report, he is an inefficient head because he is not
on top of their priorities,” Abenojar said.
Given how easy it was for Duque to pin the blame on his subordinates
showed that he was no longer fit for the job, said Akbayan Youth chair Dr. RJ
Naguit.
“In a state of pandemic, we need a leader who can take charge and assume
responsibility. We need people who can inspire and keep the morale going.
With these statements made by the secretary, how else can he lead the
workers of the DOH?” Naguit said.
Health reform advocate Dr. Minguita Padilla said not taking responsibility for
failures of an office “doesn’t say anything good about [its] leadership.”
More COVID-19 tests for
OFWs in provinces eyed
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Sunday backed the conduct of

additional diagnostic tests on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have
returned to their respective provinces in a bid to stop the spread of the new
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque pointed out that although an OFW

had already tested negative for COVID-19 before leaving Metro Manila, the
possibility of infection still remained while the OFW was in transit.
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“Between the time a test is conducted and the time of arrival of an OFW or
anyone traveling, the possibility of infection remains,” Roque said.
The Palace official reminded the public to “exercise all the precautions
advised by health authorities during travel.”
“Additional safety measures at the provincial or [local government unit] level

are likewise necessary to ensure that one is truly healthy and devoid of
COVID19,” Roque said.
He made the remarks as more OFWs, who were ferried back to their
respective provinces, turned out to be positive for the deadly virus.
Last month, President Duterte ordered government agencies concerned to

bring home more than 24,000 OFWs to their provinces and to expedite the
release of their COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction test results.
This was amid complaints that OFWs were stranded in quarantine facilities
and were waiting too long for their test results.More than 42,000 OFWs are
scheduled to arrive this month and will undergo testing and mandatory
quarantine for 14 days.
The government has also decided to decongest quarantine and testing
centers in Metro Manila by opening up international airports and testing
facilities in other regions.
31,700 repatriated
Since May 25, the government has sent a total of 31,700 repatriated OFWs
back to their hometowns, according to Administrator Hans Cacdac of the
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
Government rules require them to undergo COVID-19 testing and a 14-day

quarantine upon arrival in the Philippines.
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But many of them had been staying in isolation for longer than two weeks
because of the delayed release of their test results.
Cacdac said the Owwa was coordinating with the Department of

Transportation to arrange the OFWs’ trips to the provinces.
“We continue to send them home, The process is simple, the formula is
simple,” he said at the Laging Handa briefing.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force
Against COVID-19, said the government was improving the system to fast-
track the processing of the repatriated OFWs, given that more are expected to
arrive in the coming months. It would start getting the OFWs’ data before they
depart for the Philippines, said Galvez.
The country would also open up more airports for the flights of the OFWs to
ease the congestion at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, he said.
Officials are working to correct shortcomings and are trying to control the
number of OFWs arriving daily, he added.
“We apologize because there really are a lot of arriving OFWs. Now we are
controlling it so that at least we would have regulated inbound passengers at
more or less 1,500 a day,” he explained.
Gov’t studies further
easing of Metro Manila
quarantine
BARBER’S CUT | A doctor at Santa Ana Hospital in Manila gets a free haircut
from a visiting barber. (Photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily
Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — While it claims that new coronavirus cases are
declining, Malacañang cannot say whether quarantine restrictions in Metro
Manila will be further loosened after June 15.
The reason, according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, is that the
coronavirus data for Metro Manila is different compared with those for other
regions, which may be placed under different quarantine levels by next week.
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Metro Manila remains the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in the

Philippines so easing the restrictions needs closer study, Roque told a news
briefing on Monday.
“It’s an even chance, I would say. But we have to study the data because the
[epicenter of the outbreak] is here,” he said.
New infections decreasing

Roque said new infections were decreasing if reported based on the date of
the onset of symptoms.
“I think the doubling time is also becoming longer,” he said.
The system of reporting based on the date of the onset of symptoms is “more
accurate” despite backlogs, he said, and will not reflect sudden spikes in
cases.
Roque said deaths from COVID-19, the severe respiratory ailment caused by
the coronavirus, had gone down to single-digit numbers in recent days.
“Although the total of fatalities has reached the 1,000 mark, the deaths are
continuously decreasing. In the [past few] days, it is a single-digit recording of
[fatalities],” he said.
On Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 579 new coronavirus

cases, bringing the national tally to 22,474.
Of the new cases, 331 are patients who tested positive within the last three
days. Central Visayas accounted for the largest number of these cases, 156,
followed by Metro Manila, 114.
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Of the new infections, 248 were late cases or patients who tested positive at
least four days earlier. Metro Manila recorded the highest number of these
cases—106.
The DOH reported that 107 patients had recovered, raising the number of
COVID-19 survivors to 4,637. The death toll, however, climbed to 1,011, with
the deaths of eight more patients.
Late list submission

While all of the accredited laboratories have already submitted their complete
line list, or the roster of all those who tested positive since they began testing,
the DOH is still reporting late cases because some of the laboratories are
unable to submit their daily line list on time.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Monday that the DOH
was helping the laboratories update their submissions by making available to
them an automated system of reporting.
The government loosened quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and some

other parts of the country on June 1 to allow more movement and business
reopenings to begin a phased revival of the economy that was devastated by
lockdowns.
Roque said another reassessment was expected to be released by June 15.
This early, however, he said any easing of quarantine restrictions in any part
of the country would not be a reason for Filipinos to be complacent.
He reminded the public to continue observing basic health measures such as

wearing protective masks and observing physical distancing.
Roque acknowledged areas for improvement in the current quarantine level in

Metro Manila, such as the lack of public transportation, but he reiterated his
call to employers to allow staggered hours and remote working in the
meantime.
Blended learning: Can

teachers adjust?
Educators in provinces cite more time, resources to get used to online or distance approach
By: Raffy Cabristante - @inquirerdotnet
FIRST DAY CHAOS In this 2018 photo, teachers call the attention of students
at President Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Quezon City on the first
day of classes. The familiar school opening chaos may be a thing of the past
as education officials find ways to adapt as the threat of COVID-19 lingers. —
JAM STA. ROSA
DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Philippines — After 24 years, public
school teacher Mary Ann Silay, 55, found herself changing the way she
mentors her students as demanded by her superiors.
She has only about two months to adopt what the Department of Education
(DepEd) calls a “blended” learning approach to replace the actual classroom
setup in order to protect the students from the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19).
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Silay, who teaches Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) at Amlan National

High School in northern Negros Oriental province, said she had to ask the
help of her 32-year-old son, also a public school teacher, to navigate the new
learning system.
“This is a challenge for me. But what’s important is we can teach our learners.
It’s important that we don’t delay their education,” said Silay, who relies on a
slow 3G internet connection which she uses through mobile data or pocket
Wi-Fi.
While they support the postponement of face-to-face classes or classroom

sessions, several teachers in the Visayas have expressed reservations about
the blended or distance learning approach being readied by the DepEd.
Rico Tañesa, president of the Negros Oriental High School Teachers’ League
and a council member of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition, said more time and
resources were needed to get used to the new learning system.
Not enough time

Between now and the scheduled opening of classes on Aug. 24, the time is
not enough for teachers to prepare for the system, he said.
“Our principle remains that no learner should be left behind,” Tañesa said in
Cebuano.
The DepEd, he said, should also consider that many public school teachers
were about to retire and were having difficulty adjusting to online learning.
While webinars have been organized to train teachers on the blended learning
approach, not all have access to the new system, Tañesa said.
Even if they gain enough skills and confidence to facilitate online learning,
another problem is the lack of access to a stable internet connection. He said
the DepEd must provide a new subsidy to help teachers cope with internet
expenses.
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Additional burden
In Leyte, school heads and teachers are wary about having virtual classes.
“There could be some effects among schoolchildren who need constant

follow-up on the academic side,” said Imelda Gayas, principal of San Jose
Elementary School in Tacloban City.
For Max Montero, chair of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers in Western
Visayas, it would be better to suspend all classes, not just face-to-face
learning, until a vaccine for COVID-19 is developed.
Students, especially those from poor families who cannot afford to own or rent
computers, mobile phones, tablets and internet services, would be
disadvantaged, he said.
Montero said many families were reeling financially from the pandemic and
requiring children to have online classes would be an extra burden.
Alternative methods
While the DepEd said 87 percent of teachers had computers, this does not
mean that they are equipped to conduct online classes, he noted. “Many of
these computers that were acquired through loans are outdated,” Montero
said.
In Dagupan City, 39 public schools are preparing for alternative teaching

methods, such as modular, online and radio.
According to Maria Celia Junio-Fernandez, city schools superintendent, online

classes may be the best option for “independent learners” or those who are in
Grades 4 to 6 and those in high school. These students are internet-savvy
and are spending more time on their mobile phones and laptops, she said.
But Fernandez said online classes might not be applicable to “dependent

students,” or those attending preschool until Grade 3, because they still
needed the guidance of their teachers.
Poor internet connectivity will also prevent some students from joining online
classes, she said.
“Access to internet is still a big problem in many parts of the country. Even in
offices now, internet connection is not dependable and it often gets
interrupted. What more if all students rely on internet [for their classes]?”
Fernandez said.
Some remote areas, especially those with no COVID-19 cases, should be

allowed to adopt the face-to-face teaching method, she said, but only 15 to 20
students should be accommodated in each class.
Modular teaching
“We have adequate classrooms and facilities for face-to-face classes. Parents
need not fear that method because we would implement social distancing
among the students. Besides, anyone can acquire the disease from other
people and places, not schools,” Fernandez said.
Schools in Dagupan are also encouraged to consider the modular teaching

strategy, which allows students to get modules and instructions from their
teachers twice a week, she said.
“On Fridays, students will have to return their modules for assessment,”
Fernandez said.
She said the schools division is also looking into the use of radio broadcast as
a medium of instruction, with a local station already volunteering to air
lessons.
“We must not stop just because of COVID-19. If we close our schools for one,
two years, how are we assured that our children won’t get infected? They can
get infected even by their parents. What is important is we practice discipline,”
Fernandez said. —REPORTS FROM NESTOR BURGOS JR., JOEY
GABIETA, NESTLE SEMILLA AND YOLANDA SOTELO
New COVID-19 infections

mostly in Central
Visayas
MANILA, Philippines — Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said

the DOH was looking into several factors and analyzing data to properly
explain why Central Visayas was reporting more fresh cases than Metro
Manila, which until recently had been recording the largest numbers of
infections since local transmission began in March.
“We are studying the state of Central Visayas because admittedly if you look
at our data these past few days, it has exceeded [Metro Manila] in some of the
days that we have reported. But we can’t be certain yet on our interpretation.
We have to be cautious,” Vergeire told reporters in an online press briefing.
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Except on June 4, Central Visayas has reported more fresh daily cases than
Metro Manila since Tuesday last week. Fresh cases are those patients who
tested positive within the last three days.
Of the total 1,937 fresh cases recorded in the past week, Central Visayas
accounted for 850, while Metro Manila had 524.
But for the late cases, or those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the new
coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory ailment COVID-19, from at
least four days earlier, Metro Manila remains to be on top. In the same week,
the DOH recorded 1,899 late cases, of which 552 came from Metro Manila
and 364 from Central Visayas, which is composed of the provinces of Cebu,
Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
According to Vergeire, the aggressive contact tracing efforts and testing being
implemented, particularly in Cebu, may be driving the increase in the number
of cases in the region.
But she noted that this did not necessarily mean the virus was spreading
faster there.
“We have already instructed our Epidemiology Bureau to plot the onset of
illness of cases there so we could be able to see the trend,” Vergeire said.
“Although we are talking about fresh cases here, these cases are [identified]
based on the laboratory results. That means that a sample may have been
taken from five days ago but was only tested and [the results were] released
within the last three days,” she added.
A patient’s onset of illness, Vergeire said, was “the most accurate” basis to
determine if a case is a new infection or not.
Metro Manila quarantine

On June 1, the government started easing quarantine measures, particularly
in major urban areas like Metro Manila. Incidentally, the number of fresh
cases since then have been increasing, with reported cases in the last three
days reaching more than 300.
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Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that if the number of fresh

infections continued to rise, quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila may not be
relaxed further on June 15.
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases will meet on

Wednesday to decide recommendations to the President for easing or
tightening restrictions next Monday, when the current relaxed quarantine level
would end.
“If the cases continue to rise, there is a possibility that we won’t graduate to
the next phase,” Roque said, adding that if the trend continued, Metro Manila
might revert to strict quarantine measures.
But Vergeire said the rising cases may be due to the more timely reporting by
the laboratories.
“Just because fresh cases are increasing these past days doesn’t mean that
recorded cases are spiking,” she said.
“Let us be cautious in interpreting the results,” Vergeire added, pointing out

that there are still “weaknesses” in the DOH information system.
For one, only 60 percent of the patients’ case investigation form indicate the
onset of illness.
In the absence of that information, the DOH relies on the date when the
sample was taken. If both of these dates are not provided, the case is
categorized according to the date the result was released.
Reporting gap
“When we reviewed some of the cases, the onset of illness and the release of
test results were far in between,” Vergeire said, giving assurance that the
health department was looking for ways to close the gap so the task force
would be provided with better information on the epidemic.
On Tuesday, the DOH reported 518 new infections, pushing the national
caseload to 22,992.
Of the new cases, 280 were patients who tested positive for the new
coronavirus within the last three days. Central Visayas accounted for the
largest number of these cases, 82, followed by Metro Manila with 61.
There were 238 late cases, of which 89 came from Metro Manila.
The DOH reported that 99 more patients had recovered, raising the number of
COVID-19 survivors to 4,736. The death toll, however, increased to 1,017 with
the deaths of six more patients.
Higher numbers of infections may be expected in coming days as the

government deploys more contact tracers.
In his 11th report to Congress on Monday on his response to the coronavirus

crisis, President Duterte said more than 15,000 contact tracers had been
trained to strengthen the DOH search for carriers of the virus.
Vergeire earlier said the Philippines needed 94,000 more contact tracers to
meet the World Health Organization standard of one contact tracer to 800
people.
—WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO
Palace: Rise in fresh

cases ‘doesn’t inspire’
easing of quarantine in
MM

VIRUS AND RAIN Without buses and jeepneys, people ride bicycles to work
on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on rainy Thursday morning, risking
pneumonia or contracting the new coronavirus that causes the severe
respiratory disease COVID-19. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
The rise in “fresh” cases of the new coronavirus “does not inspire relaxation”
of quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila next week, Malacañang said on
Thursday.
But the final decision is up to President Duterte, presidential spokesperson

Harry Roque said.
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“It does not inspire relaxation,” Roque said at a news briefing when asked to
comment on the spike of fresh coronavirus cases in recent days.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 443 more coronavirus infections on

Thursday, raising the national caseload to 24,175. Of the additional cases,
253 were considered fresh, or those who tested positive for the virus in the
last three days, and 190 were “late,” or those who tested positive earlier but
whose results were handed in only recently.
Large increases
On Wednesday, the DOH reported 452 fresh cases, the highest in a single
day since the department modified its reporting system to reflect new
infections and backlog cases. It reported 331 fresh cases on Tuesday and 280
on Monday.
Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases,

the temporary government body overseeing the administration’s response to
the coronavirus crisis, had drafted recommendations to the President, who
would announce his decision next Monday on whether the quarantine
restrictions would stay or be loosened to allow a more vigorous return to
economic activity.
Metro Manila and several parts of the country eased into general community
quarantine on June 1 as the country began a phased exit from one of the
strictest lockdowns in the world forced by the coronavirus pandemic.
Other parts of the country with low risk for transmission of the virus are under
modified general community quarantine.
Leaks on social media

The quarantine is assessed every two weeks and a decision reached on
whether to ease or tighten the restrictions based on current conditions.
Roque warned the public against believing supposed task force document
leaks on social media, stressing the group’s decisions were not final as these
were subject to appeal.
“The Department of the Interior and Local Government is already in contact

with the local government[s], so they know their possible classification. They
are given the opportunity to appeal so that by the time the President
announces it on Monday, there are no more appeals,” he said.
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Earlier, Roque said Metro Manila and other parts of the country under general
community quarantine might “not graduate” if the number of fresh coronavirus
cases continued to rise.
He said the metropolis could revert to the stricter modified enhanced

community quarantine or stay with eased rules under general community
quarantine depending on the case data.
Roque defended the task force decision last month to loosen the restrictions
in Metro Manila and other parts of the country despite the projection by
University of the Philippines researchers that coronavirus cases would hit
24,000 this month if the quarantine was prematurely eased.
“The [task force] made the right decision. We saw the economy reopen. Our
death rate is limited to single digits on a daily basis. It’s also a consolation that
most of the sick are asymptomatic or mild, and only a few are critical cases,”
he said.
No vaccine yet
But the government, he said, has accepted that cases will continue to
increase because of the absence of a vaccine for COVID-19, the severe
respiratory ailment caused by the new coronavirus.
The decision on whether to loosen or tighten the quarantine restrictions is

“based on science and data,” Roque said.
“So if UP’s data is right, then the government’s data is right, too,” he said.
“What we are monitoring is our capacity to provide medical assistance to the

critically ill. We have to balance our economy, too, for people to have jobs
because they might die of hunger,” he said. —WITH A REPORT FROM TINA
G. SANTOS
Duterte options: Longer

GCQ or back to stricter
quarantine
Extending the general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila and

Cebu City or placing these cities on modified enhanced community quarantine
(MECQ) are among the options that President Duterte is considering before
he makes an announcement on the matter on Monday, his spokesperson
said.
“The President would consider … how fast the number of cases rose or the
doubling rate and our capacity to provide critical care. All of that are part of the
data being readied for the decision of the President,” presidential
spokesperson Harry Roque said in a phone interview on Saturday.
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Roque said MECQ was the highest level of restriction among the options
being considered by the President—the others being the general community
quarantine (GCQ) currently in effect and the modified general community
quarantine (MGCQ).
Under MGCQ, public gatherings would be allowed up to 50 percent of a

venue’s capacity, and more public transportation would be permitted.
“But the numbers of Metro Manila and Cebu don’t seem to be right for this
kind of opening,” Roque said in an earlier interview with dzBB.
607 new cases

Metro Manila and Cebu were placed under GCQ starting June 1. This allowed
more businesses to reopen and employees to return to work, which many
tried to do but with difficulty, because of the lack of public transportation.
Before that, Mr. Duterte declared a lockdown on Luzon on March 16, as

COVID-19 cases began to rise. Many parts of the country also went under
lockdown.
The lockdown was eased to MECQ in Metro Manila and Cebu City on May 16
until May 31. This level allowed, among other features, malls and shops to
reopen at 50-percent capacity but still prohibited all public transportation.
On Saturday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 607 new cases,

pushing the national caseload to 25,392.
Of the new cases, 504 were “fresh” cases, pertaining to patients who tested
positive within the last three days. The National Capital Region (NCR)
accounted for the most number of such cases at 246.
There were 22 new deaths, bringing the total fatalities to 1,074, and 252 new
recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 5,706.
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This is the first time since May 27 that the NCR’s fresh cases breached the
200 mark, two days before the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging
Infectious Diseases (IATF) is set to make its recommendation to Mr. Duterte.
‘Backlog’
In Cebu City, the number of cases continued to rise, with the local health
office recording 167 new infections on Friday.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said “it sounds like we [in Cebu City] have
many cases but the real situation is there has been a backlog [in reporting].”
As of June 12, Cebu City had 3,361 COVID-19 cases with 1,710 recoveries,
and 33 deaths, or a mortality rate of about 1.1 percent.
There were 348 cases in neighboring Mandaue City and 350 in Cebu
province, including 18 overseas Filipino workers who returned to Cebu and
seven health workers who had tested positive for the virus. There were 169
cases in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island.
For Labella, the low death rate and the rising number of recoveries indicate
that his city is doing well in its fight against COVID-19.
The mayor said he wanted Cebu City to remain under GCQ after June 15 to
allow the reopening of more businesses.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia also cited the need to reopen business but
favored MGCQ.
Malacañang welcomes any suggestions from the mayors, Roque said.
Prudent move
For infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante, it would be prudent not to
loosen quarantine measures in the NCR and instead extend GCQ by another
two weeks.
Solante, former president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and

Infectious Diseases, said that with a GCQ extension, the government could
determine how that status is affecting the trend of new cases, especially since
the virus’ incubation period is up to 14 days.
Should the President decide on MGCQ, he said, “the health-care system

should be strengthened. There should be enough beds, ventilators and
medicines allocated.”
DOH data showed that as of Thursday, 332 of the nearly 2,000 mechanical
ventilators nationwide were in use.
A little over half of the 6,160 isolation beds and almost a third of the more than
1,200 intensive care beds are occupied.
Nationwide, there are over 51,000 beds in quarantines managed by local

governments, while close to 3,200 are overseen by the national government.
—WITH REPORTS FROM JOVIC YEE, JOEY GABIETA AND ADOR
VINCENT MAYOL
290 firms reopen in

Clark, but retrenchment
starts in Subic
WELCOME Motorists and pedestrians are greeted by this welcome arch at
the entrance gate of the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales province. —NIÑO
JESUS ORBETA
CLARK FREEPORT—Businesses resumed in this economic zone as 25
percent of locators began operating in June when Pampanga province shifted
to a more relaxed general community quarantine (GCQ) against the new
Records from Clark Development Corp. (CDC) showed that more than 11,000
workers of 290 companies here returned to work to jump-start the
manufacturing, supply chain and logistics sectors. The free port has 1,150
registered companies.
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CDC and the Clark Freeport were formed through Proclamation No. 163,
pursuant to the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992 (Republic
Act No. 7227), which outlined “alternative productive uses” for former base
lands.
CDC said companies engaged in information, technology and business
process outsourcing had also reopened, providing regular services through
their 3,416 workers.
At least 11 banks, three trading firms, 26 restaurants, five canteens and 26

retail stores are now serving clients.
New normal
Noel Manankil, CDC president and chief executive officer, said he had
advised locators to “strictly adhere to health protocols” and enforce “discipline
for new normal behavior” among workers.
Clark’s tourism sector has yet to recover since GCQ protocols do not allow the
operation of leisure and recreation, gaming and fitness establishments, and
those catering to tourists.
CDC reported generating P6.08 billion in revenue from 2016 to 2019, with net
income growing to P3.17 billion. Last January, it projected a 58 percent
growth in net income in the next five years, but Manankil has yet to announce
adjustments in CDC’s business targets.
Among its top revenue contributors were Widus International Leisure, Filinvest
Mimosa, Eight Integrated Development Corp., Eaglesky Technology and
Amusement Corp., Yokohama Tire Philippines, L&T International, Premier
Central and Puregold Duty-Free.
CDC also reported remitting P2.02 billion in dividends to the national

government for 2016 to 2018, making its total dividends at P4.07 billion since
1993.
3,500 workers retrenched

In Subic Bay Freeport, close to 3,500 workers were retrenched despite the
resumption of business operations by at least 57 percent of its locators.
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Records from the labor department of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority

(SBMA) showed that 20 companies, mostly in manufacturing, let go of their
workers due to financial constraints caused by COVID-19.
These companies included Taiwanese computer maker Wistron Infocomm

(Philippines) Corp., port operator Subic Bay International Terminal Corp.,
theme park operator Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Inc., and importer
Simon & Stanley International Trading & Development Co.
Forced leave
At least 2,435 workers had been on forced leave as of June 2, while 883 had
been terminated since mid-February.
Ship repair firm Subic Drydock Corp. (SDC) will also terminate 52 employees
on June 25 after implementing mandatory leave for 149 workers on May 1 to
May 15, the SBMA report said.
Diana Ross Mazo, SDC administrative manager, said the community

quarantine had “forced the business to shut down for two months without
revenue.”
“Over the next few weeks, SDC will gradually increase capacity in support of
the ‘new norm.’ However, based on careful review of our operation, we need
to reduce manpower by separating some of our employees effective [on] June
25,” Mazo said.
Melvin Varias, SBMA labor department manager, said the retrenchment

moves were being closely monitored to ensure that locators complied with
labor laws.
The free port has 138,940 workers, with close to 70 percent in the services
sector and more than 15 percent in manufacturing, Varias said. —TONETTE
OREJAS AND JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT INQ
Who’s telling the truth

on COVID-19 situation?
With the country now on its third month of community quarantine, medical
experts continue to debate about the real new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19) situation.
Based on the latest official figures, there are almost 26,000 confirmed cases
with 1,088 fatalities and new cases (fresh and late) ranging from 500 to 600 a
day. University of the Philippine scientists have predicted that by June 30,
there will be 40,000 confirmed cases. The numbers are unsettling for the
already stressed-out public who are worried about their health and financial
stability.
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The Department of Health (DOH) said that according to the results of its May
20-June 12 study, there was a big 29-percent decrease in COVID-19 cases in
Metro Manila. It also said that the national fatality rate declined from 5.52 to
4.24 percent. Also, COVID-19 cases from Central Visayas, including Cebu
City, increased from 13 to 24 percent.
Critics have lamented the backlog and delays in the DOH’s daily results. A
new group called Scientists Unite Against COVID-19 has urged the DOH to
address “validation delays” and “laboratory testing” that created “two distinct
but related backlogs.”
They also questioned the median turnaround time of three days in which only
one-third of results were released within two days of samples receipt. These
delays, they say, hamper crucial public health interventions such as contact
tracing and local policy decisions.
Analysts say that as of June 12, a total of 31,779 confirmed positives were
reported by testing laboratories. This reveals a gap or backlog of 5,847
positives, still to be validated by the DOH. I must also mention that the health
department, in the past, has repeatedly apologized for “errors” in its daily
reports.
Inside the powerful Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging
Infectious Diseases (IATF), officials are at loggerheads over the “real
numbers” coming from the DOH, its lead agency.
Special adviser to the national task force on COVID-19 Dr. Tony Leachon has
criticized the DOH for its lack of focus in everything—from risk
communication, priorities, data management and the execution of all plans.
Leachon also said that we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the “dropped ball” with
people waiting for positive results from the DOH.
Sadly, this major disagreement among top medical experts inside the IATF
are giving our countrymen a worrisome picture of how the government is
failing in its efforts to handle this pandemic. Are the differences of opinion
indicative of a power struggle, vested interests or genuine love of country?
Take your pick.
***
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My colleagues in the horse racing industry are praying that Metro Manila will
soon be downgraded to a modified general community quarantine so that
races can resume in Malvar, Batangas and in Carmona and Naic in Cavite.
The IATF has approved the restarting of the races on July 19 to resuscitate
the P40-billion peso industry, which supports the livelihood of thousands of
farmworkers, stable hands, jockeys, trainers, ticket tellers, off-tracking betting
and race tracks employees, as well as feeds/supplement suppliers.
Today, horse races without spectators are happening in Japan, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Australia, England and the United States. I see no reason why the
races here cannot resume very soon.
Rise in COVID-19 cases

in regions linked to
returnees
Recent cases of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Visayas

involved returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and residents stranded
elsewhere, raising concerns that those being sent home to the provinces were
carriers of the virus.In Western Visayas, the Department of Health (DOH)
reported nine new cases involving seven OFWs and two stranded residents
from June 13 to June 14. All of them were taken to quarantines in the region.
The DOH also reported that as of June 14, 146 cases had been recorded in
the region, including 100 recoveries and 11 deaths. Of the 146 cases, 66 were
OFWs and stranded residents returning from Metro Manila and Cebu City.
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Health protocols
Under health protocols, OFWs and stranded residents should test negative for
COVID-19 and undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine period before they
are allowed to return to their home provinces.National Task Force-COVID-19
chief implementer, Carlito Galvez Jr., confirmed that the return of stranded
residents had added to the number of COVID-19 cases in the provinces. He
cited the 66 cases in Eastern Visayas and 30 new cases in Lanao del Sur
province.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a television interview that the

government had been caught off-guard by the returning residents and had
been unable to prepare for them, unlike in the case of repatriated OFWs.‘Balik
Probinsya’
In Leyte province, most of its 135 COVID-19 cases involved returning

residents and overseas workers.
Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, however, said the national government

should not be blamed for the surge of cases following the implementation of
the “Balik Probinsya” program.
Leyte was among the first provinces to implement the program, which was
intended to bring those working and living in Metro Manila back to their home
provinces to restart their lives and decongest the capital region.
Petilla, however, said that even those not identified under the program had
started to return.
In Negros Occidental, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson also attributed the rise of
COVID-19 cases in the province to the recent influx of repatriated OFWs and
returning residents. As of June 14, Negros Occidental and Bacolod City
recorded 22 cases each.
Second wave
In Baguio City, the local government is bracing for what appears to be a
second wave of COVID-19 transmissions in the Cordillera after a spike of
cases from 57 to 101 in a few days.
Mountain Province, which had no case since the March lockdown, on

Tuesday recorded its first transmission involving a resident from Besao town.
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“If the trend continues, before the end of this month, Cordillera could deal with
200 cases,” said Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong during a management
committee meeting.
As a result, Baguio may put on hold a plan to reopen the city to tourists by
September should a new wave of infections occur, he said.
Baguio had nine active cases, including a 10-year-old girl and a health worker
who contracted the virus from infected patients.
Provinces like Kalinga were initially spared from the virus, but six patients
were already recorded there, while neighboring Apayao had seven cases as
of Tuesday, according to the DOH. Benguet had the largest number of
patients at 21. —REPORTS FROM NESTOR BURGOS JR., JOEY
GABIETA, CARLA GOMEZ, VINCENT CABREZA AND LEILA
SALAVERRIA INQ
Davao region reopens

tourism facilities after
quarantine rules relaxed
By: Carmelito Q. Francisco - @inquirerdotnet

HANGING LOOSE A surfer relaxes before hitting the waves at Dahican beach
in Mati City, Davao Oriental province. Dahican, which faces the Pacific Ocean,
is a favorite destination of surfers and skimboarders in the Davao region. —
KARLOS MANLUPIG
DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — Some tourist destinations in
Davao region have reopened, though on a limited basis as travel is still very
minimal and rules are stringent.
This has brought hope to some 88,000 workers employed in the local tourism
industry, most of whom lost their jobs or were temporarily out of work and
were living on government assistance, said Tanya Rabat-Tan, the Department
of Tourism (DOT) regional director.
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The reopened tourist establishments would only cater to local tourists as

travelers from outside Davao had yet to be allowed to enter the region, Tan
said. Among the provinces that have resumed hosting tourists are Davao
Oriental and Davao de Oro.
Except for Davao City, the entire Davao region is under a modified general
What is the important thing right now, Tan said, was to ensure that the
“carrying capacity, site management and visitor management [are observed].”
Social media marketing

She said the department was looking at promoting farm tourism, in which
tourists would experience life on the farm.
The DOT regional office will embark on a social media marketing campaign to
educate both tourists and business owners on how to adapt as behavior and
the manner of delivering services will change amid the health crisis. It has
started training establishments on how to do digital marketing, considering
that cyberspace had become the biggest platform for business promotions.
About 300 establishments in Davao Oriental have resumed operations since

Friday, said Miguel Trocio, provincial tourism officer.
In accordance with health guidelines, they are required to cater to guests and
customers up to 50 percent of their regular capacity to ensure physical
distancing, aside from requiring guests to wear face masks.
Guests also have to fill out forms on travel history and health status.
Loan access
Establishments must conduct temperature screening and disinfection, set up
sanitizing footbaths, and provide floor markers and hand sanitizers.
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They should also identify isolation rooms “in case there are guests who
develop symptoms.”
“It (isolation room) will serve as a containment area while the authorities are
being coordinated for appropriate action,” said provincial health officer Reden
Bersaldo.
In Davao de Oro, provincial tourism officer Christine Dumpor said the local
government was trying to help small establishments access loans so they
could sustain operations.
Tourism operations in the Island Garden City of Samal will resume on July 1,
said Mayor Al David Uy.
Gov’t needs 82K more
contact tracers
By: Jeannette I. Andrade - Reporter / @jiandradeINQ
The government needs 82,537 more contract tracers nationwide in its

continuing effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19), Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said on Thursday.
“Given that there is still no vaccine or cure for COVID-19, the government
needs to train and hire contact tracers who will break the … transmission of
[the disease] by identifying those who may have been exposed to the virus
and monitoring them daily for 14 days,” Año said.
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So far, 87,092 of 94,534 persons who have had contact with COVID-19
carriers have been traced by local contact-tracing teams (CTTs), according to
Interior Undersecretary Bernardo Florece Jr.
At the same time, Año clarified that while the government needs to hire over
80,000 contact tracers, the proposal to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the
Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) was to hire “only 50,000
since the [local government units, or LGUs] continue to increase the number
of their contact tracers. There are also volunteers from the private sector.”
Año said there were currently 52,463 contact tracers who were part of 3,347
local CTTs nationwide.
According to the World Health Organization, “the ideal contact tracer to

population ratio is 1:800, so to fully cover 108 million Filipinos, we actually
need a total of 135,000 contact tracers,” Año said.
“We are waiting for the approval of the IATF so that our LGUs can start hiring
and training contact tracers in their localities. We need to be one step ahead
and ready with the required number of contact tracers rather than be caught
off guard in case of a second wave,” he added.
DOH team sent to Cebu
City to study surge in
virus cases
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Jovic Yee, Nestle Semilla - @inquirerdotnet
CEBU CITY—There seems no end to the phone ringing at Cebu City

Ambulance Services (CCAS), and this has been going on for over a month.
CCAS receives 20 to 25 phone calls daily from people whose family members
or friends need medical attention due to symptoms associated with the new
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“The number of callers has increased from just 10 to over 20 per day. There
were even times when we run out of ambulances,” said the call handler at
CCAS, who asked not to be named.
He said it was disheartening to see that some patients had to wait inside the
emergency vehicles for hours and even up to a whole day, while others had to
be sent home since hospitals were filled beyond capacity.
“This is the situation of the city right now and I have not experienced such
since I started my job here five years ago,” he said.
The Department of Health (DOH) has sent in a team of epidemiologists to

Cebu City to look into the cause of the local upsurge in COVID-19 cases.
BACK TO LOCKDOWN Medical front-liners conduct mass testing at a village
in Cebu City amid the rise of coronavirus cases there. —CEBU CITY PUBLIC
INFORMATION OFFICE PHOTO
Single-day count
On Thursday, 10 more persons died of the severe respiratory disease in the
city—the highest reported single-day count for fatalities since the city went
into quarantine on March 28.
Early this week, President Duterte placed Cebu City back on enhanced
community quarantine and nearby Talisay City on modified enhanced
According to the city’s health department, three persons died in Barangay

Ermita, three in Tejero, two in Quiot, and one each in San Nicolas Proper and
T. Padilla.
As of Thursday, Cebu City has recorded a total of 4,137 cases, of which 2,078
remain active. The death toll stood at 58, while the number of recoveries
reached 2,001.
There are 2,613 regular beds from five major hospitals in the cities of Cebu
and Mandaue, according to the DOH’s Region 7 (Central Visayas) office.
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‘Overwhelmed, undermanned’
DOH-Region 7 Director Jaime Bernadas said the number of beds had
increased from 394 at the end of May to 504 this week. More beds for
intensive care were also provided, from 59 at the end of May to 73 this week.
Still, the Cebu Medical Society, a group of more than 3,000 physicians and
specialists, said local “hospitals are overwhelmed and undermanned,
essential medical equipment are scarce, doctors and nurses are getting sick
and burnt out.”
“During these unprecedented times of sickness, trials, economic standstill,

mental and emotional stress, we humbly call for unity and cooperation among
all stakeholders in public health,” the group said in a statement.
Possible factors
According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the team sent to
Cebu City would look into possible factors behind the new infections—
including the return of migrant workers, the clustering of cases in jails, and the
local government’s expanded testing protocol.
“We want to be sure so that we will have adequate information and would be
able to properly address the situation. Let us wait for their analysis and we will
give the information to everyone,” Vergeire said in an online briefing on
Friday.
The DOH recorded 661 new cases, pushing the national total to 28,459.
Of the new cases, 460 tested positive in the last three days. The National
Capital Region (NCR) had the most number of such cases at 277, followed by
Central Visayas which had 21.
There were 201 late cases, or those who tested positive from at least four
days ago. Central Visayas topped this list with 103, followed by NCR with 40.
The total number of recovered patients rose to 7,378, with the addition of 288.
But 14 more patients succumbed to the disease, bringing the national death
toll to 1,130. Twelve of those deaths were recorded between June 4 to June
14.
Recently, the positivity rate—an indicator on the spread of the coronavirus—is

18.2 percent in Central Visayas and 7.1 percent in Metro Manila.
Gov’t urged to review

Hatid Probinsya
screening
MANILA, Philippines — An infectious disease specialist has urged the

government to review its screening of people who want to avail of its return-to-
the-province (Balik Probinsya) program after a separate, but similar initiative
was tagged as the cause of a surge of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19) infections in the Eastern Visayas region, making it the third most infected
region in the country.
Dr. Rontgene Solante, former president of the Philippine Society for

Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, pushed the review after local officials in
Eastern Visayas complained that the government’s Balik Probinsya and Hatid
Tulong initiatives ferried infected people to their areas.
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The Department of Health on Sunday reported 653 more COVID-19

infections, bringing to 30,052 the total number of cases in the country.
Out of the new confirmed cases, 415 were classified as “fresh” or those who
tested positive within the last three days, while 238 were “late” cases or test
results released four days ago or earlier but were validated just recently.
Among the fresh cases, 219 are from Metro Manila, 89 from Central Visayas,
while the remaining 107 are spread out across the country.
Among the late cases, 32 are from Metro Manila, 177 from Central Visayas,
while 29 other patients came from various areas nationwide.
The health department also reported that 243 patients recovered from the
respiratory illness, bringing to 7,893 the total recoveries, while fatalities
reached 1,169 after the emergence of 19 new cases.
Eastern Visayas officials, who prided themselves in having no cases in the

first two months of the Luzon-wide lockdown, blamed the Balik Probinsiya and
Hatid Tulong programs for the current situation.
After the surge in cases, the Balik Probinsiya program was suspended for a
month from June 11 after bringing 112 people to Leyte province while the
Hatid Tulong initiative was slowed down on Friday after ferrying 53,000 people
to their home provinces.
“It’s not too late yet to review the process of clearing someone for Balik
Probinsiya,” said Solante, who made no remark on the merit of the program
spearheaded by Sen. Bong Go and implemented via Executive Order 114.
“Probably, the safety measures are not that concrete or detailed,” he said,
adding that the government should also consider requiring antigen tests for
those who want to avail of the Balik Probinsya program.
“You can compare it to those travelers arriving in Manila, they undergo an

automatic 14-day quarantine. It should be the same,” Solante said.
Roque defends
lockdown, says 100,000
lives saved

AT WORK ON FATHER’S DAY Nurse Dave Jancen Lozano replaces an
oxygen tank while attending to patients at Santa Ana Hospital who are being
monitored for the coronavirus disease. Lozano and his wife, who is also a
health worker, discourage their three young daughters from any physical
contact with them while the virus remains a threat in the country. —RICHARD
A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — Even if the number of COVID-19 cases is rising, the
Philippines is actually doing better in its fight against the disease because the
number of people testing positive for the causative virus is lower and the case
doubling time is seven days, according to presidential spokesperson Harry
Roque.
Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, Roque defended President Rodrigo

Duterte’s decision to place Luzon on lockdown in mid-March.
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He said the lockdown, which was gradually eased in the succeeding weeks,
had saved lives and produced other good results.
The government’s actions were based on science, Roque said.

More than 10,000 tests a day
According to Roque, the country’s testing capacity has improved as it can now
conduct more than 10,000 tests a day.
And the positivity rate, or the number of people testing positive for the new
coronavirus, is 5 percent, he said.
The number of deaths over time is also going down, he added.
The case doubling time, which indicates the speed at which the virus spreads,
is also now seven days, which means there is basis to relax quarantine
restrictions.
As for critical care use, he said that nationally, only a little above a third of
intensive care, isolation and ward beds were occupied, and only 19 percent of
mechanical ventilators were used.
Still, the number of COVID-19 cases is going up, and this is not limited to the
Philippines, Roque said.
He cited the report of the World Health Organization that the pandemic is
accelerating. This means that despite an easing of restrictions, people must
continue to stay home as much as possible and follow health measures such
as wearing protective masks, he said.
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New infections
On Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 630 additional
coronavirus infections, taking the national caseload to 30,682. Of those cases,
the DOH said 467 were fresh, or patients who tested positive in the last three
days, and 163 were late, or patients whose positive results were released four
days ago or earlier.
Of the fresh cases, the DOH said 149 were from Metro Manila, 164 from
Central Visayas, and the rest spread across the country.
Of the late cases, 25 were from Metro Manila, 93 from Central Visayas, and
45 from different parts of the country.
The DOH reported that 250 more patients had recovered, raising the total
number of COVID-19 survivors to 8,143.
But the death toll increased to 1,177 with eight more patients succumbing to
the severe respiratory disease. Only two of the eight fatalities died in June, the
DOH said.
In defending the Luzon lockdown, Roque cited Finance Secretary Carlos

Dominguez III as quoting the World Bank praising Mr. Duterte for saving
100,000 lives with his decisiveness.
“They said had we not imposed the lockdown when we did, 100,000 people
could have been killed,” Roque said.
While many lost their livelihood, there are various government programs to
assist them, he added.
Roque also cited a Social Weather Stations survey that showed 84 percent of
Filipinos believed the strict stay-at-home orders were worth it.
“So the people have spoken, and the lockdown we imposed was correct,” he
said. —WITH A REPORT FROM TINA G. SANTOS INQ
DOH closely watching 6

emerging COVID-19 hot
spots
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said

it was closely watching six emerging coronavirus hot spots in the country to
ensure that the local health systems there would not be overwhelmed.
The emerging hot spots are Cebu City, Ormoc City, and the provinces of
Cebu, Southern Leyte, Leyte and Samar, which had accounted for a
combined 5,305 cases as of Tuesday.
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“There are not that many cases yet in these areas but we are seeing that their
rate of increase is faster compared to other areas,” Health Undersecretary
Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press briefing on Wednesday.
Suppressing viral spread

“This is why the national government provided assistance to immediately
suppress the spread of the virus. We sent in equipment to ramp up the testing
capacity of Cebu province and required the strict implementation of the public
health standards with the help of the local governments in these emerging hot
spots,” she added. (See related story in Regions, Page A8.)
On Wednesday, the DOH recorded 470 additional cases, bringing the

nationwide total to 32,295. Of these cases, 357 were patients who tested
positive for the new coronavirus in the last three days. Metro Manila had the
most number of these cases, 159, followed by Central Visayas, which had
141.
The remainder of the additional infections, 113, were late cases or patients
who tested positive for the virus four days ago or earlier. Metro Manila also
topped this list with 66 of the cases.
The DOH reported that 214 more patients had recovered, pushing to 8,656
the total number of survivors of COVID-19, the severe respiratory illness
caused by the new coronavirus.
The death toll, however, increased to 1,204, as 18 more patients died. Of the
newly reported deaths, 14 died between June 4 and 17.
Vergeire said a continued increase in the number of new cases was expected
with the reopening of the economy, the loosening of quarantine restrictions,
and the increasing capacity to test for the coronavirus.
Even with the rise in the national caseload, she noted that the daily number of
cases have already “stabilized” and that the increase remained to be
“gradual.”
“This means that our current health system is able to cope with the rise in the
number of cases,” she said.
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Also, Vergeire noted a huge chance of recovery for patients since barely 1
percent were severely ill or in critical condition. Of the 22,197 active cases on
Tuesday, 102 were severely ill while 23 were intubated. The bulk of the cases,
21,362, exhibited mild symptoms, while 710 were asymptomatic.
Deaths declining
Vergeire said it was also clear the management of COVID-19 cases had
improved, as the number of reported deaths continued to decline.
“This is an encouraging sign for us. Even as cases increase in various parts of
the country, our health system is able to manage and only a few die from
COVID-19,” she said.
Currently, the Philippines’ case fatality rate is 3.73 percent, slightly above
Southeast Asia’s 2.94 percent but below the global average of 5.22 percent.
Pasay to conduct rapid

tests for nonmedical
front-liners
The city government of Pasay will conduct free rapid antibody tests for
nonmedical front-liners like market vendors, tricycle and pedicab drivers and
journalists.
“These people—the vendors and drivers, and more especially, the journalists
—are very much exposed to the risk of contamination because of the nature
of their profession which entails their close interaction with the public. So, we
need to protect them and the public that they deal with,” Mayor Emi Calixto-
Rubiano said in a statement on Thursday.
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Results of the rapid tests will help the city health office identify more COVID-
19 cases and determine who would need medical assistance.
According to Geneva-based international nongovernment organization Press

Emblem Campaign, “Media workers play an important role in the fight against
the new coronavirus, even as they face heightened and grave health risks as
they pursue crucial stories on the COVID-19 crisis.”
The group, a special consultant to the United Nations, recorded at least 146
journalists in 31 countries who have died because of coronavirus infection.
Market day scheme

There are about 5,800 tricycles and pedicabs and some hundreds of vendors
in Pasay City. The local government allowed tricycles and pedicabs to resume
operations in May.
To avoid overcrowding in public markets, the city government has imposed a

“market day scheme,” allowing barangays to open markets only three times a
week.
Mass testing in Pasay initially covered patients who were symptomatic, health
workers, and senior citizens, pregnant women, immunocompromised patients
and other vulnerable groups.
Testing was later expanded to include contacts of positive patients, City Hall
personnel and other front-liners.
Gov’t further eases GCQ

restrictions
By: Julie M. Aurelio, Melvin Gascon - @inquirerdotnet
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious

Diseases (IATF) is further easing restrictions in areas under general
community quarantine (GCQ) despite COVID-19 cases continuing to rise.
The IATF again revised the general guidelines for GCQ to allow visits to
cemeteries and open memorial parks for a group not exceeding 10 people,
who should follow health measures against the new coronavirus, according
the presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
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The number of groups to be accomodated would be up to the park

management, but the minimum health standards and physical distancing
would be the primary considerations, he said.
Restaurants and cafes in hotels can also now operate, but only up to 9 p.m.
and at a maximum of 30 percent of the venue’s capacity, Roque said.
The IATF’s latest guidelines stated that accommodation establishments may

also prepare packed meals for distribution for guests, and food orders for
take-out and delivery only.
Similarly, restaurants and cafes in clubhouse areas for outdoor non-contact

sports may also resume operations, also at 30 percent capacity, Roque said.
He added that the IATF also made recommendations on the prevailing

community quarantine all over the Philippines to which local governments
would be allowed to appeal before they are finalized.
He said President Rodrigo Duterte might announce his decision before June
29.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, a former military chief of staff, said a

“localized” lockdown imposed on 112 areas in the country had proven to be
the “best approach” to contain COVID-19 as it “surgically targets areas” where
positive or suspected cases were concentrated.
“It really works since the hot zone areas are secluded from the rest of the
community, hence, stopping the transmission to other communities,” Año said.
Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said that of the 112 areas placed
under localized lockdown as of June 21, 67 were in the Cordillera
Autonomous Region; 19 in Cebu City; 18 in Metro Manila; one each in Cavite,
Quezon, and Leyte provinces; and five in Cagayan de Oro City.
jeepneys for social
distancing
MANILA, Philippines — He is more accustomed to taking the wheel than

using the hammer. But the past three months had left Edwin Quilaton, a 49-
year-old jeepney driver in Parañaque City, with nothing to do, his vehicle idled
by the ban on public transportation under the community quarantine imposed
on Metro Manila to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Because of the jeepney’s face-to-face seating configuration, a setup that

makes it difficult for passengers to maintain physical distancing, the supposed
“King of the Road” was demoted to the last rung in the government’s
“hierarchy of transport.”
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Worried that the vehicle’s limitation would keep it off the road while the
pandemic persists, Quilaton dusted off his carpentry skills and designed
wood-and-plastic partitions fitted to a typical jeepney’s interior, separating the
passengers by a meter. As an additional barrier, a plastic curtain is installed in
the middle of the aisle.
KEEPING PASSENGERS APART Jeepney driver Edwin Quilaton installs
wood and plastic partitions to allow for some physical distancing between
passengers in the public vehicle once hailed as the King of the Road. —
RICHARD A. REYES
‘Proud of my work’
“This is my own handiwork,” he told the Inquirer with a hint of pride. “The key
here is the plastic. Even if passengers cough or sneeze inside the vehicle, the
droplets would be contained instead of scattering over a distance.”
He could double each protective layer “just to make sure none of us ever gets
sick when we get back on the road again,” he added.
As of Friday, Quilaton had rendered his service to a number of fellow drivers

— practically free of charge. He has done about 20 jeepneys “except mine.” “I
save the best for last,” he said.
He said the needed materials would cost around P1,000 per jeepney, all
shouldered by the owner.
Asked why it’s alright if he doesn’t get paid for his work, he said: “Sometimes I
just try to understand. All of us are barely surviving this pandemic; life is that
hard right now. Some operators are afraid jeepneys might be banned for
good, so why bother spending for the partitions?”
“But I am proud of my work,” he said. “I look forward to the day when I can
test it out. That’s ‘gawang Pinoy’ (proudly Filipino-made) for you, although it
seems our government officials are not interested in our craftsmanship.”
Worried for son

Since migrating to the national capital from Cebu province 17 years ago,
Quilaton has been practically living on the road, a breadwinner behind the
wheel 12 hours a day, six days a week, plying the Nichols-Baclaran-MRT
route.
It has not been easy living, he said, with no savings to speak of from his daily
earnings of about P800. But this “honest work” has enabled him to send his
eldest and only son to college.
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“I slaved away for my son who in two years should be graduating [from a hotel
and restaurant management course], “ Quilaton said. “I did my very best so
that he’d never have to stop schooling even for a year. Unfortunately, I really
can’t afford his tuition this year. He would have to skip his studies in order to
find work and help [the family] get by.”
Quilaton is one of the 55,000 jeepney drivers in Metro Manila who have been
affected by the transport ban since mid-March. Many of them have been
reduced to mendicancy, going out in groups to beg for alms on the sidewalk,
their plight making the news and amplified on social media.
Quilaton said he was one of the Parañaque residents rendered jobless by the
lockdown but who hadyet to receive cash aid from the national government.
His family has since been depending on relief goods coming from City Hall
and on small loans from relatives and friends.
Just thinking about the debts piling up makes him cry. “We don’t want to live
on dole-outs. We know how to earn a living, so the government must let us do
just that.’’
Robredo: Gov’t can’t be
complacent during
COVID-19 pandemic
By: Jhesset O. Enano - Reporter / @JhessetEnanoINQ
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday said the

government could not afford to be complacent amid the new coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and should instead be open to criticisms on its
response.
In her radio show, the Vice President also stressed that her comments on the
Duterte administration’s failure to act urgently at the onset of the outbreak
were not for political gain, after presidential spokesperson Harry Roque
remarked that she was “looking at the glass half-empty” and focusing on the
administration’s shortcomings.
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“It’s true that I am looking at the glass half-empty—and our office is trying to
fill it—because in times of crisis, we cannot afford not to fill our glass,”
Robredo said.
“It’s true that we are nitpicking, and it’s true that we are seeing the glass half-
empty—but rightly so, because we are in a crisis. The lives of our countrymen
are at stake with every mistake we make.”
The Vice President said the administration should not be content with its
actions during the outbreak, considering the country’s performance in
responding to the virus compared to other nations in the Southeast Asian
region.
Data from the World Health Organization showed that the Philippines had the
fastest rise in COVID-19 cases in the Western Pacific Region in nearly two
weeks, more than three times that of Singapore which is already battling a
second wave of infection.
“We should not be complacent and content that we were able to already do
something right, because this can easily be overshadowed by our mistakes
once we do not assess what we did wrong,” she said.
Instead of dismissing criticism as simply politically motivated, Robredo said

the government must accept these comments and use them to improve on
previous approaches in addressing the disease. INQ
Manila, QC churches on
lockdown as COVID-19
infects priest, staff
MANILA, Philippines — Two churches in Metro Manila have been placed on

lockdown after some staff members, including a priest, were found positive for
the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Fr. Jojo Buenafe, parish priest of Santisima Trinidad Parish in Malate, Manila,
said that it was decided to temporarily close the church after he and a male
staffer were infected by the contagious disease.
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“[This is] to prevent the spread of the virus,” Buenafe said in a June 26
Facebook post, adding that contact tracing was underway to identify the
people they had interacted with.
According to him, he was currently recuperating in his room, away from other
personnel who were also under voluntary quarantine despite showing no
symptoms of COVID-19.
Village officials informed
The infected staffer, on the other hand, was recovering in the hospital,
Buenafe said, adding that the parish had been in contact with barangay
officials for the implementation of health protocols.
The parish had also coordinated with the Ministry of Health Care of the
Archdiocese of Manila for their medical needs and assistance, the priest
added as he asked for prayers.
“We’re asking for your patience and understanding … we’re also asking for
your prayers so we can quickly recover and overcome this trial,” Buenafe said.
In Quezon City, the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish also announced
it would observe a two-week temporary lockdown, which began on June 25.
Based on an announcement posted on its Facebook page, one office staffer

had tested positive for COVID-19.
“This temporary measure has been immediately decided and implemented, in

addition to subsequent swab testing of parish personnel, for the protection of
everyone,” it said, adding that online Masses would continue.
JULY-REVISED
Lockdown extension
pushed in Cebu City
Cimatu says local situation ‘very alarming’ amid spike in COVID-19 cases, deaths
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Julie M. Aurelio, Nestle Semilla - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:19 AM July 01, 2020

DANCING IN THE STREET Residents of Sitio ISKP (Inahan sa Kanunayng
Panabang) in Cebu City dance in the streets as music blares from a sound
system set up in their community during a fiesta celebration. Authorities say
the residents violated quarantine restrictions meant to contain the spread of
COVID-19 cases in the city. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu is pushing for an extension of the
enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Cebu City to contain the spread of
the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), describing health statistics in the
city as “very alarming.”
“We have to contain cases first before easing the ECQ. Then once it is eased,
we can concentrate it on granular lockdowns,” said Cimatu, who was tapped
by President Duterte to oversee the government’s response in containing the
spread of COVID-19 in Cebu City.
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Lockdowns in 12 barangays with high COVID-19 cases should be maintained

even if cases tapered off, he said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Cimatu said 13 deaths were recorded in Cebu City on Monday alone, noting
that 30 of every 100 people tested for COVID-19 would turn out positive for
the dreaded virus.
Cebu City recorded 5,915 COVID-19 cases as of June 29, the Department of
Health said in its latest advisory. Of these, 3,374 were active cases, while
2,375 had recovered and 166 had died.At a press conference on Tuesday,
lawyer Rey Gealon, spokesperson for the city government, said at least 69
city employees contracted COVID-19 in the past weeks.
Rising deaths
“Deaths are rising, including those for Cebu City alone. We have to contain
this first,” Cimatu said.
He cited violations of restrictions on mass gatherings, such as a recent

procession held in Cebu City, as he warned that administrative cases will be
filed against local officials who violate quarantine restrictions.
Earlier, the President placed Cebu City under ECQ from the more relaxed
general community quarantine after a surge in infections.
Cimatu attributed the spike to overcrowding in the villages, violations of

quarantine restrictions and the return of stranded residents who might have
been infected with the virus.
Residents of another subvillage here are being investigated by authorities for
violating health protocols during a fiesta celebration on June 28.
Videos and photographs posted on social media showed residents of Sitio

Inahan sa Kanunayng Panabang, or ISKP (Our Mother of Perpetual Help), in
Barangay Calamba dancing in the streets while others took part in drinking
sprees outside a chapel.
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Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of the Central Visayas police,
said the celebration was a clear violation of the government’s ban against
mass gathering, especially in areas under ECQ, the strictest form of
quarantine.
“There are really hard-headed individuals out there,” he said.
On June 27, devotees gathered in the streets of Sitio Alumnus in Barangay

Basak San Nicolas to join a late afternoon procession and Sinulog street
presentation in honor of the Sto. Niño (Holy Child Jesus).
Police filed charges against 10 officials of Basak San Nicolas, including village
chief Norman Navarro, and five organizers for violating provisions of Republic
Act No. 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health
Events of Public Health Concern Act, and a local ordinance that prohibits
mass gathering while the city is under ECQ.
Ferro said investigators were identifying the people involved in the

merrymaking in Sitio ISKP. At least seven ISKP residents were taken to the
police station on Tuesday for investigation, said Victor Quijano, Calamba
village chief.
Cash aid
Cimatu is planning the relocation of isolation centers that are too close to
communities. He proposed that the Cebu City coliseum be converted into an
isolation area.Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said residents of Cebu
City would be given priority in the distribution of the second tranche of the
social amelioration program.
Roque also gave assurance that the lack of doctors, nurses and medical staff
was being attended to with the deployment of public health doctors and
medical personnel from the military to the city.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, whose family hails from Cebu, said Cimatu
should have a Cebuano working with him to address the COVID-19
problem.“The Cebuanos could sometimes have the mentality that if you are
from Manila, they are aloof. I have to be very blunt about it. We Cebuanos are
like that,” Sotto said.
If someone from Manila would issue directives, many Cebuanos would raise
their eyebrows at the situation, he said. “But if it’s someone who comes from
the area, it would be easier to accept whatever would be implemented there.
That’s only my opinion,” Sotto said.“Secretary Cimatu has been doing a good
job; there’s no problem with that. What I mean is there has to be someone
from Cebu who would be his counterpart or assistant,” Sotto added.
—WITH A REPORT FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA INQ
Shutdown of 3,000
companies affects
100,000 workers
MANILA, Philippines — More than 3,000 business establishments have repor-

ted a temporary shutdown of operations, while more than 200 have closed
down permanently since January this year, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III
said, adding that the closures affected some 100,000 workers.
Bello said he had received reports that 3,012 companies have closed down
temporarily amid the COVID-19 pandemic that prompted President Duterte to
place Luzon under a strict lockdown in mid-March in an effort to contain the
spread of the new coronavirus.
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The labor official said he would meet with senators to discuss how the labor
department could continue its COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program
meant to provide cash assistance to displaced workers in the formal sector.
Bello said he was banking on the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector
and the government’s public works and transportation projects to generate
more jobs and help the economy bounce back.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III meanwhile called for the opening of
the economy, especially in Metro Manila and the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna,
Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region, saying that Filipinos should learn to live
with the “new reality” that the virus was not going away anytime soon, “and
we’d have to live with it for a long period of time.”
In a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, Dominguez said

Metro Manila and Calabarzon should move to a modified general community
quarantine level as soon as possible “because people have to start working.”
Dominguez noted that 67 percent of the industries and businesses in the

country are based in the two areas, which remain mostly under general
community quarantine. Only barangays and companies that report an
increase in COVID-19 cases should be put on lockdown, he said.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque meanwhile said the administration

was moving toward opening up the economy “so that people will now have a
livelihood and not just be alive physically,” he said in a television interview.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday said he supported

Dominguez’s proposal to ease restrictions in the country’s two main business
centers, adding that prolonging strict quarantine measures in Metro Manila
and Calabarzon would further cripple the economy.
Fewer new cases

reported as DOH tweaks
data process
The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported fewer additional

COVID-19 cases, attributing the smaller figure to a temporary change in the
data process.
The DOH reported 294 additional COVID-19 cases, a significant reduction

from the over 600-1,000 range in recent days.
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It brought the national caseload to 38,805 infections.
Of the additional cases, the DOH said 52 were “fresh,” or patients who tested
positive for the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 in the last three days,
and 242 were “late,” or patients who tested positive four days ago or earlier.
‘Extraction time’
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said some changes were
made to the “extraction time,” or the time when the Epidemiology Bureau
extracts the testing data from the DOH system.
“From 24 hours, the data that we now have is only worth 19 hours because
we changed our process to give the Epidemiology Bureau more time to
analyze the data,” Vergeire said in a televised news briefing.
She said the change was temporary and that the DOH hoped the data it would
release in the coming days would be more substantial and timely.
Vergeire said Thursday’s report was based on the daily accomplishment

reports submitted by only 58, or 81 percent, of the 72 testing laboratories.
Of the fresh cases, the DOH said 10 were from Metro Manila, 25 spread
across the country, and 17 were repatriates.
Of the late cases, it said 50 were from the metropolis, 164 from various parts
of the country, and 28 were repatriates.
The DOH also reported that 235 more patients had recovered, pushing the
number of COVID-19 survivors to 10,673.
But four more patients died, bringing the death toll to 1,274.
SC asked: Compel gov’t

to conduct mass testing
for COVID-19
A group led by former Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo petitioned the
Supreme Court on Friday to compel the government to conduct mass testing
to stop the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In a 77-page mandamus petition, the petitioners criticized the government for

resorting to “excessive and unnecessary force” in combating a pandemic.
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The “militaristic measures,” they said, led instead to the arrest of more than
60,000 people for violating quarantine regulations and to more than 100 days
of an “aimless” lockdown that resulted in millions of jobs lost and businesses
shut down.
“As expected, the measures adopted by the government has [sic] failed to
address the pandemic. The virus, after all, does not cower in fear when faced
with guns and tanks,” the petitioners said.
“After over three months of strict community quarantine—the longest in the

world—the number of infections continues to rise … [T]he government still has
no cogent plan set in place to halt the contagion,” they said.
‘Right to health’
The petitioners said “they are asserting their right to the highest attainable
standard of health in the hope of seeking protection not only for their lives, but
also for their cherished freedoms.”
“Petitioners are invoking the Honorable Court’s judicial power to recognize this
primordial and self-executory right in order to chart an agreeable ‘new
normal’—one where the state does not cavalierly renege on its obligation to
protect and promote the people’s right to health,” they said.
“The omission of proactive and efficient mass testing amid the COVID-19
pandemic has shown that a systemic and normalized violation of the right to
health engenders the impairment of other human rights and liberties, such as
the rights to travel, livelihood or work, education, and access to justice,” the
petitioners argued.
‘NO COGENT PLAN’ Former Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo and
other activist leaders have slammed the government for its “militaristic”
response to the pandemic, which they say has failed to arrest the spread of
the coronavirus and instead targeted the citizenry. They also called on the
government to double its efforts in mass testing. Top photo shows rapid tests
conducted in Dagupan City, Pangasinan province. —MALACAÑANG
PHOTO/WILLIE LOMIBAO
‘Proactive’ mass testing
The petitioners called on the court to direct the Cabinet officials to conduct
mass testing “in a proactive and efficient matter” by ensuring that such testing
would be free, accessible, and available to all suspect cases, contacts of
probable and confirmed cases, front-line health-care workers, and high-risk
and vulnerable communities.
They said the scheme implemented by the Department of Health with regard
to who should be tested first must be abolished.
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Among the Cabinet officials named respondents in the petition were Health
Secretary Francisco Duque III and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año—named
also in their respective capacities as chair and vice chair of the Inter-Agency
Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF)—as
well as Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief
implementer in the National Task Force on COVID-19.
Taguiwalo is currently the spokesperson of the Citizens’ Urgent Response to

End COVID-19. The group is represented by the National Union of Peoples’
Lawyers.
‘We are already doing that’

Roque expressed optimism that the high court will junk the petition as he
pointed out that the government already had a program to expand targeted
testing.
“We are already doing that. We waited to have more laboratories and for the
DBM (Department of Budget and Management) to buy 10 million testing kits,
and this is in addition to the rapid test kits that we are buying,” he said at a
press briefing.
“Among those to be tested are not just the symptomatic and those in contact
with confirmed cases. It now includes asymptomatics and other front-liners
like media personnel. We will also test other government employees serving
as front-liners,” Roque said.
“This means that, in principle, it’s approved that we will test beyond those who
are symptomatic. But we will still wait for the guidelines to be issued,” Roque
said, citing IATF Resolution No. 51.
The Philippines currently has a maximum testing capacity of 50,000

polymerase chain reaction tests a day, but the actual tests done are only at
16,000 a day. As of Tuesday, 681,667 had been tested.
The government wants to test at least 2 percent of the country’s 110 million
population for the COVID-19 virus, or at least 10 million Filipinos in the next
eight to 10 months. —WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO
Website facilitates
plasma donations for
COVID-19 patients
MANILA, Philippines — A new website has been launched as an online

registry for donations of plasma from patients who have recovered from the
new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Survivors of COVID-19 who wish to donate plasma may register at the

plasmangpagasa.com website, which has teamed up with four hospitals so far
—the Philippine General Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines and the St.
Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig and in Quezon City.
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The website, which went online on Thursday, describes itself as “a secure,

one-stop COVID-19 survivor registration system.” So far, one donor has
registered on the site.
The site — plasmangpagasa.com — also identified its partner hospitals as the

ones “with the capacity to facilitate plasma transfusion.”
Antibodies
There is no cure yet for COVID-19, but donations of plasma from recovered patients are sought
after, as this component of blood contains antibodies that are deemed vital for the treatment of
COVID-19 and other diseases.
The Food and Drug Administration of the United States, for example, has a “Donate COVID-19
Plasma” link on its website.
Those who wish to register at plasmangpagasa.com must have prior diagnosis of COVID-19, as
documented by a laboratory test, and must have fully recovered for at least two weeks.
The website has a “Register” box that directs the donor to an online form to fill in his or her
contact, medical and other information.
A tick box in the form has a list of the website’s partner hospitals. The donor is asked to choose
which hospital he wants to give to.
The website was launched by the partnership of Bacolod City-based web developer Talking
Myna and the office of Sen. Sonny Angara, himself a recovered COVID-19 patient.
In a statement, the senator said “There are a lot of inspiring cases of people who were critically
ill but were able to recover after undergoing convalescent plasma therapy, alongside other
treatments. Donating blood plasma is the least that I could do to hopefully save someone.”
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Angara has twice donated plasma. Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, another senator who contracted
and recovered from COVID-19, also donated plasma, according to the website.
The Department of Health (DOH) recorded on Saturday an additional 1,494 COVID-19 cases,
pushing the national tally to 41,830.
Of the new cases, 403 tested positive in the last three days, as reported by 60 out of the 73
accredited laboratories. Of these, 180 are from Metro Manila and 90 are from Central Visayas.
The remainder of the new cases, or 1,091, are patients who tested positive four days ago or
earlier. Nearly half of these cases, or 499, are from Metro Manila, while 146 are from Central
Visayas.
There are now a total of 11,453 patients who have recovered from COVID-19, with the recovery
of 380 more patients.
However, the death toll increased to 1,290 as 10 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory
disease. Of the new fatalities, eight died in June.
New system
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH will introduce a new system of
reporting COVID-19 cases next week.
Instead of classifying cases into fresh and late, the DOH would come out with an epidemiologic
graph that will plot the additional cases based on the onset of illness in a patient.
“This is to help our countrymen see which of the new cases were recorded within the past three
days based on onset of illness so we’d know the true picture of our daily cases,” Vergeire said.
In late May, the DOH classified its daily cases into fresh and late, as the agency shifted to an
automated system to validate new cases faster.
Increased public contact

causing surge in virus
cases – DOH

MANILA, Philippines — Increased contact among the population as a result of
the relaxation of quarantine measures is causing a surge in new coronavirus
cases in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Sunday.
The DOH reported a record-high 2,434 additional coronavirus infections,

pushing the nationwide total to 44,254.
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“As the country continues to ease community quarantine measures, the rise in
the number of cases today may be attributed to the increased contact among
the population,” it said in a statement.
Metro tops list

Of the additional cases, 1,147 were “fresh,” or patients who tested positive for
the new coronavirus in the last three days, and 1,287 were “late,” or people
who tested positive four days ago or earlier.
The DOH said Sunday’s “fresh” cases were based on the daily
accomplishment reports submitted by 58 of the 73 testing laboratories
currently operating.
Of the fresh cases, 440 were from Metro Manila, 364 from Central Visayas,
336 spread out across the country, and seven were repatriates.
The DOH also reported that 489 more patients had recovered, bringing the
total number of COVID-19 survivors to 11,942.
But the death toll increased to 1,297 with the deaths of seven more patients.
Six of the fatalities died in June, the DOH said.
The department appealed to the public to help stem the rise in infections by
observing preventive measures such as wearing protective masks, physical
distancing and frequent hand-washing.
Stay at home
It advised people to avoid unnecessarily leaving their homes to help curb the
transmission of the virus.
The DOH also called on businesses to implement minimum health standards

on their premises and immediately report clustering of infections in offices.
/atmpositive
MRT 3 suspends
operations as virus
cases climb to 186
5-day shutdown until July 11 to give way to testing of all 3,200 personnel
MANILA, Philippines — The Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 will shut down
operations for at least five days starting today, July 7, after 186 personnel
tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), including ticket
sellers who had been assigned at some of the railway’s busiest stations.
The MRT 3 management announced on Monday the closure, which would

allow its entire workforce of over 3,200 employees to be tested. It said it
needed at least 1,300 personnel to test negative before it could resume even
limited operations.
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As of Monday afternoon, it was still 964 employees short of the required

number.
Though the MRT 3 management said the plan was to halt operations until
Saturday, July 11, it acknowledged in a statement that the situation was highly
fluid. The shutdown could be shortened or extended, depending on how
quickly the test results would be released.
MRT 3 officials said that operations would resume even if the number of
available workers could operate only a limited number of trains. Before the
shutdown, the initial wave of confirmed COVID-19 cases at Metro Manila’s
busiest railway system had prompted management to reduce the number of
operating trains this week to just 10 to 12 trains, compared to the normal 16 to
19.
The employees, who also included maintenance providers and

subcontractors, were being subjected to swab tests by the Philippine Coast
Guard at the Palacio de Maynila swabbing center with additional assistance
from the Red Cross.
The number of MRT 3 personnel who tested positive for COVID-19 climbed to
186 on Monday, an addition of 14 new cases from the day before. Transport
Undersecretary TJ Batan told reporters that 12 of these were personnel
assigned to some of the busiest stations.
Reduced risk
Officials sought to allay concerns among passengers who had used the MRT
3, saying station personnel wore full personal protective equipment (PPE)
suits that reduced the risk of transmission.
“This is exactly the reason why we increased PPE precautions among station
personnel even before these new cases surfaced,” Batan said. “They were in
masks, face shields, gloves and gowns exactly to safeguard passengers and
personnel as well.”
Around 166 of those infected were maintenance workers assigned to the

railway’s underground depot, also in Quezon City, where cases have
exploded since the first one was found on June 14. Batan said initial contact
tracing showed the infected station workers had not come into contact with
depot personnel.
It was unclear, however, how transport officials would trace commuters who
had come into contact with the positive ticket sellers, or if that was even
possible. Transport Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran said on Monday that
riders should monitor themselves for symptoms.
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“During the temporary shutdown, thorough disinfection of all MRT 3 facilities

will be conducted, including its depot, stations and trains,” the railway
managers said.
The 90 buses under the MRT 3 bus augmentation program would also
continue to ferry thousands of commuters who would be displaced by the
closure. An additional 150 buses would be deployed for the Edsa Busway
service between Monumento and Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange.
Cebu City steps up

contact tracing
Baguio mayor’s group helps health personnel keep track of COVID-19 patients
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Dale G. Israel - @inquirerdotnet
CEBU CITY—Sensing a weak spot in this city’s contact tracing strategy,

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has brought in Baguio City Mayor
Benjamin Magalong to help organize teams that will identify people who have
close contact with those infected with the new coronavirus (COVID-19).
“There are three weapons to contain the virus: community quarantine, testing
and contact tracing. The most difficult part is really contact tracing. And that’s
what Cebu City lacks. We don’t know where our targets are,” said Cimatu, the
COVID-19 point person in Cebu.
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Magalong, a retired police general, arrived in Cebu City on Tuesday with six
staff members who would train the local government’s contact tracing teams
for two weeks and help level up its strategy against the virus.
Digital surveillance
Two of Magalong’s companions are members of the City Hall information
technology division who operate a digital surveillance system that keeps track
of patients even after they have recovered.
Edgardo Labella: Massive testing since March
The system also keeps tabs on people with whom infected patients have had
direct or indirect contact, and their movement around the community. Data
compiled by the system help government doctors forecast where infections
are likely to rise.The epidemiology team convinces patients to reveal their
identities to encourage their contacts to submit to tests and voluntary
quarantine.
Policemen tapped
But key to this process are policemen who have been tapped for their
investigative skills in drawing information from patients and in their ability to
track down people.Magalong said a contact tracing team should have a
doctor, a nurse, a health worker and a police investigator.Cebu City Mayor
Edgardo Labella earlier formed 35 teams of contact tracers with five members
each. But Magalong said the teams may not be enough for the city’s 80
villages.
“Contact tracing is a very stressful strategy in containing the virus. Looking at

the number of cases, 35 [teams] are not enough. The more contact tracers,
the better,” said the Baguio mayor.Labella said he hoped to increase the
number of contact tracers to 80. “Hopefully, there could be some medical
practitioners to help these teams. I am glad that I have the support of the
national government. We should see to it that we will have at least a thousand
tests every day in the 80 villages in the city.”
He added: “We have been conducting massive testing as early as March.

Some friends advised me not to be too aggressive otherwise the cases will
increase. But I don’t care if the cases will increase as long as we do our job in
locating those infected with the virus.”
Proactive testing
Magalong lauded the Cebu City government’s continued massive testing to
identify, isolate and treat those who contracted the virus.
“Proactive and expanded testing is the only way to determine the actual
situation and come up with a strategic solution. If there is continued testing,
there would be a significant increase in cases,” he said.
“You have a very proactive local government here. We don’t have to dictate
[to] them. They did a great job. We’re just here to share our best practices (in
Baguio) and enhance their (Cebu City) capacity in contact tracing.” Magalong,
a former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the
Philippine National Police, introduced the enhanced cognitive interviewing, a
police questioning technique to get information about a crime scene from
eyewitnesses and victims.
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Benjamin Magalong: Investigative skills helpful
“Assuming, no one has a background in cognitive interviewing skill then this is
something that we will impart to the participants,” he said.
If Cebu City would manage to implement an effective contact tracing strategy,

it might reduce its number of COVID-19 cases, Cimatu said. “We have to
catch up, locate and identify where the virus is in Cebu,” he said.Strict
lockdown poised
He also said he planned to put some subvillages or barangay in the city with a
high number of cases under strict lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.
Cebu City was first placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on
March 28 to May 31. On June 1, its status was downgraded to a more relaxed
general community quarantine which led to the reopening of some businesses
and public transportation.On June 15, President Duterte put the city under
ECQ again due to the rising number of cases, as well as the city’s problem of
providing health-care assistance to patients.
As of July 6, the Department of Health recorded 6,870 COVID-19 cases in

Cebu City, including 250 deaths and 2,869 recoveries. At least 1,636 people
are recuperating in hospitals while 2,114 others are staying in quarantine
facilities. —WITH REPORTS FROM NESTLE SEMILLA AND VINCENT
CABREZA INQ
COVID-19 cases keep

rising due to more tests,
ignored measures – DOH

Commuters line up to have their temperature checked before boarding buses
at the MRT 3 North Avenue station on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 as the Metro
Rail Transit (MRT3) suspended its train services due to coronavirus infection.
INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday
attributed the rise in COVID-19 cases to its increased testing capacity and the
public’s failure to comply with the minimum health standards it set to control
the spread of the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory disease.
According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the increase in

the number of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of
COVID-19, was due in part to continuing transmission of the pathogen in
communities because of “lack of implementation of minimum health
standards.”
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“We appeal to everyone to always comply with our minimum health standards
such as wearing masks, frequent hand-washing and physical distancing,
especially in enclosed areas and in places without proper ventilation,”
Vergeire said.
Health measures“We expect cases to continue to rise as we open up because
there is more contact between people and a lot still forget to observe our
minimum health protocols,” she said.
Vergeire reiterated that strict compliance with the health measures was
necessary, especially that recent studies found a mutation of the virus, which
makes it more infectious.
Earlier, Dr. Edsel Salvana, infectious disease expert and DOH technical
advisory group member, said the D614G mutation “makes the virus more
infectious.” This means it can spread faster and overwhelm the country’s
health system “if we don’t double our control efforts.”
“Mutations do occur with [the] COVID-19 virus, and this particular one is now
more common in the world and seems to be more infectious. We are
continuing to monitor this development and our scientists are sequencing
some of our local viruses as we speak,” Vergeire said.
“Again, our safety protocols must be strengthened … Let us continue to limit

our travel to only essential ones,” she added.
On Tuesday, the DOH reported an additional 1,540 infections, bringing the

nationwide tally to 47,873. Of the new cases recorded from 69 of the 74
accredited laboratories, 993 were patients who tested positive within the last
three days. Metro Manila recorded the highest number of these cases, 428,
followed by Central Visayas, which had 109.
The remainder of the new cases, or 547, were patients who tested positive
four days ago or earlier. Metro Manila also had the most number of these
cases, 191, while Central Visayas had 65.
There are now a total 12,386 patients who have recovered from COVID-19
with the recovery of 201 more patients.
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The death toll, however, rose to 1,309 as six patients succumbed from the
severe respiratory disease. Three of these patients died in June.
On Sunday, the DOH’s accredited laboratories were able to process 16,180

samples. But a testing backlog of 10,341 remained.
‘Passive surveillance’
Commenting on the rising number of coronavirus infections on Tuesday, Sen.
Joel Villanueva said the Philippines was not conducting epidemiological
surveillance to monitor the spread of the COVID-19 bug in real-time and
described the current efforts as “passive surveillance.”
The term refers to a system where the health service just receives reports
submitted by hospitals, clinics, public health centers and other sources,
Villanueva said, citing a definition by the World Health Organization.
Passive surveillance is an inexpensive way to cover large areas, he said, but

it could lead to discrepancies and delays in data.
The government should be doing active surveillance, which would entail

gathering information from communities and using the data to come up with a
response tailor-fit for the area, he said.
“Our government should take a good hard look at its current strategy. The
rising number of cases, especially in the past three days, should … be a red
flag. We should make the necessary adjustments immediately because we
cannot afford another lockdown,” Villanueva said in a statement.
Reporting numbers daily and apprehending violators of quarantine and health

measures are not enough, he said.
The government should look for coronavirus hot spots and conduct random
tests to know how wide the virus has spread, he said.
Without active monitoring, people are just surprised by data that shows virus
has spread to their area, he said.
Gov’t mishandling crisis

According to Villanueva, the lack of real-time monitoring of the coronavirus
shows how health authorities were mishandling the crisis.
He warned that poor handling of the crisis could erode business confidence
and hamper government efforts to revive the economy.
“Business confidence is tied with trust in the health sector management.

Industries and productive economic sectors won’t risk resuming operations if
there is a strong possibility of another lockdown, which would be disastrous
for our economy and, consequently, for our workers,” Villanueva said.
Malacañang said the increasing number of coronavirus infections was not
surprising, as there was no vaccine yet for COVID-19, and that Filipinos
should not worry about it because the majority of the cases were mild or
asymptomatic.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Filipinos should learn to “dance”

with the virus, that is, learn to live with it because it would be around for a long
time.
“The cases may increase, but while we protect our vulnerable, while we
observe our minimum health standards, and while we expand our test, trace
and treat strategy, we can manage to live amid COVID-19. That is what we
should do,” Roque told a press briefing on Tuesday.
He said the government was changing strategy in the fight against the virus by
shifting the responsibility of containing it to the local governments, the private
sector and the citizens themselves.
Local officials, he said, would now enforce targeted lockdowns—barangay,

street or building — where there are infections.
“Yesterday, we met with the Metro Manila mayors. They know the areas with
increasing cases of COVID-19 and they are actively closing these down in
accordance with our policy of localized lockdowns instead of community
lockdowns. That is the big change in our strategy,” Roque said.
He urged businesses to be more active by testing their employees while the

government expanded its testing, contact tracing, and isolation and treatment
capacity.
—With reports from Leila B. Salaverria and Julie M. Aurelio
COVID-19 count: DOH to

stress ‘active,’ not actual
cases
MANILA, Philippines — The administration is revising its communication

strategy in the COVID-19 crisis and is now highlighting the number of active
cases instead of the number of actual cases reported in the country,
according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
Speaking in a meeting with President Duterte on Tuesday, Roque said the

new strategy was one of the “major changes” in the government’s
communication plan.
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He said the government was now highlighting the number of active COVID-19
cases because “nonactive cases don’t matter.”
“The number of cases will really increase while there is no vaccine. What is
important is to know how many active cases there are,” Roque said.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,539 additional

infections, taking the national total to 50,359. Of that total, 36,457 were active
cases, the DOH said.
Also being highlighted is the number of recoveries, he said.
“We are emphasizing that the number of deaths is getting smaller,” he said.
The Philippines’ positivity rate is 7 percent, lower than the 10-percent

benchmark of the World Health Organization (WHO), he said.
Roque also said the government would show data that its programs to tackle
the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, had been effective.
The mortality rate in the country is going down and is now 2.9 percent, he
said, noting that the global average is 5.5 percent.
Possible infections
Roque also said the government would remind the people that had it not
imposed the lockdown in March, 3.6 million people would have been infected,
as estimated by the University of the Philippines.
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“So even if the number is rising and we are now at 40,000 plus, had we not
taken action early, 3.6 million [people] would have gotten sick,” he said.
New infections have been topping 1,500 in recent days, hitting more than
2,000 on July 5 and July 6.
The surge has pushed Metro Manila hospitals to near capacity, prompting the
DOH to require them to allot 30 percent of their beds for COVID-19 cases and
be ready to add 20 percent more should it become necessary.
Of the 2,539 additional cases the DOH reported on Wednesday, 1,922 were
patients who tested positive for the coronavirus in the last three days. The
remainder, or 617, were patients who tested positive four days ago or earlier.
More recoveries
The DOH also reported that 202 more patients had recovered, bringing the
total number of COVID-19 survivors to 12,588. The death toll, however,
increased to 1,314 with the deaths of five more patients. Two of them died in
June.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters on Wednesday

that during a meeting on Monday, the DOH reminded Metro Manila hospital
administrators that they could refer mild and asymptomatic COVID cases to
quarantines to avoid reaching capacity.
The strategy runs in line with the DOH’s policy of giving priority to severe and
critical cases. Vergeire, however, said it did not authorize the hospitals to turn
away patients not seriously ill. —WITH A REPORT FROM JOVIC YEE
BuCor releases 79 amid

efforts vs COVID-19
Prisoners were granted parole and have completed their quarantine

CONDITIONAL FREEDOM Bureau of Corrections inmates who were granted
parole are briefed before their release. —PHOTO COURTESY OF BUCOR
An initial batch of 79 inmates of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) who were
granted parole finally walked out of the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City
after they completed their quarantine and tested negative of the new
Each of the released inmates received cash aid and fare back to their
hometowns. BuCor said they were escorted to their respective transportation
stops “to ensure they will return home safe to their families.”
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The prisoners were released on July 6, BuCor reported two days later.
Eligibility
The 79 inmates who were eligible under the simplified guidelines for parole
came from different security camps of the New Bilibid Prison: 16 from
maximum security; 56 from medium; five from minimum; and two from the
Reception and Diagnostic Center.On June 22, 162 inmates underwent rapid
testing during their quarantine as one of the requirements before their release.
The 79 came from that group.
“The conduct of rapid testing on these [prisoners] and further [swab] testing on
those found positive shall ensure that they will be COVID-19 free when they
go back [to their homes],” BuCor said.
‘High risk’Eligible for parole and executive clemency are inmates who are 65
years old and above, who have served at least five years of their sentence or
whose continued imprisonment may endanger their health. Inmates convicted
of heinous crimes or drug-related offenses are classified as “high risk” and
therefore not eligible for parole or executive clemency.
Most of those from under maximum security were convicted of heinous crimes
as enumerated under Republic Act No. 7659.
Petition
The Supreme Court has yet to hear the petition in behalf of 22 political
prisoners for the release of the sick and elderly among them, especially amid
the continuing threat of the pandemic.
The petition by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers and the Public Interest
Law Center also sought the relief on bail of all the other vulnerable prisoners,
including pregnant women.
BuCor has yet to post updates of COVID-19 cases in its prisons. In its last
report, as of June 17, the agency recorded 301 confirmed cases, of which 223
were inmates of the NBP and the Correctional Institution for Women in
Mandaluyong.Positive
Nine women detainees of Pasay City Jail have tested positive for COVID-19
on Friday.
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The nine, all asymptomatic, were already transferred to the isolation center in
Payatas, Quezon City, where infected detainees are brought, according to
Chief Insp. Stefhanny Salazar, community relations service chief of the
Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.Salazar said an initial 129
detainees were tested in the Pasay City Jail-Female Dormitory, one of the
most congested in Metro Manila.
“We are worried that they would acquire the virus so we collaborated with the
local government units to have them all tested,” she said.
According to Jail Supt. Editha Balansay of the dormitory, a detainee who

tested positive on June 24 after a mandatory swab test prompted the testing
of 340 other prisoners, including the nine asymptomatic detainees.
They will be returned to the Pasay jail once they test negative after their
quarantine in Payatas. —WITH A REPORT FROM JODEE A. AGONCILLO
New WHO guidelines

acknowledge possible
airborne virus
transmission
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday released new guidelines

on the transmission of the novel coronavirus that acknowledged some reports
of airborne transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19, but stopped short
of confirming its spread through the air.
In its latest transmission guidance, the WHO acknowledged that some

outbreak reports related to indoor crowded spaces have suggested the
possibility of aerosol transmission, such as during choir practice, in
restaurants or in fitness classes.
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But the WHO said more research is “urgently needed to investigate such
instances and assess their significance for transmission of COVID-19.”
The report follows an open letter from scientists who specialize in the spread
of disease in the air—so-called aerobiologists—and who urged the global
body to update its guidance on how the respiratory disease spreads to include
aerosol transmission.
KEEPING SAFE IN ENCLOSED SPACES Wearing personal protective

equipment, the Department of Transportation employees monitor health and
safety regulations as observed by commuters at the Edsa-Taft Avenue
intersection in Pasay City. —RICHARD A. REYES
Good ventilation
The WHO previously said the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads primarily
through small droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected
person that quickly sink to the ground.
The new guidelines, however, suggest people should avoid crowds, ensure
good ventilation in buildings and encourage masks when physical distancing
is not possible.
“This is a move in the right direction, albeit a small one. It is becoming clear
that the pandemic is driven by super-spreading events, and that the best
explanation for many of those events is aerosol transmission,” said Jose
Jimenez, a chemist at the University of Colorado who signed the letter, which
was published on Monday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
‘Assumption’
At a press briefing on Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there is not a lot of
solid evidence yet on airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, but added: “I
think it’s a reasonable assumption that it does occur.”
Fauci said the evidence so far, although incomplete, is “the fundamental basis
for why we are now so intent on getting people—particularly people without
symptoms—to wear masks. To be able to see if we can mitigate against that,”
he said.
Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech who contributed to the WHO
letter, said she is encouraged that the agency is now acknowledging that
airborne transmission may occur.
But she said the WHO is using an “outdated definition of droplets and
aerosols” and is too focused on the size of the droplets and the distance they
travel.
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The WHO defines aerosols as being under 5 microns because only particles
that small could float in the air long enough to be inhaled.
42 new PH deaths
However, Jimenez and Marr said a much larger range of particle size has
been shown to contribute to infection. Rather than size, they said the
differences between droplets and aerosols should be based on how the
infection occurs: If a person inhales the virus and becomes infected, it’s an
aerosol. If the infection occurs by contact, they are droplets.
Although the WHO has been focused on airborne transmission at long

distances, Marr said breathing in aerosols “is of greater concern at close
contact and when people are in the same room.”
The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday recorded 42 new deaths, the

highest single-day increase in the number of fatalities due to COVID-19 in
nearly three months.
The more than three dozen additional deaths bring the COVID-19 death toll in
the country to 1,360. Based on the date of reporting, the 42 fatalities are the
highest reported in a day since April 12 when there were 50 recorded deaths.
On Thursday, the DOH did not record any new deaths as further validation
was needed.
Of the new deaths, 27 occurred in July.
Cebu accounted for the majority of the newly reported deaths, or 36.
Backlogs
Dr. Beverly Ho, the DOH director for health promotion and communication
service, said that based on the department’s data, “more than half, or 57
percent [of deaths], are among those age 60 years and above.”
To date, the national caseload has reached 52,914 with the addition of 1,233
new cases—of which 848 are patients who tested positive in the last three
days.
Metro Manila accounted for almost half of those cases, or 405, followed by
Central Visayas which had 30.
The remainder of the new cases, or 385, are patients who tested positive four
days ago or earlier. Metro Manila still had the highest number of these cases
at 139, while Central Visayas had 28.
There are now a total of 13,230 patients who have recovered from the severe
respiratory disease with the recovery of 286 more patients.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH was working on
addressing the testing backlogs, which grew to 12,208 on Wednesday
following the recent expansion of the DOH’s testing protocol.
Limiting samples
Apart from the continuing shortage of supplies, Vergeire attributed the backlog
to their newly accredited laboratories being “overwhelmed” with samples as
they began their operations.
“Right now they are limiting the samples they are receiving so that they could
process the backlogs …. We are addressing this. We already identified zones
for each of the local governments and hospitals so that when one laboratory is
encountering problems like backlogs, it can be assisted by a nearby
laboratory,” she said.
Data as of Wednesday showed that there are already a total 910,694 samples
processed by the laboratories from 845,434 persons. The government targets
to test by end-July at least 1.5 percent of the country’s 108 million population,
or 1.6 million. —WITH REPORTS FROM JOVIC YEE
DOH probes claims

plasma being sold to
virus patients
By: Dale G. Israel, Jovic Yee - @inquirerdotnet
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philipines — The Department of Health (DOH) in Central

Visayas (Region 7) is looking into claims on social media that some recovered
new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients are making money by selling
their convalescent plasma to families of critically ill patients.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, the DOH Region 7 spokesperson, warned hospitals
against processing convalescent plasma bought from these patients.
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“The licensing division will actually look into it (these allegations). We have
advised also the blood banks of the hospitals that they should not process
these even for their own patients. If we [find] out that they are doing this, their
license may be revoked,” she said in an interview.
There have been claims on social media about plasma being sold at P80,000
per bag in Barangay Luz, one of the areas in Cebu City hit hard by the
coronavirus infection.
“We really discourage that and we condemn it,” Loreche said. “Blood plasma
is supposed to be given voluntarily to those who need it and should not be
sold. If we allow that and we purchase blood for our patients, what will happen
to those who are in need [of it] and cannot afford it?”
“The plasma shall be made available for everyone—rich or poor,” Loreche

said.
Plasma is a yellow component of blood that contains antibodies that are

deemed vital for boosting the immune response to bacteria and viruses.
A new website—plasmangpagasa.com — was launched last week to

encourage online registration for donations of plasma from recovered COVID-
19 patients. The website’s current partner hospitals are the Philippine General
Hospital, the Lung Center of the Philippines and the St. Luke’s Medical Center
in Taguig and in Quezon City.
‘BLOOD PLASMA SHOULD NOT BE SOLD’ The Department of Health said it

would look into allegations of recovered patients profiting from their plasma, a
component of blood deemed vital to the immune system. —CONTRIBUTED
PHOTO
‘Cumulative numbers’
COVID-19 cases in Cebu City remained high despite the city being under
enhanced community quarantine—the only locality in the country still under
strict lockdown.
Data from the DOH in Central Visayas showed that there were 72 cases and
20 deaths reported on Friday.
In a Viber message, Loreche explained that these figures were “cumulative

numbers,” adding that reporting of deaths needed more time and was
dependent on how soon information is transmitted among other factors.
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On Saturday, the DOH reported the biggest single-day increase in the number
of patients nationwide who have recovered from COVID-19, as recoveries
surged past 14,000.
Because of its Oplan Recovery program, the DOH said, it was able to include
in its list an additional 807 recovered patients—four times the daily average of
recoveries, which pushed the total to 14,037.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier explained that the long
recovery period and an inadequate monitoring system were among the
reasons why the Philippines had the lowest number of recovered patients in
Southeast Asia.
Nearly all of the country’s COVID-19 cases are patients deemed

asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. The DOH allows these patients to
quarantine at home, provided that they have their own room and bath and are
monitored by barangay health workers.
Unfortunately, there were instances when barangay health workers could not
fully monitor patients quarantining at home, Vergeire said.
This was why, she said, the DOH introduced the Oplan Recovery program to
verify the status of patients whose health outcomes were still unreported.
1,382 new cases

Latest DOH data show there are at least 11,000 confirmed COVID-19 patients
under home quarantine—nearly a third of them in the Cordillera Administrative
Region.
The DOH said the public should “expect more recoveries in the coming days”
as the agency improved its validation process.
To date, there are 54,222 confirmed cases nationwide, with the addition of
1,387 new cases. The DOH removed 79 cases from its case count as these
were found to be duplicates.
Of the new cases, 918 are patients who tested positive within the last three
days. Metro Manila accounted for the most number of these cases at 261,
followed by 62 cases in Central Visayas.
The remainder of the new cases, or 469, are patients who tested positive four
days ago or earlier. Metro Manila still topped that list with 178, while Central
Visayas had 15.
The death toll rose to 1,372 as 12 more patients succumbed to COVID-19. Of

the newly reported deaths, only two died this month. Nine died in April and
one in May.
Cebu City spends P2.5

million for ‘tuob’ kits
Councilor insists P2,500 per kit ‘very cheap’ for every virus patient
By: Ador Vincent Mayol - Senior Reporter / @inquirervisayas

THE KIT A water heater, towels and a plastic basin are items in the “tuob” kit
bought by Cebu City for P2,500 each. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippinations —Is buying a “tuob,” or steam inhalation,
kit at P2,500 each worth it?
This is the question raised by many in this city after the city government
confirmed it had spent P2.5 million for the purchase of at least 1,000 tuob kits,
which were distributed to new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients
housed in barangay isolation centers (BICs) since May.
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The purchase was made despite repeated warnings from the Department of
Health and a group of 13 medical societies that tuob, which is being promoted
as treatment to COVID-19 by Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, was not a cure to
the dreaded virus.
Tuob is the practice of covering one’s head with a towel or blanket to inhale
steam from a small basin with boiled water infused with lemon, ginger or
eucalyptus.
Councilor Jerry Guardo defended the city’s move amid criticisms that the kits
were too expensive and that the local government should have spent the
money for more proven measures against COVID-19.
“If we can help one patient recover from COVID-19 with only a budget of
P2,500, that’s very cheap for a single life we save,” said Guardo, the
proponent of the project aimed to “alleviate” symptoms of the disease.
Each kit includes an electric water heater/steamer, a steam gown, an adult

bath towel, two hand towels, an “industrial” plastic chair and a small plastic
water basin.
Guardo, interviewed over radio dySS here, said the budget for the kits was
taken from the city’s appropriation for COVID-19 response, but he did not
know who was the supplier as it was the executive department that did the
canvassing and procurement.
Alternative treatment
The city official claimed that many patients who underwent steam inhalation in
the BICs had recovered from the disease.
“We have had a spike in recoveries since we practiced tuob at the isolation
centers. This is not a cure, but if it helps alleviate the symptoms, then it would
help the patients feel better and stronger,” Guardo said.
“This is one way of decongesting our hospitals since we no longer have to

bring patients there since they already managed to eliminate the symptoms of
the disease at the isolation centers,” he added.
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According to him, the city also received 1,000 kits donated by private
companies, which were distributed to other patients and policemen who
contracted the virus.
Contrary to allegations, Guardo stressed that all tuob kits from the city
government and private entities were distributed for free to coronavirus
patients.
“I did not sell any of these. We have the records to show that everything was
distributed according to the number of patients in the isolation centers,” he
said.
Guardo said the tuob kits were distributed to 25 BICs in the city. Barangay
Mambaling got most of the kits due to the high number of cases in the village.
“I’ve really been pushing for alternative medicine especially that many of our
constituents could not afford the costs of having to spend some time in the
hospital to fight the disease,” he said.
Buy medicine instead

But a coronavirus survivor criticized the city’s decision to purchase tuob kits
when it could have spent the money to buy medicines for critically ill COVID-
19 patients.
“During the critical period when the risk for intubation and other complications
were high and I was already in a cytokine storm, a very important drug,
Tocilizumab (Actemra) was badly needed. I still believed this was a turning
point in my battle against this disease,” he said in a post on Facebook.
The drug costs P40,000 to P60,000 for one vial. The government hospital
where he was admitted, however, ran out of the medicine.
He said he was happy that a politician, not from Cebu, donated 24 vials of the
drug to the hospital.
“He had no Bisaya blood in him at all yet he chose the correct thing to donate.
It practically saved my life as the improvement postinfusion was dramatic,” he
said.
Tuob training
Governor Garcia is set to institutionalize steam inhalation, as well as other
traditional and alternative ways, to boost the immune system and help contain
the spread of the virus.
She has ordered some 16,000 barangay health workers in Cebu’s 44 towns
and seven cities to undergo training for these methods under the direction of
the Provincial Traditional Health Care System.
The Philippine Medical Association, an umbrella organization of physicians in

the Philippines, earlier denounced the practice of tuob, saying it did not help
kill viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.
As of July 11, Cebu has 11,772 COVID-19 cases—7,359 in Cebu City, 1,244
in Mandaue City, 1,192 in Lapu-Lapu City, and 1,977 elsewhere in the
province—with 4,900 recoveries and 533 deaths. —WITH A REPORT FROM
NESTLE SEMILLA INQ
Davao City back to

general community
quarantine as virus
cases rise

DAVAO CITY—The rising number of coronavirus cases here has prompted
the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious
Diseases (IATF) to recommend reverting the city’s status to a general
community quarantine (GCQ) to stop the spread of the virus, Mayor Sara
Duterte said on Monday.
The reclassification will be implemented on Wednesday, according to

information relayed to the local government by the IATF, Duterte said.
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Based on reports from the Department of Health, at least 146 new confirmed
cases were recorded in Davao City since its status was downgraded to
modified GCQ (MGCQ) on July 1.
Appeal
Health officials said at least 562 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported
in the city since the outbreak in early March, with 30 deaths.“We will try to
appeal because there is a remedy allowed for [local governments] to appeal
their classification,” Duterte said.
The mayor, however, said the city government would abide by the
recommendation to return to a stricter community quarantine if the appeal
would be denied.
She said the lifting of restrictions was one of the reasons behind the new
cases, especially after more residents were allowed to leave their homes to
work since establishments were allowed to reopen.
“And we have those who were exposed [to] their housemates who tested
positive. There is also local transmission, plus the arriving locally stranded
individuals and returning OFWs (overseas Filipino workers),” she added.
When the IATF downgraded Davao City to MGCQ, Duterte expressed

surprise, considering that new cases were still being reported by health
workers that time.
The local government urged residents to faithfully comply with precautionary

measures to stop the spread of the disease. “We should treat everyone as
COVID-19 positive. So we should protect ourselves,” Duterte said. INQ
Virus surge feared if
lockdown eased
Downgrading Cebu City’s ECQ status may result in 30,000 COVID-19 cases by end-July, says
study
By: Dale Israel, Nestle Semilla - @inquirerdotnet
NO CONGESTION Only a few vehicles ply the streets of Cebu City while an
enhanced community quarantine is imposed in the city. —DALE ISRAEL
CEBU CITY—Researchers studying the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
outbreak in the country have asked the government to carefully evaluate the
situation in Cebu City and the rest of Cebu province before easing quarantine
restrictions on the island.
Experts from the University of the Philippines (UP) and University of Santo
Tomas (UST) projected that the number of infections could reach 30,000 by
July 31 if Cebu City’s enhanced quarantine status (ECQ) would be
downgraded. If the strict lockdown continues after July 15, the number of
cases in Cebu may stay at 15,000 by the end of the month, based on the
current trend of infections, they said.The study, “COVID-19 forecasts in the
Philippines: NCR (National Capital Region), Cebu and COVID-19 hot spots as
of June 25,” was posted on the UP website on June 29 and updated on July
2.As of Monday, COVID-19 cases in Cebu province had reached 12,217, with
546 deaths and 5,136 recoveries, according to the Department of Health.
Cebu City accounts for 7,359 of these cases.President Duterte was set to
announce on Wednesday whether to extend or downgrade the ECQ status of
Cebu City, the only local government still under this quarantine restriction due
to the surge of infections last month.
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The study noted that when the city was placed under a more relaxed general
community quarantine (GCQ) on June 1, the number of COVID-19 cases
doubled. Figures collected between June 8 and June 25 showed that cases
rose from 3,400 to 6,400.
The number of hospital admissions due to COVID-19 also doubled during that
period.
Recalibrate strategies
When the city’s status was reverted to ECQ on June 16, the study said the
number of cases and hospital admissions slightly dropped.
The researchers suggested that if restrictions would be eased, these should

be matched with “more pandemic surveillance, effective strategies for social
distancing, and compliance with other health protocols, including vigorous
promotion of personal hygiene practices, wearing of masks and other
personal protective equipment (PPE), and increased testing, tracing and
isolation.”
Reopening business“To this end, we recommend that the government review

its national strategy to combat COVID-19 in the country. The government
must reexamine and recalibrate its strategies to ensure that the transmission
of SARS-Cov-2 virus does not further increase beyond the capacity of the
health-care system to respond,” they said.But Mayor Edgardo Labella wanted
the city’s status to be downgraded to GCQ to allow the reopening of
businesses and restart the local economy that had been crippled by the
pandemic.
“After all, if you look at the statistics in Cebu City, there has been a high
recovery rate. We have the highest recovery rate [in the country] at 54
percent. This is something that must be seriously considered,” Labella said on
Tuesday.
He said the continued increase in COVID-19 cases should not surprise

anyone since it was the only local government that had been conducting mass
testing among its constituents. “But we have to continue doing (mass testing)
to save lives,” he said.
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, COVID-19 point person in Cebu, last

week noted that Cebuanos had started to follow health protocols, and if this
behavior persisted, “we are optimistic that the ECQ can be downgraded to
GCQ by July 16.”
Cops, soldiers sick

Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of the Central Visayas police,
said he did not want the quarantine restrictions eased as virus cases in Cebu
City remained high.
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Close to 1,000 policemen, including 160 from the Special Action Force in
Camp Crame, were sent to Cebu City last month to help enforce the ECQ, the
strictest form of quarantine in the country.
About 200 policemen and 77 personnel of the Philippine Navy in Cebu tested
positive for COVID-19 as of July 14. They have been put in isolation in their
camps.
In Negros Oriental province, at least 20 soldiers contracted the virus after they
were assigned to Cebu City last month. —WITH REPORTS FROM RAFFY
CABRISTANTE INQ
San Juan offers COVID-

19 patients free
treatment, P3,000 aid
PATIENT-READY San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora (right) inspects one of the
city’s isolation facilities at the San Juan Medical Center. He has asked
infected residents to check into the centers to stop them from spreading the
virus to their families. (Photo by JOAN BONDOC / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — To encourage residents who contract the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to check into the city’s isolation facilities, San
Juan Mayor Francis Zamora has promised to pay for their treatment and
provide them with free food and financial assistance of P3,000.
The city government on Wednesday showed to media its newest San Juan
COVID-19 Kalinga Center with a medical staff on call 24 hours a day.
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Zamora said the Kalinga Center, a joint project of the local government and
the Alumni Association of Xavier School, was originally a quarantine facility for
suspected cases. It was later converted into a treatment facility for patients
who were asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms.
“We want to reduce the number of new infections and ultimately defeat
COVID-19 in San Juan City, that is why we are encouraging our constituents
who are COVID-19 positive to admit themselves into any of our three isolation
facilities,” Zamora said, adding that this would also reduce the risk of patients
infecting their loved ones.
The two other isolation facilities are at the San Juan Medical Center and San
Juan National High School.
“We want to let the San Juaneños know that the city will look after them, make
sure they recover from the virus, that they do not spend a single centavo and
that they have P3,000 which they can spend or send to their family while in
convalescence,” Zamora said. “We are exerting all efforts so that COVID-19
patients in San Juan will have a good experience while they are confined in
our medical facilities.”
Palace: Metro back to

lockdown if cases still
surging by end-July
By: Julie M. Aurelio, Tina G. Santos - @inquirerdotnet

ENFORCING LOCKDOWN Elite police officers patrol the streets of Navotas
on a combat vehicle on Thursday to enforce stringent quarantine restrictions
as the city goes into a 14-day lockdown to halt a surge in coronavirus
infections. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported nearly 2,500
additional coronavirus infections, more than 1,800 of them in Metro Manila, a
day after Malacañang warned that the metropolis would be placed back on
lockdown if the surge in COVID-19 cases had not abated by the end of July.
The 2,498 additional cases brought the national tally to 61,266.

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Of the new infections, 1,886 were in Metro Manila, where President Duterte
kept general community quarantine restrictions in place on Tuesday after the
17 mayors in the region committed to enforce targeted lockdowns and impose
a common ordinance that would penalize violations of minimum public health
standards.
‘Real’ possibility of lockdown

The DOH reported that 467 more patients had recovered, raising the number
of COVID-19 survivors to 21,440, and that 29 other patients had died, pushing
the death toll to 1,643. The recoveries and deaths left 38,183 active cases.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque warned of a real possibility that Metro

Manila would be reverted to modified enhanced community quarantine as it
had reached “dangerous levels” in intensive care capacity.
The large hospitals in the metropolis had been reporting nearing or actually
reaching COVID-19 capacity in recent days after being hit by a surge in
infections that followed relaxation of restrictions on commerce and social life
in a phased exit from lockdown imposed in March to halt the spread of the
new coronavirus in the Philippines.
Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte had actually agreed to a proposal by

University of the Philippines professors to revert Metro Manila to modified
enhanced community quarantine, but Carlito Galvez Jr., chief of the National
Task Force Against COVID-19, and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año appealed
on behalf of the mayors who earlier recommended maintaining the current
quarantine level for the next two weeks but with stricter enforcement of
restrictions and public health measures.
“The two argued that Metro Manila should be given a chance, because
everyone knows that majority of our gross domestic product still comes from
Metro Manila, and at this point it’s important to open up the economy,” Roque
said.
“The two had to argue passionately. Basically they were saying, give Metro
Manila mayors the opportunity to show exactly what they can do by way of
localized lockdowns and by way of achieving behavioral change so that their
constituents will actually practice the holy trinity of masks, washing of hands,
and social distancing,” he said.
Two-week ‘test’
Roque said Mr. Duterte reconsidered his position and approved the
recommendation of the government’s coronavirus response task force to
maintain the current quarantine level in Metro Manila but with “more
intensified implementation” of public health measures.
“We are given two weeks in our test. I hope the mayors will do their best and
the people will do their best, particularly in the nonpharmacological solutions
to the disease,” he said.
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Roque noted that the COVID-19 case doubling rate in Metro Manila remained
constant at seven to nine days but the intensive care use rate also stayed
high.
“We were unable to lengthen the [case doubling rate] so we can’t move on
from [general community quarantine]. So that’s not bad, that’s the truth if we
will base it on the case doubling rate, even if our ICU bed utilization is high.
But of course if we can achieve zero transmission, why not?” he said.
In Luzon, besides Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal are also under
general community quarantine up to July 31.
Under the same quarantine level in the Visayas are Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu
City, Talisay, Minglanilla, and Concepcion towns in Cebu province; Southern
Leyte and Ormoc City.
In Mindanao, also under general community quarantine are Zamboanga City,

Agusan del Norte, Butuan City and Basilan.
Cebu City was shifted to modified enhanced community quarantine from

stringent lockdown after an easing of infections there.
Manila opens drive-thru

COVID-19 testing center
To boost testing for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Manila city
government opened its drive-through testing center on Monday in front of the
Andres Bonifacio Monument, just a few steps from the city hall.
Manila residents and non-residents, in four-wheel and even two-wheel drive,

can avail of the rapid test for free.
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A valid ID is the only requirement.

The testing center is open from Mondays to Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The test results will be sent via text message.
Those who test positive of the antibody test will undergo confirmatory swab
tests. —Nikka G. Valenzuela
Metro Manila still has

more than 75% of virus
cases in PH
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila still accounts for nearly half of all the
active COVID-19 cases in the country with health officials reporting a national
caseload of 65,304 from the 2,357 new cases tallied on Saturday.
Of the new cases, Metro Manila accounted for more than three-quarters with
1,824 cases. Laguna was a far second with 105 cases, followed by Cavite
with 62, Cebu with 49, and Rizal with 39.
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Data from the Department of Health (DOH) show that of the 38,183 active
cases as of Thursday, 17,841 are from Metro Manila. The number of active
cases in the capital region grew by 4,144 from Thursday last week.
There were also 113 patients who succumbed due to severe respiratory
disease, bringing the toll to 1,773 since the country’s first death in March.
Light at end of tunnel

Central Visayas accounted for 87 of the new fatalities, followed by Metro
Manila with 23. Calabarzon, Bicol and Western Visayas each had one fatality.
But there’s a very small light at end of the country’s COVID-19 tunnel, Health
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Saturday, as the case and
mortality doubling time appear to be lengthening.
As of Friday, the national case doubling time was at 8.47 days, longer than
the 6.27 days recorded on June 1 while the mortality doubling time was at
11.97 days, an improvement from 8.28 days on June 1.
“[But] the value of ‘case doubling time’ is not used to predict or estimate how
many cases there will be in the future. Other methodologies, such as disease
modeling or projections, are done to compute future case numbers. Instead,
case doubling time was generated by analyzing how many days it took for the
new number of cases to double,” she said.
Mathematicians from the University of the Philippines, however, paint a

grimmer model and have urged the government to reimpose a stricter
quarantine given the rise in new infections and hospitalizations in the capital
region.
President Duterte initially agreed to the suggestion from UP but later upheld
the recommendation of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and COVID-19 chief
implementer Carlito Galvez to allow local governments to step up their
quarantine measures.
There are now a total of 22,067 patients who have gotten well from COVID-19
with the recovery of 321 more patients but the metropolis would have to do
more over the next two weeks, especially since 74 percent of the 5,987
hospital beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients are already occupied.
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Based on DOH data as of Friday, there are only 188 intensive care beds, 177
ward beds and 645 isolation beds left available for the entire capital region.
Nearly half of all mechanical ventilators are also in use, with 419 still vacant.
2 detention centers, PAO

office at Bulacan Capitol
isolated after 22 contract
virus
By: Carmela Reyes-Estrope - Correspondent / @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:18 PM July 18, 2020
CITY OF MALOLOS – Two detention facilities and the office of the Public
Attorney’s Office at the Bulacan Provincial Capitol were locked down this
week, after 22 employees and suspects under police custody tested positive
for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Bulacan Provincial Warden Marcos Rivero on Friday (July 17) temporarily

banned visits after a jail employee caught the disease.
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Health workers have taken swab samples from 18 elderly inmates, who have
fever as well as 13 guards who show no symptoms but were on duty with the
infected jail employee.
Meanwhile, 20 detained suspects as well as personnel of the Police Criminal

Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) have also contracted the disease.
The detainees did not show symptoms of the virus but have been isolated in
their cells since Tuesday (July 14) while the CIDG Bulacan director and five of
his men have locked themselves inside their offices.
Dr. Jocelyn Gomez, Bulacan provincial health officer, said those infected have
been given medicines and their conditions are being monitored constantly.
The PAO office was also closed for disinfection after an employee tested
positive for the virus.
Bulacan currently has 869 recorded cases with 41 deaths.

Parañaque-wide
lockdown eyed as virus
cases spike
Olivarez asks residents to ‘unite and cooperate in the battle against COVID-19’
MANILA, Philippines — Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez has warned

residents that he may place the entire city on lockdown for two weeks if cases
of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue to go up.
In a statement on Sunday, Olivarez called on residents to “unite and

cooperate in the battle against COVID-19” as the city’s confirmed cases
reached almost 2,000.
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“At this critical moment, I’m appealing again to my constituents to come

together to defeat this terrible disease. Each of us has a role to play, whether
through unselfishness or humanity,” he said.
As of July 18, confirmed COVID-19 cases in Parañaque had reached 1,944

with 72 deaths and 1,017 recoveries, according to data from the city health
office.
‘Hot spots’
Most of the new infections came from Barangays BF Homes and Sun Valley,
which had posted the highest number of active cases at 184 and 102,
respectively.
Despite placing five of its critical areas under a three-day lockdown earlier this
month, Barangay BF Homes still accounted for the most number of COVID-19
cases on Saturday, recording 306 or an increase of 40 cases within seven
days. Sun Valley, on the other hand, added 46 new cases from last week.
Barangay BF Homes said the increase in its COVID-19 cases could be
“attributed to our proactive measures in mass targeted testing and
identification of cases through contact tracing.”
In June, the city government also locked down areas in Baclaran and San
Dionisio.
Olivarez said that if the spread of the contagious disease could not be
contained, he would be forced to do what Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco did.
Navotas is currently on a two-week lockdown until July 29 due to the rapid rise
in the city of COVID-19 cases, with some patients coming from the same
household.
In a memorandum last week, Olivarez directed the police and the heads of the
city’s 16 barangays “to ensure the strict enforcement [of] and to exercise full
vigilance in the implementation of the health standards on the use of face
masks, strict physical distancing, crowding in public places and in all major
streets.”
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He ordered city police chief Police Col. Robin King Sarmiento to file criminal
charges against negligent parents who would allow their children to loiter in
public areas without face masks and past curfew hours.
Hardheaded, uncooperative
Olivarez attributed the rise of COVID-19 cases to “thousands of residents,
particularly in the slum areas [who] are hardheaded, uncooperative and not
respecting health authorities despite daily reminders to follow the health and
quarantine protocols.”
“More and more people are becoming hardheaded now that we are under
GCQ (general community quarantine). They are not afraid of being infected
with the COVID-19 virus which is why we need to be more tough in our
enforcement of the law,” he said. INQ
Medical groups caution
against COVID-19 rapid
tests
FREE RAPID TESTS Medical workers examine passengers of a jeepney

driving through the Quirino Grandstand testing site in Manila on Monday. —
MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — Medical groups have expressed concern that the
continued use of rapid antibody tests is further driving coronavirus infections
as the people cleared of the COVID-19 pathogen may in fact be carriers
unknowingly spreading the disease.
At least five medical societies have attributed the recent spike in the number
of coronavirus infections to the widespread use of rapid antibody test kits,
especially by companies that require it as clearance for their employees to be
able to return to their jobs.
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“[The] continued use of rapid antibody tests for clearance to return to work
means that infectious patients are being cleared and may be spreading the
disease. On the other hand, patients [who] are being told that they are
‘immune’ may become complacent in the practice of nonpharmaceutical
interventions,” the groups said.
MRT 3 case
The medical societies that have raised the alarm are the Philippine College of
Physicians, Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
(PSMID), Philippine College of Chest Physicians, Philippine Pediatric Society,
and Philippine Society of Public Health Physicians.
In June, the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT 3) management subjected all of its
depot personnel to rapid antibody testing as a “precautionary measure” after
15 maintenance workers tested positive using the standard RT-PCR (reversed
transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test.
That initiative, however, failed to stop transmission of the virus, forcing the
management to temporarily shut operations to allow the swab testing of all of
its 3,200 workers. In total, 281 MRT 3 workers tested positive.
As early as May, the medical groups, along with the Philippine Medical
Association, have warned against the use of rapid antibody testing because
its results might create a “false sense of security” and further strain
businesses’ and the health-care system’s resources.
Based on available evidence, PSMID said that “there’s no added value” in

requiring antibody testing for workers who neither have symptoms nor had
direct contact or exposure to someone suspected or confirmed to have
COVID-19.
Not looking for SARS-CoV-2

Dr. Issa Alejandria, PSMID president, earlier explained that one of the
reasons why her group does not recommend the mass use of both the IgM
(immunoglobulin) and IgG (immunoglobulin G) antibody tests available in the
market is that “two-thirds” of its results are false positives. This is because the
kits do not look for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causative agent of COVID-19,
but rather the antibodies a person has developed from a current or past
infection.
“The available rapid antibody test kits will just tell us whether you have or do
not have the antibody. It does not tell you whether that antibody is high
enough to be protective or to neutralize the virus,” Alejandria said.
“The test will perform poorly among asymptomatics. The virus belongs to the
same family of coronavirus as the common cold. Your results may be a false
positive since you have antibodies against the common cold,” she added.
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Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire pointed out Monday that this
was why the Department of Health (DOH) had always maintained that there
shouldn’t be mass screening of workers using the rapid antibody test kits.
“We have always emphasized that what this test detects is the antibody,
which you only see after so many days if you really have the illness. The
caveat is it has been shown, with evidence, that there are many false positive
or false negative results with this type of test. That’s why we shouldn’t use it
for screening,” Vergeire said.
14-day fitness test

Rather than use the rapid antibody test kits, the medical societies
recommended applying the 14-day test to determine if workers are fit to return
to work. This test requires workers to be symptom-free for two weeks.
On top of this is the observance of physical distancing, wearing face masks,

hand-washing, cough etiquette and daily symptoms screening by a safety
officer in the workplace.
On Monday, the DOH reported 1,521 additional coronavirus infections,

pushing the national tally to 68,898 cases.
Of the additional cases reported by 62 of the 84 accredited laboratories, 1,209

were patients who tested positive in the last three days, while 312 were
confirmed to have the virus four days ago or earlier.
The spread of the virus appeared to be locked in Metro Manila, as the
metropolis accounted for more than 80 percent of the additional cases, or
1,237. A far second are Cavite and Laguna, which had 51 cases each,
followed by Rizal with 34 and Davao del Sur with 22.
number of COVID-19 survivors to 23,072. The death toll, however, rose to
1,835, as four more patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
All four died this month. Two of them were from Central Visayas. The two
others were from Metro Manila and Davao.
Stricter quarantine
imposed on parts of
Luzon as COVID-19
cases surge
HEALTH CLEARANCE Securing a health clearance has become necessary
for people leaving or returning to Baguio City as the local government tries to
contain the spread of the coronavirus. —EV ESPIRITU
San Fernando City and Caba town in La Union province reverted to stricter
enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) after coronavirus cases in these
areas increased on Tuesday.
La Union Gov. Francisco Emmanuel Ortega III issued an executive order

isolating Caba, which reported eight new cases, from July 21 to July 25. The
order may be revoked or extended at the discretion of the regional Inter-
Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases
(IATF).
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Ortega said the shift to ECQ from a modified general community quarantine
(MGCQ) would prevent surrounding towns from getting infected.
The regional IATF also approved the request of Ortega to place San
Fernando City under ECQ from July 21 to July 31.
A 67-year-old man from Barangay San Agustin in San Fernando City died of
COVID-19 on July 19 while another resident, a 16-year-old girl, tested positive
for the virus.
Cleared
Two residents of Barangay Tanqui, also in San Fernando, tested positive for
the virus. Both showed no symptoms of the disease after they were exposed
to a confirmed positive case.
Fifty-seven cases had been recorded in La Union since March.
In Pampanga province, laboratory tests cleared 12 mayors who were exposed

to Candaba Mayor Rene Maglanque during the meeting of the Pampanga
Mayors’ League with education and social welfare officials on July 13.
Maglanque had tested positive for the virus.
Gov. Dennis Pineda, who also tested negative for the virus, confirmed the
laboratory results released by Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital on
Tuesday.
The test results of three other mayors present in the July 13 meeting have yet
to be released.
In Bulacan province, the number of COVID-19 cases rose to 1,089 as of

Sunday, prompting authorities to consider imposing zoning or localized
lockdown based on the assessment of local governments. The City of San
Jose del Monte recorded the most number of cases with 219.
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In Baguio City, officials planned to put up new isolation rooms for suspected
COVID-19 cases in 128 villages, as new infections rose to 17 on Monday.
Villamor Drive in Barangay Lualhati was placed on lockdown starting Tuesday

until further notice after a 46-year-old woman who lived in a condominium
there contracted the virus.
—Reports from Yolanda Sotelo, Tonette Orejas, Carmela Reyes-Estrope

and Vincent Cabreza
97 Calabarzon cops test
positive for COVID-19
The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continued to spread across

Antipolo City, Rizal, still with the highest number of infection among towns and
cities in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon)
region, prompting the city government to shut down the police station and a
local government office.
The Calabarzon police said 97 policemen in the region tested positive for the
virus, of which 13 were assigned to Antipolo City, which lies on the fringes of
Metro Manila. Twenty policemen in the region were waiting for their test
results as of July 21.
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The Antipolo government also locked down until July 29 the city veterinary
office after staff members were exposed to the virus.
HEALTH PROTOCOL The Antipolo City police station in Rizal province will be
closed for a week after several policemen tested positive for COVID-19. The
city police’s public transactions will be suspended to give way to the cleanup
and disinfection of the station, following health protocols against the spread of
the disease. —RICHARD A. REYES
‘Semilockdown’
Col. Joseph Arguelles, Rizal provincial police director, said the Antipolo
station would continue “functioning,” but it would suspend public transactions,
like the issuance of police clearance and travel authority, as well as jail
visitation.
Ongoing investigations and cases involving women and children will have to
be referred to the provincial police headquarters, he said.
The weeklong lockdown would also give way to the disinfection of the police
station.
Arguelles said one of the Antipolo policemen was in a hospital, while the rest
were on home quarantine.
The virus, he said, did not affect the detainees in police cells.
In Pililia, Rizal, Arguelles said the police station was placed under a
“semilockdown,” limiting face-to-face transactions after some policemen also
tested positive for COVID-19.
“We think it’s because of the people going in and out [of the stations]. That’s
why I also ordered all stations [in Rizal] to install plastic sheet covers and
strictly observe social distancing,” he said.
Antipolo recorded 519 cases, of which 45 had died, according to city

government data as of July 21.
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In Quezon, at least 107 of 350 newly recruited policemen from Metro Manila
turned out positive for COVID-19 upon reporting to a training camp in Lucena
City early this month, said Ronald Banzuela, National Police Commission
provincial director.
“[The trainees] were tested and we got the results last Monday. They were
isolated in a facility inside the camp,” Banzuela added.
—Maricar Cinco
Naia to test all 6,462

employees for virus
Airport management sets rapid screening as confirmed cases hit 57
The management of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) will subject
to testing all 6,462 personnel in the coming weeks, including janitors and
security guards, after the number of employees found positive for the new
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) went up to 57 as of Thursday.
In a statement, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) said that 38

of the confirmed cases remain active while the rest had already recovered,
with some back at their posts.
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Asked for the infected workers’ offices of assignment, the MIAA media affairs
department said it was not provided that information by the medical team.
Confirmatory tests
On the first batch testing on Wednesday, 11 out of 294 airport personnel
came out positive. They were then subjected to confirmatory swab tests.
“As a matter of protocol, these 11 employees were told to report to their

respective barangay health emergency response teams and go on home
quarantine while waiting for the results of their [polymerase chain reaction]
tests,” MIAA said.
Another batch of Naia personnel would undergo testing on Saturday, with

consequent tests to be done twice or thrice a week.
They include those working for the airport’s service providers like janitors and
security personnel.
Greater risk
“MIAA urges everyone to avail of this free testing especially those whose
nature of work exposes them to greater risk of catching the virus,” it said.
Testing was done at the check-in area of Naia Terminal 4, the old domestic
terminal, which has remained closed since March. The other three terminals
are open for flight operations.
Antitrafficking officers at the airport were placed on lockdown for two weeks
from July 8 to 22 after some employees were found positive for the
coronavirus.
At that time, MIAA general manager Ed Monreal said there were no plans to
shut down airport operations. Instead, the offices where the confirmed cases
were assigned would be closed for up to three days for disinfection, he added.
PH joining int’l effort to
ensure access to COVID-
19 vaccines
The Philippines is joining an international effort aimed at guaranteeing rapid,

fair and equitable access to vaccines developed against the new coronavirus.
In a resolution, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging

Infectious Diseases approved the country’s participation in the Gavi COVID-
19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility and “its corresponding allocation
of funds.”
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The move came a week after Gavi, an international organization created in

2000 to improve access to new and underused vaccines for children in poor
countries, announced that 75 nations had formally expressed interest in
joining the Covax facility to protect their respective populations from the
pandemic.
The 75 countries will finance the acquisition of the vaccines from their own
public budgets and will also link up with 90 lower-income countries, which
could be supported through voluntary donations to the Gavi Covax Advance
Market Commitment.
The alliance seeks to deliver two billion doses of safe and effective vaccines,
once these have passed regulatory approval, by the end of 2021.
The vaccines will be delivered equally to all participating countries,

proportional to their population, with health-care workers as the priority group.
This distribution will later be expanded to cover 20 percent of the population of
participating nations.
Before seeking a spot in the Gavi Covax facility, the Philippines took part in
clinical trials conducted by five Chinese biopharmaceutical firms developing
their own vaccines against the coronavirus.
Stem cell therapy

Manila also joined the World Health Organization’s trials to find an effective,
safe treatment for COVID-19 patients.
Also on Friday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque commended The

Medical City hospital’s use of mesenchymal stem cell therapy for patients with
coronavirus-related pneumonia.
Virus case update

Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent cells in the bone marrow, which are
being studied as therapy for immune-mediated diseases—the definition for
conditions in the body resulting from abnormal activity in the immune system.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been several
clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of mesenchymal stem
cell therapy, although there are no approved approaches yet.
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The Department of Health on Friday recorded an additional 2,103 COVID-19

cases, bringing the national caseload to 76,444.
Of the newly reported cases, 1,029 are patients who tested positive within the
last three days, while 1,074 are patients who were confirmed to have been
infected four days ago or earlier.
Metro Manila accounted for most of the cases at 1,272, followed by Cebu
(291), Laguna (107), Rizal (83) and Cavite (53). The new cases were based
on the submission of 78 out of the 90 accredited laboratories.
Of the total number of cases, 50,063 remain active.
There are now a total of 24,502 patients who have recovered from COVID-19,
with the recovery of 144 more patients. The death toll increased to 1,879 as
15 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
Of the newly reported fatalities, 11 died this month, while 3 died in June. One
patient died in April.
Thirteen of the deaths are from Central Visayas, while the two others from
Central Luzon and Western Visayas.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that currently the

nationwide case fatality rate was at 2.46 percent.
Vergeire said that over the last few weeks, they had seen an improvement in
the management of COVID-19 cases as the mortality doubling time
lengthened to 11.97 days from 8.28 days on June 1.
We’re doing something

wrong, Robredo says on
gov’t COVID-19
response
By: Jhesset O. Enano, Marlon Ramos, Tina G. Santos - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo expressed alarm that

something may be wrong with the government’s response to the COVID-19
crisis and hopes President Rodrigo Duterte would announce steps to correct
the mistakes when he delivers his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona)
today.
“This is alarming because we are almost certainly doing something that is not
right,” Robredo said in Tagalog during her radio show on Sunday. “If we are
doing the right things, the number of cases wouldn’t be this high.”
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The Vice President said the Philippines already has the most number of active
cases among Southeast Asian countries, and she noted it took the country
less than a month to record more than 78,000 cases on Saturday from around
40,000 at the end of June.
“If we cannot arrest the increase, experts have said that we may reach
130,000 by the end of August,” she said.
80,448 cases now

According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center,
Indonesia had the most number of cases in Southeast Asia with 97,286 cases
as of Saturday (24th in the world) while the Philippines had 78,412 (30th in the
world).But the Department of Health reported on Sunday that the national tally
had reached 80,448. “We have 50,764 active cases. We have already beaten
Indonesia because we have more active cases, ” Robredo said.
“Our neighboring countries are already returning to normal. We are still trying
to get back to normal, but while cases continue to increase, it will be hard for
us to normalize,” she added.
Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros, for her part, said the government should
“apologize for its shortcomings in the last few months” and focus on the
contagion instead of “featuring more denials, threats and downplaying of the
pandemic.”The government’s management of the crisis was also the theme of
the homily Manila Archdiocese administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo
prepared for Sunday.
‘Making the wrong choices’

“Maybe the government is making the wrong choices … that’s why they easily
accuse those who go against them; terror law is there; now they are opening
discussions for Charter Change,” Pabillo said in the homily that was read by
Msgr. Esteban Lo during Mass at the Parish of Our Lady of the Abandoned in
Mandaluyong City.“Are the things they’re doing helping the nation? Did the
removal of the franchise of ABS-CBN help the country? Did the enactment of
the antiterror law provide a solution to the spread of COVID-19? Will
constitutional change respond to the needs of the jobless?” the bishop asked
in Tagalog.
“Maybe the choices were wrong. Wrong because the heart is not in serving
the people, but only themselves,” Pabillo added. Pabillo urged the faithful to
“use freedom well. We are now experiencing the wrong use of freedom, the
wrong choice of those who govern us. Let us not compound this mistake with
our own misguided use of freedom,” he added.
Catholic priest Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines, was more conciliatory in urging the government
to step up.
“This is not the time to blame anybody. This is not the time to criticize
anybody. This is the time for us to know the truth,” he said in an interview over
Church-run Radio Veritas. Sen. Nancy Binay agreed: “I hope the Sona does
not dwell much on what was done or who’s to blame. We are way past that …
We, in the Senate, are ready and willing to support government’s plans,” she
said.
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Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said Filipinos were not interested
in “soaring oratory,” but in a battle plan.
“They are not even interested in bold strokes. What they want to hear is the
to-do list in a wartime Sona that will spell out the battle plan against the
pandemic,” Recto said. INQ
Why this week is crucial

for Metro Manila
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said it

needed to see this week that the health system, particularly in Metro Manila,
could cope with and manage the increasing number of COVID-19 cases to
determine what level of community quarantine should be imposed on the
metropolis by August.
“Our indicators and our basis for us to be able to determine the community
quarantine of an area, most important is we see that our health system
capacity is improving,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
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“We have other indicators like economic, social, security. These are being
studied and the subtechnical working group of the [Inter-Agency Task Force
for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] began discussions last
week. [Today], they will already present to [the task force] what will be the
decision for the coming two weeks,” she added.
Command center
Currently, Vergeire said concerns of the health system were already being
dealt with through the DOH’s “One Hospital Command” framework.
Under this system, an incident command center was set up at the

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s headquarters in Makati City,
which will map out the hospitals in the metropolis that can still accommodate
COVID-19 patients.
“This is strengthening our referral system not just in the government but with
the private hospitals as well. With this, we are also able to strengthen our
protocols [on] mild and asymptomatic individuals … that they be placed on
quarantine facilities to further decongest our hospitals,” she said.
On Monday, the DOH recorded an additional 1,657 COVID-19 cases, pushing

the national caseload to 82,040.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said there was a “distinct

possibility” for Metro Manila to be placed back on the stringent modified
enhanced community quarantine should cases breach 85,000 by the end of
the month.
Of the additional cases reported to the DOH by 59 of the 90 operational

laboratories, Metro Manila accounted for 61 percent of the total, or 1,017.
A distant second was Laguna with 89, followed by Cavite, 38, and Cebu and
Rizal, which both had 31 cases.
The DOH said 359 more patients had recovered, raising the total number of
recoveries to 26,446. The death toll, however, increased to 1,945 as 16 more
patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
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Of the newly recorded fatalities, 14 died in July while the two others died in
May and June. Eight of the deaths were from Central Visayas, seven were
from Metro Manila and one was from Soccsksargen.
Hospital capacity
Nationwide, half of the hospital beds dedicated to COVID-19 were occupied.
In Metro Manila, only 27 percent of the total 505 intensive care beds, 18
percent of the more than 3,200 isolation beds, and 14 percent of the around
1,500 ward beds remained available.
Of the 757 mechanical ventilators in the metropolis, 46 percent were in use.
Despite the increasing number of new cases, the DOH said the country was
“faring better” in such metrics as the case fatality rate, the coronavirus’
reproduction number, and the case and mortality doubling time.
The Philippines’ case fatality rate of 2.37 percent is lower than the global
average of 3.91 percent. As of July 5, the reproduction number is 1.044
percent, lower than the global average of 2 to 3.
The case doubling time is 8.87 days, while the mortality doubling time is 12.72
days, as of July 27. At the start of the Luzon lockdown in March, cases
doubled every 1.55 days, while deaths doubled every 0.96 days.
On June 1, the case and mortality doubling time was 6.26 and 8.28 days,
respectively.
Positivity rate
The DOH admitted though that the country’s positivity rate “needs
improvement” as it currently stands at 8.92 percent, which is higher than the
World Health Organization’s benchmark of less than 5 percent.
Vergeire said the DOH had expected cases to rise, especially with the
reopening of the economy and the increase in the country’s testing capacity
and expansion of the agency’s testing protocol.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said that the DOH was “saddened” with the condition of
stranded people at Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, as they risked getting
infected by not observing physical distancing.
“We are saddened that this happened in spite of all of our reminders. We have
existing protocols against mass gatherings, yet this still happened,” Vergeire
said.
She noted that the DOH had relayed its concerns to the other agencies, such
as the Department of the Interior and Local Government, to deal with the
situation.
“This will be discussed in the [task force’s] meeting [today]. We have

guidelines on minimum health standards. They must be observed so this is
really enforcement. We will discuss how to prevent a repeat of this incident,”
she said.
Hospitals running out of

COVID-19 beds – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday warned

that the country’s health system is “close to being overwhelmed,” as the
hospitals, particularly in Metro Manila and Calabarzon, are running out of beds
for COVID-19 patients.
As of July 26, the country is already at the “warning zone” level, as 52.3
percent of the 16,388 COVID-19 beds nationwide, or 8,577, are occupied.
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The occupancy rate in private hospitals is 57.7 percent, while in public

hospitals it is 49.5 percent.
“Nationally, our health system is close to being overwhelmed, our doctors,

nurses and others who look after us in hospitals are growing tired. That is why
we appeal to everyone to follow the minimum health standards, and to just
stay at home if there’s nothing important to do outside,” Health
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
‘Danger’ in Metro
Metro Manila is the lone region whose bed capacity is at the “danger” level, as
82.2 percent of its 5,232 COVID-19 beds are occupied.
Areas that are on the warning zone are Calabarzon (64 percent occupancy),
Central Luzon (52.1 percent), Davao (46 percent), Central Visayas (44.4
percent), Ilocos (33.8 percent), Western Visayas (31.7 percent) and the
Cordillera Administrative Region (30 percent).
Vergeire stressed that while the COVID-19 beds are slowly filling up, their
current number is still below the ideal that the DOH wants.
Under DOH Administrative Order 2020-0016, at least 30 percent of public

hospital beds and 20 percent of private hospital beds should be dedicated to
COVID-19. Currently, only 21.4 percent of public beds and 10.1 percent of
private beds are allotted for COVID-19 cases.
“This is still not enough that’s why we are discussing in the agency how we
can further ramp up capacity. This includes the further expansion of our One
Hospital Command,” Vergeire said.
“Through the One Hospital Command system, we are fixing the referral
system for both public and private to ensure that the hospitals don’t exceed
capacity. Through this system, we are strengthening the coordination between
hospitals and the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities so we can
transfer those patients who do not need a higher level of care,” she said.
Make more space

While the system is seen as dealing with space problem in Metro Manila and
Calabarzon hospitals, Vergeire reiterated the DOH call for hospital
administrators to allocate more beds for COVID-19 patients.
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In Metro Manila, public hospitals have only set aside for COVID-19 cases 18.4
percent of their beds, while private hospitals allocated 16.9 percent of their
beds. The allocation of private beds in Calabarzon is much lower at 9.7
percent.
At the same time, Vergeire called for more health workers. Applicants can
email their credentials to [email protected] or
[email protected], or call 86517800 local 4207 for details.
Of the 8,786 available slots, the DOH has so far hired 6,050 health workers,
most of whom are deployed in government-run hospitals.
On Tuesday, the DOH reported 1,678 additional coronavirus infections,

bringing the national case tally to 83,673. Of the new infections reported by 81
of the 91 accredited laboratories, Metro Manila had the highest number of
cases, 698, followed by Laguna (218), Cebu (100), Cavite (87) and Davao del
Sur (33).
of recoveries to 26,617. The death toll, however, increased to 1,947, as four
more patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
Of the newly reported deaths, two died in July while the two others died in
June. The fatalities are from Metro Manila and Central Visayas.
Lower positivity rate

Meanwhile, Vergeire maintained that the DOH had “no intention of deceiving
the public” when it came out with an infographic that shows the country now
has a much lower positivity rate of 8.8 percent compared to the 22.2 percent
recorded on April 30.
The positivity rate indicates the percentage of people who have tested positive
for the virus from all those who underwent testing.
In her personal Facebook account, Vice President Leni Robredo called out the
DOH for its alleged “attempt to mislead” the public and “sugarcoat the truth.”
“This pandemic should be an opportunity for us to unite and fight this out
together. Any attempt to disregard facts and claim victory while so many are
still getting sick with the virus will diminish that opportunity,” Robredo said.
“[D]espite the fact that we have [ramped] up our tests already, [the] cumulative
positivity rate is still at more than 8 percent. In fact, for July 25, daily positivity
rate was at more than 12 percent. Goal should be at less than 5 percent,” she
added.
Vergeire said that when the DOH came out with the infographic, it just
“wanted to show that there had been changes in terms of testing capacity.”
“The reason why the numbers have been declining is because there are now
more laboratories able to conduct tests, a sign that we are able to respond to
the pandemic as one nation. There’s no deceit there,” she said.
“The department has no intention of deceiving the people since we release all
the important data that can be used for analysis,” she added.
Gov’t starts free mass

testing of PUV drivers
MORE TO FOLLOW Grab drivers and riders wait for their turn to be tested for
the coronavirus at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City on Thursday.
The government has said that more transport workers, including drivers of
jeepneys, buses and tricycles, will also be tested for free.—NIÑO JESUS
ORBETA
Around 150 drivers and delivery partners of ride-hailing Grab were tested for
the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Quezon Memorial Circle on
Thursday, the first batch of public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers to be covered by
the government’s expanded testing program.
According to coronavirus testing czar Vince Dizon, the free swab tests for
PUV drivers was part of the government’s “reinvigorated response” against
the pandemic, which shows no signs of abating even as the country struggles
to reopen its battered economy.
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He said the program would also cover drivers of buses, jeepneys, UV Express
vans and tricycles. Under the Department of Health’s expanded testing
guidelines, transport workers are classified under the subgroup J1 of economy
workers who are qualified to get free swab testing in any PhilHealth-
accredited facility.
“This is part of our reinvigorated response to the coronavirus pandemic … of

course it does not stop with only testing. We must constantly trace, test and
treat those infected,” Dizon added.
National task force on COVID-19 chief implementer and presidential peace

adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said that since transport workers have “maximum
contact” with the community, they were considered among the most
vulnerable to the contagious respiratory disease.
New reality
“Even as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise here, the reality is
that workers still have to report for duty. So this new targeted expanded
testing is part of that new reality,” said presidential spokesperson Harry
Roque, who was also present during the mass testing.
In Grab’s case, the plan is to have all 60,000 drivers and delivery partners
registered under the program tested in batches, Dizon said.
Those found positive need not worry, however, as Grab has promised to
include them in the company’s income protection program that guarantees up
to P10,000 in financial aid for the first 14 days of quarantine.
AUGUST-REVISED
Duterte adviser urges

GCQ till year-end for
better business planning
By: Julie M. Aurelio, Roy Stephen C. Canivel - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:00 AM August 01, 2020
Amid the continuing rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, President Rodrigo
Duterte announced on Friday that Metro Manila and 12 other areas would
remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) until Aug. 15.
Quarantine restrictions
The government also announced that it may ease restrictions on more
business establishments—although more health protocols may be imposed—
in a bid to contain the rising infections in the country as well as the economic
recession that has rendered at least seven million Filipinos jobless.
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But Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion urged the

President to extend the GCQ up to the end of the year so that businessmen
could make plans that include quarantine restrictions, especially at a time
when they are already preparing for higher demand during the holiday
season.
“The question should not be [whether] we are retaining it every 15 days. We

have to be able to retain it to the end of the year,” said Concepcion, who also
heads food and beverage company RFM Corp. “That’s because August is the
beginning of higher demand given the approaching Christmas season. So any
ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] that happens would be disastrous for
the economy.”
In a recorded television footage released on Friday morning, President
Duterte announced the extension of the GCQ upon the recommendation of
the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious
Diseases (IATF).
Also placed under GCQ were Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal in
Luzon; Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, Minglanilla and
Consolacion towns in Cebu province for the Visayas; and Zamboanga City in
Mindanao.
MGCQ for rest of PH

The President said the rest of the Philippines will be under the less restrictive
modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) until Aug.15.
“But always be careful. Do not mix together and observe distancing. This is
the only thing I will ask of you,” he added.
“There are many infections. You keep on going out, the transmission will be
endless. Anyway there’s the vaccine,” Mr. Duterte said, apparently referring to
a still nonexistent vaccine that China promised to provide the Philippines once
it is available.
Like other government officials, the President blamed the rise in COVID-19
cases on “hard-headed” Filipinos but made no reply to widespread criticism of
the government’s delayed response to the emerging pandemic in January,
exclusive testing policy, dismal contact tracing and a disastrous government
program that ferried infected people to previously unaffected provinces.
When asked for comment, some business groups also welcomed the GCQ
extension.
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Francis Lim, president of the Management Association of the Philippines, said

the country could not afford another ECQ.
“Let’s support the President’s decision by strictly observing the health

protocols, lest the economy will be shut down again to the detriment of the
whole country. We can ill afford another enhanced community quarantine,” he
said.
John Forbes, senior adviser of the American Chamber of Commerce of the
Philippines, said the country “will have to accept more sickness while we
struggle to restore business activity.”
“We do not know when the vaccine will arrive in Southeast Asia,” he said.
Nabil Francis, president of the European Chamber of Commerce of the

Philippines, said barangay-level lockdowns are a welcome development, while
he emphasized the importance of mass testing and passing legislation that
would pump prime the economy.
Compliance
In IATF Resolution No. 60-A, the government stressed that Metro Manila and
Calabarzon, as economic hubs, should meet several requirements in order to
maintain their GCQ classification and their compliance may lead to the
gradual relaxation of restrictions and allow more establishments to reopen.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the government was also considering to
allow hotels, restaurants and other establishments under GCQ to increase
their capacities and both the Department of Trade and Industry, and the
Department of Tourism may increase the operational capacity of the said
establishments.
Pooled testing
Concepcion, who spearheaded a private sector initiative, called Project Ark,
that sourced rapid test kits on behalf of employers, also said Project Ark would
be funding the pooled testing of 160,000 people in Metro Manila, or 10,000
people for every city.
“We are finalizing with the 16 [Metro Manila] mayors to implement pooled
(polymerase chain reaction) testing to be funded initially by the private sector.
And after that research, they will do it on their own already,” he added.
Bayan Muna calls for

stop to COVID-19
borrowings
By: Melvin Gascon - Correspondent / @melvingasconINQ
MANILA, Philippines — Party list group Bayan Muna on Saturday demanded

that the government stop securing loans for its coronavirus response until it
has accounted for the P2.1 trillion that it had borrowed since the start of the
year.
Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares said the government should “stop burying
the Filipino people in debt,” as the Duterte administration is supposedly now
“awash with funds” to combat the spread of COVID-19.
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“We demand a thorough government accounting of the funds and where these
funds were spent before President Duterte incurs more loans and buries us in
more debt,” he said in a statement.
Colmenares, a three-term congressman whose party holds three House seats

in the 18th Congress, said the Duterte administration had borrowed a total of
P413.5 billion in foreign loans from January to June 2020, which is purportedly
more than the P374 billion that the President has reportedly spent for the
government’s COVID-19 response.
“Worse, President Duterte also borrowed P1.68 trillion by selling government

securities in the same period. This is a total of P2.093 trillion loans just in the
first six months of this year,” he said.
The Bayan Muna chair questioned why President Duterte keeps on borrowing
when the P2.093 trillion is more than five times the P374 billion the
government has so far spent for COVID-19.
“With these monies, the government can afford mass testing, giving the
second round of [social amelioration program] aid to the poor as required by
the Bayanihan law, including financial aid to [public transport] drivers and
even the middle class, as well as [small and medium-size enterprises],” he
added.
Colmenares wondered why President Duterte stated in his fifth State of the
Nation Address on Monday, that the national government has approved 2,600
micro, small and medium enterprises loan applications, which purportedly
accounts for P182.5 million only.
COVID-19 task force
ready to enforce ECQ in
NCR
Eleazar: Much easier for police to implement health protocols
MANILA, Philippines — If Metro Manila reverts to enhanced community

quarantine (ECQ), it will be much easier for the police to enforce health
protocols to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
[Editor’s note: After the day’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Palace
announced that Metro Manila and other places would again be under strict
lockdown.]
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“Based on our experience, it is better and easier to enforce ECQ rather than
general community quarantine (GCQ) for the reason that it is stricter. Fewer
people are outside so it is easier for us to be on the lookout,” Joint Task Force
(JTF) COVID Shield commander Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said in a
radio interview over dzBB on Sunday.
Authorized persons only

“Basically if we are under ECQ, only a few persons are allowed outside so we
can check all vehicles that are going through the checkpoints [compared to]
GCQ or modified GCQ where practically almost everyone is allowed [to go
out] and it’s impractical to check the vehicles,” he added.
Eleazar assured the public that the police and other member agencies of the
JTF COVID Shield were ready to enforce ECQ should Metro Manila revert to
the status, saying, “We’re just waiting for the guidance [from the Inter-Agency
Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases].”
Essential businesses
Under ECQ, the establishments allowed to open are limited to essential
businesses while only authorized persons outside of residence, including
quarantine pass holders, are allowed to go outside while observing quarantine
protocols like the wearing of face masks.
Quarantine control points are also set up on the boundaries of cities and
towns unlike under GCQ or modified GCQ where checkpoints are placed at
the borders of regions and provinces.
Health workers have asked the President in a letter to put Metro Manila under
ECQ for two weeks to improve pandemic control strategies as health-care
facilities are being overwhelmed by the continuous surge in the number of
COVID-19 cases.
Gov’t must build

hospitals treating only
COVID-19 cases
I cannot understand why, in the past five months, the government has failed to
build hospitals that will cater only to new coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
patients. The over 80 medical societies would probably have not called for a
timeout if only there were enough hospitals to take in the growing number of
COVID-19 cases.
Take the case of Wuhan City, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in
China, where authorities had to deal with over 50,000 confirmed coronavirus
patients. Two COVID-19 only hospitals were built in just a matter of days. The
first was Leishenshan with 1,500 beds and a medical staff of 2,000 (from
outside Wuhan) housed in two structures. Next was Huoshenshan with a
patient capacity of 1,000 patients and 1,000 medical personnel. Temporary
hospitals were also constructed in Hongshan Stadium, Wuhan Salon and the
International Convention and Exhibition Center among other areas. Aside
from this, they built 11 temporary hospitals just for pneumonia cases.
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The pandemic is threatening to overwhelm the health-care system in Metro

Manila, prompting our medical front-liners to ask the government to place the
region again under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
If the number of cases continue to go up, infected people will have nowhere to
go to seek treatment.
We still have time, Mr. President. Let us build hospitals exclusively for COVID-
19 patients.
***
Looking at COVID-19 stats for Metro Manila, the cities with the highest attack
rates (proportion of exposed people that become ill) are Navotas (1,538
cases) and San Juan (767) at 62 percent and 60 percent, respectively.
Next are Pasay (2,003) and Makati (1,483) both at 48 percent; Mandaluyong
(1,817) at 47 percent and Malabon (1,528) at 42 percent. Manila (5,984) with
its 1.7 million population has a 34 percent attack rate, same with Taguig
(2,763) while Parañaque (2,191) is at 33 percent.
In 10th and 11th places are Quezon City (8,620) and Muntinlupa (1,483), both
at 29 percent. Pasig (2,001) has 26 percent while the town of Pateros (162)
has 25 percent. Valenzuela (1,346) and Las Piñas (1,290) are both at 22
percent.
The cities with the lowest attack rates are Caloocan (2,594) with just 16
percent and Marikina (911) with 20 percent.
These numbers tell us how the local government units are doing in their anti-
COVID efforts.
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***
With the return of Metro Manila to modified enhanced community quarantine
(MECQ) today, we can’t help but compare the situation now to that of almost
five months ago.
On March 15, we had only 200 COVID-19 cases yet the government
immediately placed the region under ECQ the next day.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque claims this decisive move by

President Duterte stopped the cases from ballooning to 3.5 million as
projected by experts from the University of the Philippines.
Today, there are thousands of infections reported daily, bringing the total to
over 100,000 confirmed cases.
The daily positivity rate is at 14.1 percent, almost three times bigger than the
World Health Organization’s positivity rate of 5 percent.
Yes, I acknowledge the government’s refusal to impose the stricter ECQ due
to serious economic concerns, but even the decision to place Metro Manila
under MECQ may not work as well as it did back in March.
Moving forward, everyone—businessmen, health workers, government and

the public—should think and act as if we are all under ECQ so that local
transmission will be minimized. We should all stay home within the next two
weeks. For those who need to go out to work, protect your loved ones by
wearing a face mask inside your home because you are a presumed COVID-
19 carrier.
It is really difficult, but everybody should make sacrifices for our families and
the nation. INQ
More COVID-19 beds

available in Visayas
Hospital administrators in Cebu City, rest of Central Visayas breathe easier as capacity now
at ‘manageable levels’

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Hospitals in this city and the rest of Central
Visayas can now breathe easier two months after they complained of
congestion amid the rising number of patients afflicted with the new
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson for the Department of Health (DOH) in
Central Visayas, said the critical care utilization rate in the region had
improved after medical facilities decided to increase their bed capacities for
COVID-19 patients.Protocol compliance
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From as high as 89 percent in mid-June and 72 percent on July 15, the critical
care utilization in private and public hospitals went down between 49 and 52
percent on Aug. 2.
“What we have right now are at manageable levels,” she said.She attributed
the development to the decision of local governments to transfer COVID-19
patients with mild to moderate symptoms from hospitals to quarantine centers,
as well as the strict implementation of and compliance with health protocols to
slow down the spread of the virus.Loreche said she hoped the good practices
in the region, particularly in Cebu City, would be replicated in Metro Manila
where doctors, nurses and other health-care workers recently cried for help
amid an overwhelmed health system.
“At the very beginning, yes (our health-care workers, especially in Cebu City,
wanted a timeout), but right now, they are being taken care of by various
sectors that are helping us out,” she said.Since the start of the pandemic,
Loreche said 400 medical front-liners in Central Visayas had been afflicted
with COVID-19. The number represented around 5 percent of the region’s
medical professionals who were at the front lines in fighting the disease.
Recovered
“Of this number, some have already recovered,” Loreche said. “Since we are
only one country, we pray that they (Metro Manila) may also be able to find a
solution, and perhaps they can learn some things from us to address the
problem.”On June 16, President Duterte placed Cebu City under enhanced
community quarantine (ECQ) due to a surge in the number of COVID-19
cases, as well as its problem to provide critical health-care assistance to
patients.
He appointed Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to oversee the national
government’s response to contain the spread of the virus on Cebu Island.
It took a month before the city’s status was downgraded to a slightly relaxed
modified ECQ, which allowed the reopening of shopping malls and select
manufacturing and processing plants up to half of their full capacity on July
16.
On Aug. 1, Cebu City was downgraded to general community quarantine

(GCQ), which allowed the resumption of more businesses and public
transportation.
Mayor Edgardo Labella, however, ordered the continued implementation of

health protocols to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
“We don’t want to go back to ECQ and so I sincerely appeal to you to do your
share so we will win this battle,” Labella said. “We need to act as one.
Harmonization of the system is needed to fight the invisible enemy. No matter
how good our system is, we won’t be successful if people do not cooperate,”
he added.
As of Monday, Cebu City had recorded 9,094 cases of COVID-19. At least

2,764 of the cases were considered active, with 5,808 recoveries and 522
deaths, according to the DOH.
Tent is new ward for

suspected COVID-19
cases in hospital
By: Nikka G. Valenzuela - Reporter / @NikkaINQ

MANILA, Philippines — After its new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) ward
reached full capacity around two weeks ago, a Manila public hospital has
been putting new patients in a tent set up at its parking area.
Dr. Ted Martin, director of Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center,
said on Wednesday that there were 25 suspected COVID-19 patients in Tent
No. 3. There was nowhere else to put them as the COVID-19 ward had ran
out of beds two weeks ago. Even the tent they were staying in had a capacity
of only 18 people, he added.
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According to Martin, other government-funded hospitals could no longer

accommodate new patients due to the overwhelming number of cases.
“There’s no choice. You can’t turn away patients. We need to manage to

provide treatment for them, even if it’s inside a tent,” he told Inquirer in an
interview.
The patients showed moderate symptoms of COVID-19 although there were

some with preexisting conditions and pneumonia, according to Martin.
He added that there was also a severe case who was provided with
supplemental oxygen while every patient was given an intravenous infusion.
While the tent was air-conditioned, Martin said the patients must be moved to
a proper facility. “They really need to be transferred, but the hospitals like
Philippine General Hospital and Sta. Ana Hospital are at overcapacity. We
don’t have a choice but to manage patients coming in. That’s our dilemma
right now,” he said.
The city government-funded hospital in Tondo, Manila, has segregated

incoming patients into eight tents. These included suspected cases awaiting
swab testing, people consulting pediatricians and pregnant women.
DOH blamed for delay in
QC contact tracing
efforts
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said the failure of the Department of Health
(DOH) to provide complete information on all COVID-19 cases in the city is
causing the delay in the city government’s contact tracing efforts.
“We appeal to your good office as Secretary of Health to set the vision and
direction in improving data quality for rapid contact tracing,” Belmonte said in
a letter addressed to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
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Incomplete patient profiles “delay contact tracing by days and force front-liners
to spend valuable time looking for the needed information from other possible
sources,” she said.
Almost half of the 1,224 COVID-19 cases listed on Aug. 1 and 2 do not have
addresses and contact numbers. As of Wednesday, the DOH recorded a total
of 7,355 cases in Quezon City. —MARIEJO S. RAMOS
Pampanga hospital
denies reuse of PPEs
By: Tonette Orejas - @ttorejasINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:03 PM August 08, 2020

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A Pampanga hospital treating coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) patients has pushed back against critics who accused
the facility of reusing disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) suits.
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“The PPE is one of the most essential items that are always readily available”
at the Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital (JBLMGH), said Dr.
Monserrat Chichioco, its medical director, after learning about reports claiming
that health workers have been made to recycle PPE gear.
“We have more than enough supplies of PPE here. The infection prevention
control team and our surveillance officers are closely monitoring [our
inventory]. All the more that we do not want our healthcare workers to be
unprotected,” she said.
JBLMGH uses several types of PPE, Chichioco said.
“We use the appropriate [gear] depending on the usage indication and place
of assignment that is prescribed by [World Health Organization] guidelines
which are being followed by our hospital. Some PPE are reusable or
washable,” Chichioco added.
Thirty percent (or about 195) of the hospital’s 645 rooms have been assigned
to patients afflicted with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and medical
employees working in COVID-19 wards “use the best kind of PPE,” she said.
They use full-face masks which are equipped with type P100 particulate
filtering facepiece respirators, said Chichioco.
She confirmed that 14 patients from hospitals in the National Capital Region
have been transferred to JBLMGH since Aug. 4 as “part of the One Hospital
Command strategy of the Department of Health.” DOH runs JBLMGH.
JBLMGH also hosts a molecular laboratory that determines who has

contracted the disease in Central Luzon.
Government prepares
for prolonged pandemic
By: Ben O. de Vera, Jovic Yee - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — Much as the Philippines would like to knock out

COVID-19, which has brought the economy to a recession, the country’s chief
economic manager urged prudence in public spending in case of a protracted
pandemic.
“When Sen. Pacquiao trains for a fight, he prepares for 12 grueling rounds,”
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in a statement.
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“As there can be no knock-out punch that cuts our fight short before a vaccine
is developed, the government’s ability to sustain the fight depends on our
fiscal stamina. We have the resources necessary to endure this challenge, but
we must also conserve our resources for succeeding rounds of this fight,” he
added.
The Department of Health’s data suggests there are several rounds more to
go as it tallied 4,226 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total
count to 126,885.
The death toll also increased to 2,209 as 41 more patients succumbed to the
severe respiratory disease.
More than half, or 2,669, of the new infections still came from Metro Manila.
Laguna was a far second with 285 cases, followed by Cavite (154), Cebu
(125) and Rizal (118).
92% of cases mild

The number of active cases climbed to 57,559, of which 91.4 percent are mild,
7.3 percent are asymptomatic, 0.7 percent are severe and 0.6 percent are
critical.
Dominguez said the P140 to P165-billion stimulus package under the

envisioned Bayanihan to Recover as One Law, the record P4.5-trillion national
budget for 2021 and the Duterte administration’s sustained investments in
infrastructure were designed to hasten recovery.
While critics complained that the stimulus package was too small to recover
the trillions of pesos in economic losses and the millions of jobs lost,
Dominguez said Bayanihan 2 included “targeted support for unemployed
individuals and the hardest-hit strategic industries.”
Moreover, the package will also be complemented by the passage of the

pending Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (Create) bill,
which will slash corporate income tax from 30 percent—the biggest in
Southeast Asia—to 25 percent, retroactively effective to July.
Foregone revenues from the lower tax rates under Create had been estimated
to reach P42 billion this year—tax savings which Dominguez hopes would be
reinvested by firms to revive their operations.
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Positive metrics
“The economy is in good shape to mount a strong recovery soon enough,
given the positive metrics—such as benign inflation, a peso that is the
strongest currency in Asia and high-investment grade credit profile that has
enabled us to borrow money here and abroad at relatively lower cost,” he
added.
Also on Saturday, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick

Chua said that the state planning agency National Economic and
Development Authority, which he heads, was spearheading the task force on
COVID-19 recovery via the “Recharge PH” program.
Chua said “the government will focus on rebalancing its priorities from saving
lives from just the COVID-19 virus to saving lives from COVID-19 and other
factors, such as hunger and other diseases.”
Western Visayas reverts

to stricter lockdown as
virus cases rise
‘Tough decision’ is for greater good, says Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas
ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines — Provinces and cities in Western Visayas

reimposed stricter health measures, including longer curfews and selective
lockdowns, amid a surge in cases of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19).
Jaro Archbishop Jose Romeo Lazo on Saturday also ordered the immediate
suspension of public Masses in churches in Iloilo in response to an appeal of
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas.
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Iloilo City and province, like the rest of Western Visayas, is now under
modified general community quarantine where public Masses are already
allowed at half of the churches’ capacity and provided that churchgoers
observe social distancing and wear face masks.
In Antique province, San Jose Bishop Marvyn Maceda on Saturday also

ordered the suspension of public Masses and celebrations after a priest was
exposed to an infected person.
The priest subsequently came in contact with other priests in the diocese. The
prelate encouraged the faithful to participate in Holy Masses streamed on
social media or broadcasted over radio and television stations.
Longer curfew hours

Seven persons, including a 7-year-old girl from Dumangas town in Iloilo, died
of COVID-19 while 142 others contracted the virus in Western Visayas in just
two days.
As of Sunday, Western Visayas has recorded 1,931 COVID-19 cases with 31

deaths and 957 recoveries, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
Treñas reimposed a ban on the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks in

public areas, lengthened the curfew from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., and mandated City
Hall employees 55 years old and above to work from home. But a lockdown
has also been imposed at the Iloilo City Terminal Market and Iloilo fishing port
while six villages in the city were also placed under varying levels of
quarantine restrictions.
Work in call center companies will be limited to 50 percent of its personnel

starting on Monday after 28 call center agents tested positive for the disease.
Other call centers agents will work from home.
Treñas appealed for understanding amid complaints especially from business

operators.
LIFE GOES ON Shoppers bring life back to the downtown commercial area of
Iloilo City that has reopened under modified general community quarantine. —
ARNOLD ALMACEN/ ILOILO CITY MAYOR’S OFFICE
“This is also a tough decision for me, but I choose the lives of many people
rather than the income of the city. This is for the greater good of the people,”
he said in a statement.
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The Iloilo City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported 192
COVID-19 cases as of Aug. 8 with nine deaths and 66 recoveries.
Except for the longer curfew hours, public transportation in the city will
continue to be available, malls will remain open and restaurants can still
operate at 50-percent capacity.
In Bacolod City in Negros Occidental province, Mayor Evelio Leonardia also

adjusted the curfew hours from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. instead of starting at 10 p.m.
Travel restrictions
In the island province of Guimaras, Gov. Samuel Gumarin has issued an
executive order tightening travel restrictions effective on Monday, Aug. 10.
Guimarasnons who have not returned to the island before Aug. 1 are required
to undergo a 14-day home quarantine upon returning to the island unless they
have tested negative in a swab test within the past three days.
Only nonresidents who are transporting basic commodities and necessities

and traveling for emergency purposes will be allowed to go to the island.
Nonresidents who render services or work in Guimaras will need to undergo

weekly rapid testing.
—With a report from Carla P. Gomez
Marikina prioritizes
cancer patients for swab
tests
MANILA, Philippines — To reduce their risk and ensure that they immediately
receive the treatment they need, cancer patients in Marikina City who are
undergoing dialysis will be given priority in the processing of their swab tests
for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
According to Mayor Marcelino Teodoro, under an agreement with eight city-

based dialysis facilities, cancer patients and immunocompromised residents
may get their COVID-19 test results in just 24 hours from the city’s testing
laboratory.
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“Our immunocompromised residents must get their results quickly because

they really need dialysis treatment,” Teodoro said, adding that as part of a
health protocol, facilities serving cancer patients require them to undergo
testing to make sure they are virus-free.
He said that the agreement would also minimize the risk of cancer patients
getting infected with COVID-19 at overcrowded hospitals or testing centers.
Cancer patients need only to present a referral letter from their doctor to the
Marikina City Epidemiological Surveillance Unit stating that they need to
undergo a COVID-19 swab test for dialysis treatment, said Dr. Antonio
Llabres, logistics head of the Marikina City Task Force COVID-19.
“No more lines unlike at other testing facilities. They will get tested
immediately,” he added.
—Jodee A. Agoncillo
Palace says lockdown

extension unlikely, cites
dwindling funds

MARKET WATCH Looking for violators of health and safety regulations, an
Army soldier extends his patrol to the interior of the public market in Taytay,
Rizal province, on Tuesday. The municipality recently passed an ordinance
requiring residents to wear not only protective masks but also face shields in
public places to curb the transmission of the coronavirus. —GRIG C.
MONTEGRANDE
President Duterte is wary about extending the modified enhanced community
quarantine in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal amid dwindling
funds for cash aid.
Malacañang said although prolonging the lockdown beyond Aug. 18 is

possible, it is “highly unlikely.”
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In a televised speech aired on Monday, the President said he could not give in
to the request of the medical community for a longer lockdown because the
government has no more money for social amelioration.
“I’m telling the doctors, much as I really would want to give in to your
demands, especially in the matter of the lockdown … the problem is the funds
are already depleted. We need the people to go back to work,” he said.
The President made the remarks following calls from Dr. Anthony Leachon,
former special adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, to
extend the lockdown to a full month to slow the spread of the coronavirus in
Metro Manila.
Sought for clarification on Tuesday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque

said it was “highly unlikely” that Mr. Duterte would agree to extend the
lockdown to a month.
“The question is if it’s possible, my answer is that anything is possible but

highly unlikely,” Roque said in a press briefing.
Roque said prolonging the lockdown “cannot be done anymore,” not unless
Leachon would be willing to provide cash aid to residents.
He said the government was focusing its efforts to ramping up test, trace,
isolate and treat strategies to address the growing number of the new
Roque pointed out that Metro Manila, the country’s economic hub, loses P18
billion a day during the lockdown.
“The President is straightforward and transparent. There is no more aid for

those who cannot go to work, so we have to live despite and in spite. Protect
our health so that we can go on with our daily lives,” he said.
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Roque added that the Aug. 24 opening of classes will push through for now.
He assured the public that the government is constantly revising its pandemic
strategy to make it responsive to the situation.
“No one among us works under 14 hours a day to find ways to control COVID-
19. We may not be as successful but I can assure you, everyone is working
darn hard to find a solution to the problem. If there are lapses, we ask for your
understanding, but you can expect that the government is not sleeping on the
job,” Roque said.
On Monday night, the President urged the public to cooperate with the
community quarantine restrictions, warning that he will tap the military to
enforce it in case of a “runaway contagion.”
“If I cannot make you follow and it’s a runaway contagion, I will be forced to
use the military because the police are not enough. If the military is there to
force you to obey the community lockdown, obey it because it is for your own
good,” Mr. Duterte said.
The government has tapped both the military and the police to enforce
lockdown restrictions since March.
Meanwhile, the President has approved new health measures to be observed

in workplaces in locked down areas.
Roque said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez presented the new health rules,
which would ban dine-in services in canteens and common smoking areas in
workplaces.
In lieu of common smoking areas, only individual smoking areas or booths in

open spaces will be allowed.
Companies must provide shuttle service for their employees, while employees
are not allowed to remove their face masks and shields while in the vehicle.
INQ
Marikina hiring more

contact tracers
MANILA, Philippines — Marikina is hiring 14 additional health workers to

expand contact tracing in the city to arrest the spread of the new coronavirus
disease (COVID-19), according to Mayor Marcelino Teodoro.
Each of the 16 barangays in the city, Teodoro said, would have a team of
contact tracers composed of members of the City Epidemiological
Surveillance Unit, local police and barangay officials.
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“We will continue to conduct contact tracing until we reach zero number of
cases in Marikina,” he added.
Citing the Department of Health’s COVID-19 statistics, Teodoro said Marikina
had a 20 percent attack rate or the proportion of exposed people who
contracted the virus.
It was one of the lowest in Metro Manila, thanks to the discipline of residents
and the city’s intensive testing and contact tracing program.
“Our rate of contact tracing is for one positive case, we have 30 identified…
Because we have a high ratio, 1:30, we speedily contain the spread of the
virus,” he added.
“The testing average that they want to achieve on a national level is 400 to
500 tests per day in a locality. But here in Marikina, we have tested 600 to 800
people a day, which is almost double the standard average that we have,”
Teodoro said.
—Jodee A. Agoncillo
FDA: Approved Chinese

drug not for treating
Covid-19

BEFORE FDA APPROVAL Misdeclared as vitamins, a shipment of the
Chinese drug Lianhua Qingwen was seized by customs officials at Ninoy
Aquino International Airport in May. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday clarified that the
Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen is not registered in the Philippines as a
treatment for COVID-19.
The FDA said it approved Lianhua Qingwen as a traditional medicine and

prescription drug despite its use in treating COVID-19 in China, Dr. Eric
Domingo, the FDA director-general, said.
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“We approved it specifically for the indications stated in its certificate of

product registration (CPR),” Domingo said.
Not anti-COVID product

The drug’s CPR for the Philippines indicated that it can help remove heat toxin
invasion of the lungs, including symptoms, such as fever, aversion to cold,
muscle soreness, stuffy and runny nose.
Local manufacturers cannot claim on the medicine’s label that it is a cure for
COVID-19, Domingo said.
Chinese Embassy claim

“They cannot put in the packaging that this is an anti-COVID product. There’s
no medicine yet for us labeled as an anti-COVID product,” he stressed.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila earlier said that the drug had been approved
for mild and moderate COVID-19 cases in China.
In a statement, the embassy said the Chinese government hoped that the
medicine would be able to “contribute to the fight against the spread of
COVID-19” in the Philippines.
Domingo, however, said that for the Chinese drug to be used in the
Philippines’ health system, it would have to take a lot of processes, including
undergoing health assessment.
Confusing order allows

local gov’t to reduce
front-liners’ hazard pay
By: Maricar Cinco - Reporter / @maricarcincoINQ
SAN PEDRO CITY — The recent death of a government nurse in Cainta town
in Rizal province exposed confusing government guidelines on health
workers’ hazard pay, an issue which the nurse’s daughter said is bigger than
the monetary compensation and tackles the plight of pandemic front-liners.
Ma. Theresa Cruz, 47, died on July 22, three days before her swab test
results showed that she was infected with the coronavirus.
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The mother of three worked as a nurse at the Cainta Municipal Hospital since
2011, her first four years on a “job order” status.
As a “job order” nurse, Cruz’s monthly salary then was only P4,000, for which
she would “queue up along with the street sweepers” at the municipal hall, her
family said.
Cruz was the first front-liner who died of the disease in Cainta, which has
recorded 213 cases as of Aug. 13.
She became a regular employee in 2015 and had since received a monthly
pay of P21,000, said Cainta Mayor Johnielle Keith Nieto.
She also received the hazard pay for nurses, roughly P240 a day, according
to Department of Health (DOH) Regional Director Eduardo Janairo.
When the pandemic struck in March, the government issued Administrative

Order No. 26, which grants hazard pay to front-line government personnel “in
an amount not exceeding P500” for each day the employee reported for work.
Just a ceiling
This was where it became tricky, specially for front-line workers who expected
an extra P500 a day on top of their basic salary and existing hazard pay.
“Clearly, my mom was one of the many front-line workers who had no idea
about AO 26 and who just relied on the news and announcements [of the]
DOH,” said Cruz’s daughter, Joie, in an open letter, Friday.
“Do we expect our nurses to read these legal issuances while they are busy
risking their lives on the front line?” she added.
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In separate interviews, Nieto and Janairo said the P500 was the “ceiling” set
by the national government for the COVID-19 hazard pay.
“[The amount] would still depend on the capacity of the [local government
units, or LGUs, to pay],” Janairo said.
In the case of Cainta, a first-class municipality, Nieto said they pegged the
COVID-19 hazard pay at P300.
Nieto said the bulk of the municipal fund went to response efforts, like
financial aid to residents who lost their jobs.
In smaller and poorer towns, the COVID-19 hazard pay was way below, “that
some were giving only P150 to P200,” Nieto added.
Double compensation
The COVID-19 hazard pay was also not an add-on allowance for public
workers with existing hazard pays before the pandemic, since doing so would
constitute double compensation, a practice prohibited in the Constitution, the
mayor said.
In Cruz’s case, the municipal government paid her about P60 a day—the
difference between P300 and her P240 hazard pay—for 33 days of work
during the quarantine.
The family was able to claim P7,000, much less than what Cruz and her
coworkers expected.
Joie said Cruz looked forward to her hazard pay so she could buy her
youngest daughter’s homeschool supplies.
The municipal government gave the family P50,000 financial assistance. Cruz
was also eligible for the P1-million government compensation for front-liners
who died due to the disease, Janairo said.
But Joie said the issue was bigger than the “monetary value.” It was rather
how front-liners were “exploited … and treated way way below what [they]
deserved,” she said.
QC to open virus testing

lab
3-story facility in Barangay Teachers Village to process 500 samples a day

MANILA, Philippines — After Manila and Marikina, the next local government
in Metro Manila to open its own molecular laboratory for coronavirus testing
would be the Quezon City government.
In a statement, the city government said the three-story laboratory, set to start
operating by the end of the month in Barangay Teachers Village, would be
able to process 500 tests daily with a turnaround time of one to two days.
Once accredited by the Department of Health, the facility would also be able
to process other medical tests such as those for tuberculosis, the human
immunodeficiency virus and dengue, according to Mayor Joy Belmonte.
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About 20 members of the city health department—including medical

technologists, pathologists and lab managers—would be undergoing training
at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine due to the highly technical
requirements.
Private donors
Equipment, extraction machines and other needed facilities were procured by
the city through donations from the private sector, the city government said.
The laboratory would also have data encoding areas and sleeping quarters for
workers assigned at the facility.
Meanwhile, the city government dispelled reports it would be placing 25

barangays under a “special concern lockdown,” saying that officials were still
studying the situation in the affected areas. “If [new coronavirus disease]
COVID-19 cases are rapidly increasing in a certain area, especially those that
are crowded and have narrow streets, then we will declare a special concern
lockdown. It is important that we consider the recommendations of the city
health department or the city epidemiology and surveillance unit,” it said.
It added that for now, it saw no reason to place on lockdown Tandang Sora,
Commonwealth, Holy Spirit, Novaliches Proper, Pasong Tamo, Crame,
Payatas, Socorro, Matandang Balara, Pinyahan and San Roque, among other
barangays.
Nograles’ recommendation
The city government issued the clarification after Cabinet Secretary Karlo
Nograles, who had been assigned to oversee Quezon City’s COVID-19
response, made the recommendation.It said that the national government’s
move to assign Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging
Infectious Diseases (IATF) officials to local government units was aimed at
speeding up COVID-19 response, but not to intervene in governance.“Quezon
City residents can trust the local government when we say that we have the
situation under control,” it stressed.
At the same time, Belmonte assured residents that they were thoroughly
studying the situation and closely coordinating with Nograles and the IATF.
Listed as the 16th city in the country with the most number of coronavirus
cases per million residents, Quezon City had 8,589 confirmed cases, 2,080 of
which are active, as of Aug. 15.
The city government, however, clarified that since Quezon City had the
biggest population in the country, this would result in more confirmed cases
compared to other areas.
According to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, Quezon City had a
population of around 2.9 million in 2015.
Project Ark recommends

pooled COVID-19 testing
MANILA, Philippines — A study funded by Project Ark is recommending

pooled testing of five people at a time, as it has found that testing a bigger
group might dilute the results and miss out on those positive for the new
coronavirus.
Testing five asymptomatic people using one RT-PCR testing kit, or reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction, would cost P650 to P700 per person,
a cost saving of up to 70 percent, according to a Zoom presentation of the
study.
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The Philippine Society of Pathologists Inc. and the Philippine Children’s
Medical Center conducted the research, which sought to find a more
affordable yet still accurate way of screening people for the virus that causes
COVID-19.
Pooled testing is an RT-PCR test done in groups. A positive pooled testing

result would require more individual testing, without the need for getting new
swabs, until authorities locate the coronavirus positive person.
The study was done in batches of five, 10 and 20. It did both a simulation of
pooled testing using samples and an actual pooled testing of over 400
supermarket workers, wherein 3 percent were found to be COVID-19 positive.
Bigger pool, weaker sensitivity

The simulation showed that the sensitivity of the tests might get weaker as the
pool got bigger.
“So we are actually recommending a pool size of five for faster turnaround
time with comparable saving and the least drop in sensitivity. That is our
preliminary finding as far as this research is concerned,” said pathologist
Raymundo Lo, principal investigator of the study.
In the simulation, a pool of five showed a sensitivity of 83 percent. The

sensitivity dropped to 72 percent in a pool of 10 and to 67 percent in a group
of 20.
“[W]e have detected a little drop in sensitivity. But that is to be expected as

well as seen in the other pooled testing studies abroad,” Lo said. “This does
not negate the benefits of pooled testing.”
He said testing a larger population would still yield more COVID-19 carriers
than not testing at all, even if pooled testing were to miss some people who
had low viral loads.
Lo recommended that pooled testing be done only to select groups, including

low prevalence communities; hot zone communities; health-care workers;
factory workers, market vendors, call center and transportation workers;
airports and seaports for inbound foreign travelers and returning residents.
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Pooled testing was also recommended for the deployment of overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs), returning OFWs, front-line government workers (police,
military, quarantine, immigration officers to name a few), and locally stranded
individuals.
The study was conducted together with the Research Institute for Tropical
Medicine and the University of Perpetual Help Dalta Medical Center as
research study sites, according to a Project Ark statement after the Zoom
presentation.
Private sector partners, through Joey Concepcion’s Go Negosyo, supported

and funded the research.
Pilot testing in Metro

“The private sector will fund a pooled PCR testing pilot for 16 cities and one
municipality in [Metro Manila] this month. That represents about 160,000
pooled PCR tests that will be done for this part of the research,” Concepcion,
presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, said in a statement.
“This will be a game changer for our country. We will also bring more private
sector companies to support more cities in NCR. It could speed up testing,
increase the capacity and make it cheaper. Testing will create greater
visibility,” he said.
Makati City will be the first to conduct pooled testing, although it was
supposed to start on Aug. 15. They hope to do the testing this week.
The controversy surrounding rapid antibody testing — a cheap and quick

method that Concepcion advocated — would likely haunt this new method
that he now is pushing for.
False negatives
On Monday, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said rapid antibody tests should
not be used on workers amid fears that false negatives under the quick and
cheap tests may have contributed to the surge in infection.
Although he did not say if he was referring to Concepcion, Lopez reminded

the public that they should not listen to advocates of rapid antibody testing.
Instead, he emphasized that only RT-PCR testing should be used.
“What’s needed is RT-PCR for those who are symptomatic,” he said in an

event on Facebook live on Monday.
While Lopez warned against the controversial rapid antibody test kits, he said
that only symptomatic and exposed workers were required under the new
guidelines to be tested. In these cases, the employers should shoulder the
expenses.
The Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Labor and
Employment issued new work protocols over the weekend. For some reason,
however, the two agencies required testing only workers that show COVID-19
symptoms, although asymptomatic workers could be silent carriers of the
virus.
Concepcion, who led Project Ark, said in an earlier press briefing on Zoom
that the main cause of the surge was testing at the start only symptomatic
people.
Makati wants more

contact tracers
MANILA, Philippines — Makati Mayor Abby Binay asked the national

government on Tuesday to help them fight the new coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) by giving them more personnel to conduct contact tracing.
She made the request on Tuesday when she met National Security Adviser
Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the Cabinet member tasked to support the city in its
COVID-19 response.
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Binay said the city epidemiology and surveillance unit (Cesu) only had 35
contact tracers. “Unfortunately, when even one of them gets sick, all of that
personnel’s close contacts need to be quarantined. Our Cesu operations will
be crippled,” she added, noting that they were facing a backlog. Appeal to
gov’t“We are hoping that the national government can provide us with
manpower,” she said.
Esperon, for his part pushed the use of StaySafe.ph, the national
government’s official contact-tracing app. But for the app to be effective, it
must be used by around half of the population, or 50 million Filipinos. An
Inquirer Business report in June said that according to app developer Multisys
Technologies Corp., there were only around 1.1 million users.
As of Monday, Makati had recorded 2,878 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with

139 deaths and 1,582 recoveries.
Hotels, dorms to be
tapped as COVID-19
isolation centers
MANILA, Philippines — The government will book hotel rooms and use
dormitories to increase the number of isolation centers for COVID-19 patients
as it ramps up its contact-tracing efforts, according to presidential
spokesperson Harry Roque.
Roque said the government plan to use public schools as quarantine centers
would have to wait for the passage of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act
as this would provide the necessary funding for the schools’ refurbishment.
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The government would have to buy beds and linen, and provide for kitchens in
public schools before these could be used to isolate COVID-19 patients,
Roque said in a television interview on Wednesday.
No tourism anyway
He also said the government had booked hotel rooms because tourism was
not allowed anyway, and would use available dormitories as well.
The drug rehabilitation center in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija province, would
also be converted into an isolation center, he said.
The government is turning to “anything and everything that we can use for
isolation purposes without having to build new ones,” Roque said. Space
building goes with the improvement in the government’s contact-tracing
efforts, he said.
“And because we have improved tracing now, we need more isolation facilities
and that’s what the reboot is all about,” he said, referring to the two-week
stricter lockdown imposed on Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and
Laguna, which ended on Tuesday.
Roque noted that tracing 10 contacts of each of the 4,000 COVID-19 patients
reported in a day would mean 40,000 people who may have to be isolated.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong has been training people on effective
contact tracing, and has proposed a model of tracing 37 people for every one
positive person, he said.
But this would “not be practical” in Metro Manila, so officials agreed to trace
10 to 15 people for every positive coronavirus case and have them tested for
the disease.
“And these individuals will be given swab tests right away, and if need be,
isolated when facilities are already available. Because we have learned these
from the mistakes of other countries that unless they have their own rooms
and bathrooms, they must be kept in isolation facilities,” he said.
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Hospital capacity
Roque also said hospital capacity was being expanded with the addition of
more beds for COVID-19 patients.
Modular or tent-like treatment centers are being put up to accommodate more

patients to ease the pressure on the health system, he said.
“So we took advantage of the two-week break asked by [medical] front-liners

to improve capacity, improve testing, isolation, as well as our tracing
capacity,” he added.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 4,650 additional
coronavirus infections, pushing the national tally to 173,774 cases.
Of the new cases submitted by 97 of 105 accredited laboratories, 3,848 got

sick between Aug. 6 and 19, while 237 fell ill between Aug. 1 and 5.
Metro Manila accounted for most of the additional cases, with 3,092, followed
by Cavite (249), Laguna (194), Rizal (189) and Bulacan (136).
The DOH said the total number of recovered patients climbed to 113,481 with
the recovery of 716 patients. The death toll, however, jumped to 2,795 with
the deaths of 111 patients.
That left 57,498 active cases, of which the DOH said 91.4 percent were mild,
6.5 percent asymptomatic, 0.9 percent severe, and 1.2 percent critical.
Of the newly reported fatalities, 76 died in August, 13 in July, eight in June,

nine in Mayand five in April.
Fifty-two of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, 29 from Central Visayas, 11
from Calabarzon, six from Central Luzon, four from Zamboanga, four
repatriates, two from Western Visayas, and one each from Bicol, Davao and
the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Church capacity still

limited to 10 under GCQ
The government decided to continue limiting attendance to church activities in

Metro Manila to 10 people during the general community quarantine (GCQ),
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Friday.
Guevarra, a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the

Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, addressed queries by Pasig
Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara and Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo on
why attendance in church activities remained limited to 10 people despite
GCQ being observed in the National Capital Region.
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During the GCQ that was first implemented from Jun. 1 to Aug. 3, religious
worship and other mass gatherings in churches were allowed up to 10 percent
of their estimated capacity.
Under the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine from Aug. 4 to 18,

attendance was restricted to 10 people.
‘Unwanted part’
“Much as I would like to have a progressive and continuous movement, public
health considerations bear heavily on [IATF] decisions,” Guevarra said in his
text message to Vergara.
Guevarra also said the IATF heeded the request of Metro Manila mayors who
wanted a stricter GCQ to include keeping church attendance at 10 people
maximum.
“We just have to continue living our lives with the COVID-19 virus as an
unwanted part of it. We just have to deal with it and continue to protect
ourselves,” he said.
But in areas under GCQ outside of Metro Manila, the 10-percent rule for
church activities applies, Guevarra said.
Learning as they go:

Doctors improve COVID-
19 patient care
By: Cathy Cañares Yamsuan, Jovic Yee - @inquirerdotnet

MANILA, Philippines — Tech entrepreneur Jorge “Jojy” Azurin was among
those who fell severely ill with COVID-19 in the initial surge of cases in the
country in March.
He spent eight days in the emergency room where he was intubated before
he was transferred to the intensive care unit of The Medical City, where he
stayed for another five days. In all, he spent 18 days in the hospital.
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In a recent virtual forum on patient recovery from COVID-19 hosted by the

Department of Health (DOH) Azurin, 56, related his struggle to survive.
“I knew I was dying,” he said. “I was putting a lot of mental, emotional,

physical effort just to live.”
While fighting for his life early in his confinement, he was racked with worries
about his wife and five children, fearing they might have also been infected.
But a simple note from his family saying everyone’s fine and healthy five days
into his confinement helped improve his condition. He “started to feel better”
and his doctor saw that, too.
“I started to have a surprise recovery. Another doctor confirmed that our story
became the basis of the hospital to improve patient-family communication. It’s
because it’s very helpful for a patient to know what is happening to your
family, that they’re okay, so you can focus on your recovery,” Azurin said.
As part of a hospital’s safety protocol, COVID-19 patients are not allowed to

receive visitors, even family members, to prevent further transmission of
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the severe respiratory disease. That
leaves patients battling against both disease and depression on their own.
Dr. Jonas del Rosario, spokesperson for the Philippine General Hospital
(PGH), describes COVID-19 as “a very isolating illness.”
“Most of the time you’re by yourself. You become depressed. Sometimes

people can even take up suicidal thoughts because you start to feel and ask
why you’re alone,” said Del Rosario, himself a COVID-19 survivor.
To improve patient care and provide psychological support, PGH set up in

May its “Tele-Kumusta” program, which allows “face-to-face” encounters
between patients and their families using the Zoom video conferencing app.
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Del Rosario believes that the online meetups and several other refinements in
patient management helped increase the number of recoveries, especially
among the severely and critically ill.
PPE FOR SAN LAZARO Workers and volunteers unload boxes of personal
protective equipment for the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila in this March 16,
2020, photo. San Lazaro is a front-line hospital fighting against COVID-19. —
PHOTO FROM OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
Adapting best practices
Five months after the outbreak, doctors at PGH and other hospitals have
acquired more knowledge about the disease and adapted best practices here
and abroad.
PGH now has a “template on how to approach patients systematically,” Del

Rosario said.
While researchers are working on a vaccine, doctors and hospitals around the
world have developed and shared innovative and effective modes of
managing the disease and caring for patients that are less invasive, expensive
and traumatic. They have also developed more prudent use of limited hospital
or medical resources.
These lessons and experiences are learned and shared mostly through
webinars and computer-assisted data collection, according to Dr. Rontgene
Solante, chair of the Adult Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine section of
San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.
These new modes include putting severe COVID-19 patients in a prone

position to aid breathing, using the investigational drug remdesivir, delaying
intubation in patients to lessen trauma and sending home patients with mild
cases to free up the beds in busy hospitals, Solante said.
“We listen to webinars among highly popular infectious disease specialists

and pulmonologists abroad,” Solante said in an interview on Viber. “In short,
what is being practiced in Western countries, we are using the same mode of
management. There’s really an exchange of data that benefits the patient.”
Solante is the treasurer of the Philippine College of Physicians and a former

president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
He is a consultant at Medical Center Manila, Adventist Medical Center and
University of the East Ramon Magsaysay (UERM) Memorial Medical Center
and an assistant professor at UERM Memorial Medical Center College of
Medicine.
Solante said new guidelines for patient care were made “in collaboration” with
the Philippine College of Chest Physicians, which also gets guidelines and
references from the American College of Chest Physicians.
Preferred position
He and fellow infectious disease specialists constantly check with and collate
data from the Infectious Disease Society of America on managing COVID-19
patients.
Doctors abroad report that putting patients in a prone position helps raise the
level of oxygen that enters the lungs. While patients lay on their backs, part of
their torso’s weight bears down on their lungs, making it more difficult for them
to breathe.
That mode is now “part of standard care” for moderate, severe and critical
patients, Solante said.
Del Rosario said patients at PGH are being placed in prone position every two
hours, at least.
“When you have COVID-19 pneumonia, there are areas in your lungs which
are collapsed or filled with secretions. If you do a prone position, it is the best
way to expand [your lung] and get air into it versus lying on your back or side,”
he explained.
“Remdesivir, an American “investigational drug” used in clinical trials in many

parts of the world, has not yet been approved for general distribution.”
But medical journals report that the drug inhibits viral replication. In a webinar
series on patient care, Solante reported that San Lazaro had been using
remdesivir as part of the solidarity clinical trial of COVID-19 treatments.
PGH also hosts clinical trials of remdesivir and the Japanese antiflu drug
Avigan as a possible cure for COVID-19.
Earlier, hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir were part of the trials but

DOH stopped their use after the World Health Organization (WHO) found that
these drugs did not help improve the condition of hospitalized patients.
Plasma therapy
PGH also uses convalescent plasma therapy, which makes use of the
antibodies found in the blood plasma of a patient who had recovered from
COVID-19. It was employed in mid-April only in patients who had undergone
every possible intervention.
Del Rosario said they had learned that it was “more advantageous” if the
plasma were given before the moderately severe condition of a patient
worsened.
“We observed that if you give it late, there are already so many complications.
So we created a new protocol where we try to give it earlier, even to those
who are moderately ill. It was found out that the sooner you give it, within the
14 days, that’s the best time to give the convalescent plasma,” he said.
According to Solante, dexamethasone, a corticosteroid drug used to treat

chronic obstructive lung disease, is another medication that Filipino doctors
administer to COVID-19 patients.
He said dexamethasone was “initially not recommended” for COVID-19
patients because it was observed that in patients who had severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS), the drug “prolonged the stay” of SARS-CoV-1,
the virus which killed more than 700 people in an outbreak in 2002-2004.
“But with new evidence showing it helps decrease lung inflammation and
helps prevent intubation among SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus) patients, it
is now recommended,” Solante said.
Solante said Philippine physicians use remdesivir and dexamethasone

following updated clinical guidelines from abroad and WHO.
VENTILATOR A COVID-19 patient lies sedated while connected to a

mechanical ventilator that helps him breathe. Several months into the
pandemic, more hospitals are using the less invasive high-flow nasal cannula
machine that delivers oxygen to the lungs through the nose. —EDWIN
BACASMAS
Multiple experts now needed
Both Solante and Del Rosario said that a COVID-19 patient now required the
attention of multiple medical experts, not just pulmonologists but also
infectious disease specialists, cardiologists, endocrinologists, nephrologists
and neurologists.
Previously, doctors at PGH had to first determine what particular test a person
with COVID-19 needed to undergo, unlike these days when a patient would
be immediately subjected to a battery of tests.
“That in itself is already a big improvement in the delivery of care because we

have taken care of all the possible problems that can happen,” Del Rosario
said.
“In COVID-19, it’s very important that you try to pinpoint the problems right
away so that you don’t allow it to progress to a point that complications may
set in,” he added.
Solante said that based on experience over the past months, COVID-19 not
only caused pulmonary complications but also cardiovascular and others.
“Now every time a patient is admitted, there is always a multispeciality

involved,” he said. “The more complications you have, the more specialists
are needed in the team.”
Delaying intubation
One important intervention that was found more effective and less damaging
on the patient was the use of high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) machines
instead of mechanical ventilators, which was used in the early days of the
outbreak and on Azurin back in March.
Based on a review by a team of PGH experts of the practices at other

hospitals, Del Rosario said it was found that it was better to delay the use of a
mechanical ventilator and rely on the HFNC instead.
Del Rosario himself used that machine, which delivers a higher flow of oxygen
to the lungs through the nose.
Currently, PGH has 22 HFNC machines. Del Rosario said that with HFNC,
they prevented at least 70 percent of their patients from being intubated.
Delaying intubation is probably the innovation for which patients with severe
COVID-19 cases are most thankful for.
To use a ventilator, an endotracheal tube is inserted through the mouth and
into the patient’s airway, a very uncomfortable and traumatic experience that
necessitates a patient being put under full sedation. The ventilator pushes air
into the lungs and assists in respiration.
But the process is not entirely safe. The tube could be mistakenly inserted into
the esophagus and could pump air into the stomach instead of the trachea. An
erroneously inserted tube could also cause vomit or saliva to pool into the
lungs and cause pneumonia.
There are also cases where the tube causes damage to the mouth, teeth,
tongue, or larynx.
Costly antibiotics
“Also when you intubate, you increase the occurrence of a secondary
infection,” Solante said, noting that antibiotics for a secondary infection are
very expensive, costing as much as P10,000 to P15,000 each.
“And these are taken three times a day. Imagine a patient in a private hospital
that charges P30,000 a dose. If you’re wondering why the government
hospitals are always full, it’s because many patients don’t have enough to pay
for the medicines. Even we doctors can’t afford that,” he said.
Solante said that on the average, a COVID-19 patient could spend between
P1.5 million and P2 million for one to two weeks’ stay in a hospital.
Azurin told the Inquirer his 18-day hospitalization cost him between P1.2
million and P1.5 million.
Solante said he knew of a patient whose hospital bill amounted to P5 million

and still did not survive early in the pandemic. But that patient benefited from
full coverage from Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
These days a “critical” patient could only get P788,000 and one who is
“severe” can receive “around P400,000” from PhilHealth, Solante said.
He strongly advised people who feel any symptoms to be immediately

examined.
“This goes especially for those with immunocompromised conditions like

hypertension. Even if the symptoms are mild, go to the hospital and be treated
so you can avoid complications,” he said.
It was the same advice from Del Rosario.
“Because when patients come in much later, especially those with

comorbidities, the elderly, they are sometimes already in the more
complicated stage of the disease. It’s harder to get them out of that. So the
sooner we can diagnose COVID-19, the faster we can help them,” Del
Rosario said.
Kalinga suspends entry

of LSIs to avoid surge in
COVID-19 cases
By: Kimberlie Quitasol - Correspondent / @kquitasolINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:35 PM August 23, 2020
BAGUIO CITY — Kalinga province will temporarily stop accepting returning

locally stranded individuals (LSIs) starting Aug. 24 until Sept. 2, authorities
there said.
The 10-day moratorium for the entry of LSIs who are returning home will help
prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the province and
avoid overcrowding in isolation units.
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As of Sunday, the province has recorded 89 COVID-19 cases, 48 of which are

active.
Records from the Kalinga inter-agency task force showed that the province
recorded its first two “imported” COVID-19 cases on June 10 and 11.
The two were a returning overseas Filipino Worker and an LSI.
On July 27, health officials there recorded the province’s first local
transmission.
JE
Ventilation, short trips
can reduce COVID-19
risk in public transport
MANILA, Philippines — Proper ventilation and short trips can greatly reduce
the risk of contracting the new coronavirus on buses and trains, according to a
global study published this week, amid a growing consensus that taking public
transport is by itself not a major driver in outbreaks.
Ventilation and brief trips are part of five key factors identified in a recent
study published by the Collaborative Group for Modeling COVID and Mobility
in Colombia that can help determine “a safe return to higher occupancies in
public transportation operations while preventing the transmission of the new
coronavirus.”
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The research looked into the COVID-19 mass transit policies adopted in
Japan, France, Austria, China, Germany and Singapore.
Apart from user behavior, i.e., mask-wearing and not talking on public
transportation, distancing and regular disinfection, ventilation and shorter trips
play key roles in reducing transmission among commuters, the research said.
Trips lasting less than 15 minutes, for example, can lessen the chances of
contracting the new coronavirus, the COVID-19 agent.
“Short trips generate less exposure,” the research said. “After 15 minutes,
there is now greater risk.”
Ideally, vehicle ventilation—both natural (windows) or heating, ventilation and

air-conditioning systems—must also allow for air renewal at least once every
three minutes to mitigate the spread of airborne droplets that carry the virus, it
added.
It noted that four minutes of talking inside vehicles was equivalent to 30

seconds of sneezing.
The researchers—transport experts, epidemiologists and data scientists from

different universities around the world—also pointed out that several cities and
countries have adopted a specific numerical value for allowed occupancy in
public transport.
Reduced capacity
In the Philippines, that number is either 50 percent (on buses, taxis and ride-
hailing company cars) or 15 percent (on trains).
But the study said, “It is difficult to provide a numerical estimate that is useful
for all the country’s systems and different types of vehicles, since there are
many factors that intervene…”
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“It is the combination of these actions that mitigate the risk,” said research
group member Carlos Pardo.
It’s “also interesting to see how in many cases, transit vehicle ventilation is
safer than that of residential and commercial buildings, which tend to have
relatively lower rates of air renewal,” he added.
The study recommended “not to close public transport services as a

preventive measure against contagion,” and instead to take “special care with
periodic testing and monitoring of symptoms especially for system drivers,
who due to their higher risk of contagion, mobility and occupation, may suffer
more infections compared to the user population and in general.”
It also called for staggering schedules, teleworking and promoting active

transport “must be permanent, even when the health emergency is
overcome.”
Virus resurgence
A resurgence of the coronavirus in Metro Manila is partly blamed on the
resumption of public transportation in June, with the relaxation of a lockdown
to reopen the country’s battered economy.
On Sunday, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 2,378 additional
coronavirus infections, bringing the national total to 189,601.
The DOH reported that 16,459 more patients had recovered, raising the
number of COVID-19 survivors to 131,367. It was the second time that the
DOH reported thousands of recoveries since Aug. 16, when it announced that
40,397 patients had gotten well.
The big leaps were the results of the DOH’s new strategy of counting as
recovered mildly ill people and asymptomatic patients after they have
completed 14 days of isolation, counted from the time their samples were
taken for testing.
Sunday’s report cited 32 deaths, raising the death toll to 2,998 and leaving the
country with 55,236 active cases.
Of the newly reported fatalities, 20 died this month, eight in July, three in June
and one in May.
Of the additional infections reported on Sunday, the DOH said 1,022 were
from Metro Manila, 132 from Cavite, 128 from Laguna, 115 from Rizal and 96
from Cebu.
Unity needed in fight vs

COVID-19
One of the major stumbling blocks, if not the biggest, in the national effort to
contain the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or any future pandemic is
the devolution of local health units under the Local Government Code.
Before 1987, all provincial, city and municipal health officers together with
their assistants were directly appointed by the health secretary and received
their pay from the national government. In its place, the Department of Health
(DOH) appointed regional directors to coordinate with local health units on
their participation in national programs.
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Today, all health officers in a local government unit (LGU) are directly
appointed by the governor or city/municipal mayor with their salaries sourced
locally. The politicians also control the local health boards and this is the
reason why we see varying playbooks in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
There are also big disparities between the numbers presented by the DOH
and LGUs on COVID-19 cases. Action plans are slow to get off the ground in
barangays that are, of course, largely controlled by politicians.
There is also the refusal of many LGUs to accept locally stranded individuals
(LSIs) to the point of isolating their own provinces or cities despite the fact that
these LSIs have been cleared by the DOH for travel.
These problems have actually forced the administration to adopt a “big

brother” plan to help rein in the LGUs and get their support for the plans of the
National Anti-COVID-19 Task Force. Each resident Cabinet member was
assigned to their respective city mayors to sort out and resolve coordination
challenges between the DOH and LGUs.
For many weeks now, the DOH has been planning to implement the World
Health Organization-endorsed Dharavi-Mumbai slum project in India (house-
to-house check for COVID-19 symptoms), which is very applicable to Metro
Manila. But it barely moved because of the process of reorienting LGUs one
by one.
We have been in quarantine for almost six months and we still don’t know
where we are going!
***
If there is one industry making a killing in the middle of a pandemic, it is none

other than online sabong, complete with betting links and available on mobile
and online.
I am not aware if these daily pintakasi were authorized by the Philippine

Gamefowl Commission, LGUs or the Games and Amusement Board,
Philippine National Police or even the National Telecommunications
Commission.
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There are five stag-big events with 150 scheduled fights that start at 9 a.m.
daily and gross millions of pesos.
***
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso’s rehabilitation and

beautification of the Lagusnilad underpass is making us proud of our city.
We have seen the transformation of Jones Bridge across Pasig River, the
dancing fountains at the Bonifacio monument and the former Mehan Garden,
and the lighting up of España Boulevard toward the University Belt.
The Lagusnilad underpass connects Manila City Hall to Intramuros. The

beautiful murals inside provide a historic view of the country’s greatness and
rich history. We should honor Moreno, the National Commission for Culture
and the Arts, the University of Sto. Tomas College of Architecture and the
mural artists led by Marianne Rios, Jano Gonzales and Ianna Engaño.
WHO urges studies on

coronavirus sequencing
to determine immune
response
MANILA, Philippines — The World Health Organization (WHO) said more

studies are needed to be done to determine how long a person’s immune
response against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could last after Hong
Kong reported the first documented case of reinfection in a 33-year-old man.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO health emergencies program’s technical lead,
said that while a person who contracts SARS-CoV-2 does develop an immune
response, it is still unclear to this day “how strong and for how long that
immune response lasts.”
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Antibody response
This was why she said the WHO had advised countries to do sequencing of
the virus to better understand how the disease can affect the population,
including those who have already been infected.
In the Hong Kong patient’s case, researchers from Hong Kong University
found a “24-nucleotide difference” in the makeup of the virus he first
contracted in March to that of the virus he got in August.
“But we need not jump to any conclusions to say, even if this is the first
documented case of reinfection it is possible of course because with our
experience with other human coronaviruses and the MERS coronavirus and
the SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus we know that people have an antibody
response for some time but it may wane,” Kerkhove told reporters in a virtual
briefing.
“We really need studies to be conducted so that we really understand what

this immune response looks like. But I don’t want people to be afraid. We
need to ensure that people understand that when they are infected, even
when they have a mild infection, that they do develop an immune response,”
she added.
Kerkhove noted that with regards to the Hong Kong patient, scientists would
still have to determine if he did develop a neutralizing antibody response
during his first infection, “which is what will protect [you] from the infection.”
In the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) asked the public to

exercise caution in tagging someone as having been reinfected with the virus,
such as Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and Philippine General Hospital
doctor Karen Senen.
Senen tested positive again for the virus in July, days after she was
discharged. She died on Sunday.
“We still do not have enough evidence to state that reinfection is really
occurring. We are already looking into all the circumstances. We are studying
and mapping out the international experiences so that we can have
appropriate evidence and we can give accurate information,” Health
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
As of this reporting, the DOH has yet to release information on whether

sequencing of the virus that Año and Senen contracted is already being
conducted.
Earlier, Vergeire said an assessment of Año’s clinical symptoms and technical

details of his laboratory results were being done. She noted that because of
the sensitivity of the RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain
reaction) test, it was likely that what was detected in him was the remnant of
the virus.
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Dr. Edsel Salvana, infectious disease expert and DOH technical advisory
group member, said that tests can also return as false positives if there is
contamination from batch testing or from the positive control sample.
Theoretically, he said, a patient could have also inhaled the virus.
“This can theoretically happen when someone is exposed to a positive case

who is shedding and is immediately swabbed. There is no guarantee the
patient will get the disease because there might not be enough virus to cause
the disease, the virus is no longer infectious, or the immune system is able to
clear without any clinical disease setting in,” Salvana said in a Facebook post.
On Tuesday, the DOH recorded an additional 2,965 cases, pushing the

national caseload to 197,164. Of the cases submitted by 86 of 109 accredited
laboratories, 2,434 got sick between Aug. 12 and 25, while 365 fell ill between
Aug. 1 and 11.
Metro Manila accounted for more than half of the new cases, or 1,575. A far
second was Negros Occidental with 237, followed by Laguna (151), Cavite
(129) and Batangas (95).
Recoveries
The total number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 climbed to
132,396 with the recovery of 368 more patients.
The death toll, however, rose to 3,038 as 34 patients succumbed to the
severe respiratory disease, leaving 61,730 active cases, of which 91.6 percent
were mild, 6.1 percent asymptomatic, 0.9 percent severe, and 1.4 percent
critical.
Of the newly reported deaths, 26 died this month, seven in July, and one in
June. Twenty of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, four from Central
Visayas, three from Calabarzon, two from Bicol, and one each from Northern
Mindanao and Mimaropa. A repatriate was also listed to have died from
COVID-19. INQ
Too early to say Chinese

tourists didnt help
spread the virus in PH –
DOH
MANILA, Philippines — While an analysis of the circulating strains of the

coronavirus in the Philippines showed that their makeup differed from that
contracted by the three Chinese tourists who visited the country early this
year, the Department of Health (DOH) stressed on Wednesday that it was still
too early to conclude that they did not help spread the infection that has
already sickened more than 200,000 Filipinos.
Based on the gene sequencing done by the Research Institute for Tropical
Medicine (RITM) on selected samples from COVID-19 cases in January,
March and June, five lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the
severe respiratory disease were found in the country. These are lineages A,
B, B.1, B.1.1 and B.6.
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A and B were the original strains from China, while B.1 and B.1.1 were
associated with the outbreaks in Italy and other European countries, the RITM
said. B.6, on the other hand, was detected in Australia, India, Singapore, the
United Kingdom and North America.
Sequencing on the country’s first confirmed case—a 38-year-old Chinese

woman—showed that the sample belonged to lineage A, while those of the
second confirmed case—the woman’s partner—and the third—another
Chinese tourist—belonged to lineage B.
All three are from Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province, the original
epicenter of the outbreak.
Almost all sequences of the samples collected in Metro Manila, Ilocos Sur,
Rizal and Laguna in March were of lineage B.6, which includes samples from
the first two reported cases of local transmission.
Meanwhile, samples collected in Metro Manila and Laguna in June were of

lineage B.1 and B.1.1, respectively. The RITM said these patients did not
travel outside the country.
“The local transmission of different lineages and strains may have been
imported from multiple introductions of different lineages into the country.
While it is also possible that the virus may have accumulated mutations
through transmission within the country, the relatively slow mutation rate of
SARS-CoV-2 may not drive the circulation of very varied lineages in the
country,” the RITM said in a statement.
“It is more likely that these lineages were imported from other countries,” it
added.
Limited coverage
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, urged caution in
interpreting the RITM’s findings, especially because the study covered a small
proportion of the population in a specific area.
Vergeire noted that because of the study’s limited scope, it was still too early
to draw an accurate conclusion, particularly on how the infection might have
spread.
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“Although [the] RITM initially showed the gene sequence of the three Chinese
tourists were different from the rest of the population that they have studied,
again let us try to be cautious in interpreting. We need more details, we need
more data,” Vergeire told reporters in her regular online briefing.
“We need to further study so that we can accurately say that the Chinese
[tourists] weren’t the ones who spread [the virus] and that we had other
sources of our infection,” she added.
After recording three COVID-19 cases in late January to early February, the
Philippines had a three-week lull in new cases. But concerns were raised that
the confirmed cases might have unknowingly infected others, especially
because the government was unable to locate the 643 people they could have
come in contact with.
Local transmission was declared in early March after the fifth confirmed case,
who had no known contact with a positive patient nor had traveled outside the
country, was recorded.
Cases top 200,000 mark

On Wednesday, the Philippines breached the 200,000 mark in the total
number of COVID-19 cases as the Department of Health (DOH) reported an
additional 5,277 additional infections. The new cases brought the national tally
to 202,361.
Of the new cases submitted by 95 of the 109 accredited laboratories, 4,350

got sick between Aug. 13 and 26, while 680 fell ill between Aug. 1 and 12.
Metro Manila accounted for most of the new cases at 3,157, followed by
Laguna (403), Negros Occidental (304), Rizal (237) and Cavite (228).
The DOH reported 99 more deaths, raising the death toll to 3,137, and 1,131
more recoveries, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 133,460
and leaving the country with 65,764 active cases, of which 91.6 percent are
mild, 6.3 percent asymptomatic, 0.9 percent severe, and 1.3 percent critical.
Of the newly reported deaths, 77 died this month, 18 in July, three in June and
one in May. Sixty-one of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, 14 from
Calabarzon, 12 from Central Luzon, six from Central Visayas, two from
Western Visayas, and one each from Cagayan Valley, Northern Mindanao
and the Cordillera Administrative Region. The locality of one of the fatalities
was unspecified.
Off-label drugs
The DOH also reminded doctors that they should first secure regulatory
approval before giving off-label drugs to their patients following reports that a
medicine for parasitic infections is being used as treatment for COVID-19.
Vergeire stressed that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the ethics
review board should first sign on before any medicine is given to COVID-19
patients, especially because the drug will be used for a purpose other than
what it is indicated for.
In the case of ivermectin, Vergeire said caution should be taken since

research on its supposed effects on SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 agent, had
yet to progress from laboratory studies.
“I’m just warning those doctors who are [giving] this without [going] through
the regulatory process as this may harm [patients]. We still do not have
enough evidence that this can be used against or can help prevent COVID-
19,” she told reporters.
“The studies on ivermectin done in other countries was done in vitro. This
means that it has only been [tested] in the laboratory and has not been tested
on animals or in humans,” Vergeire said. “We must exercise caution on the
things we hear and read. We need to study this thoroughly because we may
cause more harm than good to the public.”
In May, the US FDA warned against the use of ivermectin, saying “additional
testing is needed to determine whether [it] might be appropriate to prevent or
treat COVID-19.”
Ivermectin is used against parasitic worms and external parasites, such as

head lice.
Saliva-based tests for

COVID-19 eyed

TRIED AND TESTED Health workers conduct swab testing in Quezon City.
(Photo by GRIG MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is looking into
whether saliva-based tests can be an “acceptable and feasible” method to
detect new coronavirus infections.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that studies were still
ongoing to determine if the country could supplement its current testing efforts
by using saliva-based tests for COVID-19.
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Vergeire said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) was
conducting the studies.
This developed as an additional 3,637 COVID-19 cases were recorded on

Saturday, bringing the total number of cases to 213,131.
Of the new cases submitted by 102 out of 110 accredited laboratories, 3,063
were infected between Aug. 16 and 29, while 416 got sick between Aug. 1
and 15.
Metro Manila recorded the highest number of new cases at 2,030, followed by
Laguna (217), Rizal (155), Cavite (142) and Batangas (113). There are now a
total 74,611 active cases, of which 91.3 percent are mild, 6.7 percent
asymptomatic, 0.8 percent severe and 1.1 percent critical.
The total number of recoveries rose to 135,101 after 655 more patients
recovered.
The death toll, however, rose to 3,419 as 94 patients succumbed to the

Of the newly reported deaths, 81 died this month, 12 in July and one in June.
Fifty-four of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, 16 from Calabarzon, 14
from Central Luzon, four from Western Visayas, three from Zamboanga and
one from Central Visayas. A returning overseas Filipino and another patient
from a yet to be determined locality also died from COVID-19.
The saliva-based tests will involve the collection of samples from a patient’s
saliva.
Currently, samples are collected using nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal

swabs, which are “really inconvenient for a person” as a stick is inserted
through a person’s nose or throat.
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Vergeire noted that sample collection would be much easier for saliva-based
tests since the health worker needed only to rub a sponge on the sides of a
patient’s mouth.
The disadvantage, however, is that current studies on this collection method

show that the samples obtained from patients may be contaminated.
“Some articles are saying that there are always food particles so it
contaminates the specimen. Second, to get accurate results you should
collect a lot [of saliva]. So you should correctly rub the sides of a person’s
mouth to get enough yield,” Vergeire said
“As soon as RITM gets initial results, we’ll share it with everybody because
this is something worth pursuing if it could really help and we see that it is
acceptable and feasible for our testing strategy,” she added
In the United States, its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued
an emergency authorization to Yale School of Public Health to use the
SalivaDirect test kit, which did not require a separate nucleic acid extraction
step.
“This is significant because the extraction kits used for this step in other tests
have been prone to shortages in the past. Being able to perform a test without
these kits enhances the capacity for increased testing, while reducing the
strain on available resources.,” the US FDA said in a statement
“Since the saliva sample is self-collected under the observation of a health-

care professional, it could also potentially lower the risk posed to healthcare
workers responsible for sample collection,” it added.
SEPTEMBER-REVISED
DOH seeks more

benefits for health
workers
By: Jovic Yee, Julie M. Aurelio, Leila B. Salaverria - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:41 AM September 01, 2020

LIVING HEROES Fr. Hans Magdurulang of San Felipe Neri Parish blesses
the medical staff of Santa Ana Hospital in Manila on National Heroes’ Day. —
RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) committed on
National Heroes’ Day that it would continue to work on ensuring that medical
frontliners are “protected and sufficiently provided for” even as it lauded the
important role they play in controlling the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire credited the health workers

and other medical experts Monday as she said that if not for their work and
observations, the country would not have been able to manage its more than
217,000 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
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“Their technical and medical expertise and community observations are very
important in formulating our plans and providing the appropriate response. It is
because of their help, inputs and tireless service that we were able to manage
our cases in the quarantine and isolation facilities, maintain the low case
fatality rate in the last few weeks and provide immediate action to the cases in
our communities,” Vergeire said.
Under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, Vergeire said that they had
worked on ensuring that a “comprehensive benefit package” is provided for
health workers in both public and private facilities.
“We are continuously working with our medical and allied medical professional
organizations to discuss what other support they need and what we can
improve on so we could better respond to their needs,” she said.
President Duterte, for his part, has urged Filipinos to overcome “even the
most unfavorable situations” as he paid tribute to Filipino front-liners battling
the raging new coronavirus pandemic.
In his message for National Heroes’ Day on Monday, the President lauded
both past and present day heroes for their heroism in fighting even a “different
kind of enemy.”
“Present-day challenges posed by the current public health crisis has given
rise to modern day heroes: the countless Filipino front-liners here and abroad
who are battling the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mr. Duterte said.
The Chief Executive also lauded the valor of past heroes who fought for the
country’s freedom more than a century ago, while paying tribute to today’s
heroes in a time of pandemic.
The President’s recorded message for National Heroes’ Day was played
during the wreath-laying rites at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City on
Monday morning.
Mr. Duterte was represented by Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay, the chief of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines.
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Vice President Leni Robredo, also honored the front-liners in a statement: “As
we face COVID-19 and its terrible effects, the spirit of our heroes lives within
each of us, especially those in the front-lines of pandemic response, [who are]
ready and willing to expand the reach of their compassion.”
Echoing her sentiment, Commission on Human Rights spokesperson
Jacqueline de Guia said it was important to commemorate the front-liners who
risk their lives every day to save others.
Senators also hailed the country’s health workers as heroes and called on the
government to make sure they get the assistance they need to address the
pandemic, such as quality, locally-made personal protective equipment (PPE)
and hazard pay.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros urged the Senate to look into the government’s
procurement of PPE after local manufacturers complained about its seeming
preference for imported ones.
Hontiveros filed a resolution seeking a probe on the Bayanihan PPE Project, a

collaboration between the DOH, Department of Trade and Industry, and the
Board of Investments to boost local production of quality PPE for health
workers.
But local garments manufacturers that shifted to PPE production said the
government’s procurement of their items was way below the number they
could actually produce.
The government should have a preference for locally-manufactured items

over imported ones of possibly dubious quality, as this would also help the
Philippine economy, Hontiveros said.
“It is imperative for the Philippine government to promote the preferential use
of Filipino labor and locally manufactured products, and assure the growth
and stability of this sector that not only provides safe and quality PPE for
health-care workers, but also secures job retention for thousands of skilled
Filipino factory workers amid the pandemic,” she said in her resolution.
Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the DOH should ensure that medical
front-liners receive their P500 daily hazard pay promptly.
He said he had received complaints from nurses, medical technologists and

other health workers from public hospitals that they had not been given the
hazard pay.
—With a report from Krixia Subingsubing

More Metro Manila
businesses reopen on
limited scale
MANILA, Philippines — More businesses partly reopened in Metro Manila on

Tuesday after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to keep partial restrictions in
place in and around the metropolis to suppress a surge in coronavirus
infections and further expand hospital capacity.
Among the businesses that reopened on limited capacity were dine-in

restaurants, fitness gyms, tutorial and review centers, personal grooming
shops, and internet cafes.
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Religious services continued to be permitted, but with only 10 percent of

church capacity allowed.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said expanding attendance in

religious gatherings from the previous limit of 10 people was among the
questions resolved by the 17 Metro Manila mayors, who had recommended
the extension of general community quarantine restrictions in the metropolis
for one month to tackle increasing COVID-19 cases while allowing more
businesses to reopen to shore up the country’s battered economy.
Quarantine levels
In a televised speech late on Monday, Duterte announced the extension of
light restrictions in Metro Manila and Bulacan province for 30 days and the
easing of quarantine measures in Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces.
Duterte, however, placed the southern city of Iligan under a mild lockdown
after a rise in community infections, underscoring how COVID-19 cases have
spread away from Metro Manila, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in
the country.
The rest of the country was placed under modified general community
quarantine, the lightest quarantine level, which only requires the observance
of public health standards.
In a meeting with Duterte before the President announced the new quarantine
levels, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the daily reported
coronavirus cases remained high, citing a need to intensify measures to slow
the infection rate, which is the highest in Southeast Asia.
The time for cases to double has slowed to 12 to 13 days from seven days,
Duque said.
Carlito Galvez Jr., a former military chief in charge of the national coronavirus
task force, said the government was working to boost hospital capacity and
would add 1,000 beds in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
“We need to strengthen treatment facilities, especially [intensive care units],

given the possibility of an increase in severe cases once we further open the
economy,” Galvez said.
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UP projection fails
In his press briefing on Tuesday, Roque said the country did not reach the
projection of University of the Philippines (UP) experts that COVID-19 cases
would hit 250,000 by the end of August. He attributed the failure of the
projection to the public’s observance of minimum health standards.
Those measures — including wearing of masks and face shields, and 1-meter
social distancing — continue under the extended general community
quarantine, Roque said.
He also said that the nighttime curfew in Metro Manila had been shortened to
10 p.m. to 5 a.m. from the previous 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. to allow longer business
hours.
Children, the elderly and pregnant women are urged to stay at home, Roque
said.
“As for quarantine passes, it’s up to [local governments] to decide if

quarantine passes will still be required,” he added.
Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging
Infectious Diseases, the temporary government body that oversees the
administration’s coronavirus response, recommended the monthlong
extension of the quarantine restrictions to provide stability to people’s
movement and the economy.
“It’s hard if rules [are changed] every two weeks,” he said.
Thousands more infections

On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,483 additional
coronavirus infections, bringing the national caseload to 224,264.
Of the new cases submitted by 93 of 110 accredited laboratories, 3,191 got

sick between Aug. 19 and Sept. 1, while 206 fell ill between Aug. 1 and Aug.
18.
Metro Manila reported the most number of new infections, 1,824, followed by
Laguna (223), Cavite (184), Rizal (161) and Batangas (126).
number of COVID-19 survivors to 158,012. The death toll, however, increased
to 3,597 with the deaths of 39 more patients.
The recoveries and deaths left the country with 62,655 active cases.
DOH stops Cavite

vaccine trial pending
approval
MANILA, Philippines — Some 10,000 residents in Cavite province cannot take

part in clinical trials for a potential vaccine against COVID-19 without the
approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and an ethics review
board, a health official said on Wednesday.
According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, before a clinical
trial of any vaccine or drug can proceed, the one in charge must first comply
with all regulatory requirements to ensure the safety of participants.
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Violation of laws
“No clinical trial can start without the FDA and the ethics review [board’s]
approval. If you do that, you are violating specific laws. You will be sanctioned
and asked to stop,” she said.
“We have to remember that these clinical trials, especially for vaccines and
new medicines, involve individuals. So the government must be able to
regulate [these] to ensure that [they] will be safe for our countrymen,” she
pointed out, adding that otherwise, these “might cause harm to our citizens.”
Last week, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla Jr. announced that 10,000 residents
would participate in the phase 3 trials of a vaccine being developed.
To be conducted with De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute, the

trials were scheduled to start in the next two weeks.
According to Vergeire, the Department of Health (DOH) has already met and
discussed the process with the trial proponent, which promised to provide
regular updates. On Wednesday, the DOH logged an additional 2,218 COVID-
19 cases, bringing the current national tally to 226,440. Of the new cases
submitted by 102 out of 110 accredited laboratories, 1,932 got sick between
Aug. 20 and Sept. 2, and 223 others between Aug. 1 and 19.
NCR still epicenter

Metro Manila still accounted for the highest number of new infections at 1,163,
followed by Laguna, 112; Cebu, 107; Iloilo, 82; and Negros Occidental, 81. To
date, there are 64,207 active cases, 91.2 percent of which are mild, 6.4
percent asymptomatic, 1 percent severe and 1.4 percent critical.
A total of 158,610 people have now recovered from COVID-19 with the
addition of 609 patients. The death toll, however, rose to 3,623 as 27 patients
died of the severe respiratory disease.
Ten of the new fatalities were from Metro Manila, eight from Calabarzon, four
from Western Visayas, two from Central Luzon, one each from Central
Visayas and Eastern Visayas, and a lone repatriate.
Physical distancing
rules: Not as simple as
they seem
By: Patricia Denise M. Chiu - Reporter / @PDMChiuINQ
Social distancing signs and lanes are set up at the MRT3 North Avenue
station in Quezon City on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 as the mass transport
system prepares for its resumption of operation under the modified enhanced
community quarantine (ECQ). INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C.
MONTEGRANDE
The physical distancing rule of 1 to 2 meters to prevent transmission of the
new coronavirus is based on “outdated science and experiences of past
viruses,” researchers claim in a new study.
In the study published in BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal,
researchers from the University of Oxford, St. Thomas’ Hospital, and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology say setting physical distancing at 1 to 2
meters “oversimplifies and underestimates” risks.
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In their paper, Oxford researcher Nicholas Jones and his colleagues make an
example of how infection can be easily transmitted in places such as meat
packing plants despite physical distancing.
Environmental influences
“Environmental influences are complex. For example, in meat packing plants
… outbreaks have been attributed to the combination of high levels of worker
contagion, poor ventilation, cramped working conditions, background noise
(which leads to shouting), and low compliance with mask wearing,” the
researchers say.
They emphasize the role of droplet sizes and exhaled air that carries these in
coronavirus transmission.
Evidence suggest that smaller airborne droplets laden with the COVID-19
virus can travel more than 2 meters, but sometimes the reach is even farther,
they say.
“Breathing out, singing, coughing and sneezing generate warm, moist, high
momentum gas clouds of exhaled air ventilation flows, keeps them
concentrated, and can extend their range up to 7 to 8 meters within a few
seconds,” they say.
Because of these findings, the researchers say setting physical distancing

rules needs to take into account multiple factors that affect risk, including type
of activity, indoor or outdoor setting, level of ventilation, and whether face
coverings are worn.
The viral load of the emitter, the duration of exposure, and the susceptibility of
an individual to infection are also important factors to consider, the
researchers say.
Highest in Southeast Asia

In the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) emphasizes physical
distancing and the wearing of face coverings to slow down the spread of the
coronavirus.
The country has the highest number of coronavirus infections in Southeast

Asia, with the capital region, Metropolitan Manila, as the epicenter of the local
outbreak.
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On Thursday, the DOH reported 1,987 additional infections, bringing the

national tally to 228,403 cases. It was the first time the country recorded fewer
than 2,000 new cases in a single day since July 29.
The DOH said it removed 24 duplicates from the total case count. It also said
three cases that were previously reported as recovered had been correctly
marked as fatalities after final validation.
The department said 818 of the additional cases were from Metro Manila, 153
from Cavite, 125 from Laguna, 122 from Negros Occidental, and 78 from
Rizal.
It reported 880 new recoveries, pushing the total number of COVID-19

survivors to 159,475. The death toll, however, increased to 3,688 with the
deaths of 65 more patients.
Of the newly reported fatalities, two died in September, 55 in August, six in

July, and one each in April and June.
More stranded
individuals to be sent
home

MANILA, Philippines — The government plans to send home more locally
stranded individuals (LSIs) to their respective home provinces as more local
government units (LGUs) have expressed readiness to accept their returning
residents.
The lead convenor of the Hatid Tulong program, however, appealed to LSIs to
coordinate first with their local governments in their hometowns before
proceeding to send-off areas of the program.
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Presidential Management Staff Assistant Secretary Joseph Encabo said this

was to prevent stranded people from camping out in the send-off areas, like
outside the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“We urge them to follow the process of the Hatid Tulong initiative. They should
coordinate with LGUs first and if they were contacted by our Hatid Tulong
staff, it’s only then that they should go to designated areas for our send-off,”
Encabo said during an online briefing on Friday.
He suggested that LSIs coordinate with local officials of their hometowns

through their relatives there.
The local government will then provide the Hatid Tulong staff a validated list of
LSIs who wish to return to their communities.
Encabo said program organizers were planning more pocket send-offs of

LSIs, prioritizing LGUs which expressed willingness to accept returning
residents.
“We will prioritize LSIs returning to regions or provinces willing to accept LSIs
once more,” he said.
Among the LGUs who gave a go signal for LSIs are Negros Oriental,
Dumaguete, Cotabato, South Cotabato, Jolo, Tawi-Tawi, Palawan and
Romblon, he said
PPE waste disposal a
growing challenge
MANILA, Philippines — They end up on our sidewalks and in our waterways,

those blue-and-white medical masks that used to be on someone’s face. They
clog our rivers and drift out to sea where fish and other creatures could
mistake them for food or they could dissolve into microplastics, harming corals
and the marine ecosystem.
Suddenly, contracting the dreaded coronavirus from discarded masks isn’t the
only concern of the public. Disposing the protective gear properly to minimize
harm to the environment has become a headache.
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This is part of a large and growing problem with personal protective

equipment (PPE) during this pandemic, according to environment officials and
activists in interviews this week. They believe that one way to reduce medical
waste and still protect the people’s health is to adopt reusable PPE.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reports that

over 19,000 metric tons of infectious wastes, including PPE suspected of
harboring pathogens, have been collected in just four months — from April to
July — at the height of the lockdown.
But what is more challenging for the DENR are the infectious wastes coming
from households: masks, food waste and other contaminated materials, which
are hardly segregated and mixed with municipal waste, said Geri Geronimo
Sañez, chief of the DENR’s hazardous waste management division.
The numbers are expected to rise with no immediate end in sight for the
pandemic, prompting health and environmental groups to demand that the
government lay out new waste disposal standards for the general public and
promote reusable PPE whenever possible.
Now a household problem
Before the pandemic, it was mostly hospitals that dealt with infectious wastes,
according to Paeng Lopez, a campaigner for Health Care Without Harm. But
after the COVID-19 outbreak and with the universal and mandatory use of
masks and face shields, that responsibility was added to the public.
Global scientific consensus says surgical masks are the most effective
personal protection against droplets that carry the coronavirus. But these
masks are made of nonwoven polypropyline fabric, a type of plastic that is not
biodegradable.
Most people are unaware that even masks have to be treated as infectious
wastes in accordance with Republic Act No. 6969 and Republic Act No. 9003,
both of which prescribe guidelines for hazardous waste management, Sañez
said.
He strongly advised households to segregate and isolate the masks for at

least three days—the period that a virus could survive outside a host —
before disposing of them.
“In fact, I even suggest to others that they destroy it, cut it, because others
may pick those up, wash it and reuse it,” Sañez said.
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Poorly disposed masks will end up scattered on roads or in rivers, where the
DENR has been scooping them up.
As with any waste, masks pose a threat to wildlife, said Marianne Ledesma,
Greenpeace Philippines campaigner.
“Any plastic floating in bodies of water can be mistaken as food by marine

creatures and they can be choking hazards. And when they break down into
microplastics, reef corals start to absorb them as food and these corals can’t
digest or release them back in the water,” she said.
BLOWN IN THE WIND A surgical mask has been left lying on Belen Street in
Manila last July and was probably among those blown in the wind and later
formed part of the 19,000 tons of infectious waste, including other personal
protective equipment, collected that month, according to the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources. —RICHARD A. REYES
Hospitals adapting
“You’re killing wildlife, at the same time you’re killing an entire ecosystem
because those corals are a habitat for other wildlife too,” she said.
Recent studies estimate that about 8 million metric tons of plastic of all types
end up in the world’s ocean annually.
The surge in PPE use, as well as the plastic generated by takeout deliveries
and e-commerce, “really worsens” the waste problem, Ledesma said.
The same is happening inside hospitals. Because of the contagious nature of

the disease, hospital personnel are required to change their PPE gear
regularly to prevent contamination, Lopez said.
“Health-care workers use so much PPE and they generate a lot of waste at
the moment. Most of it is because they’re observing the World Health
Organization (WHO) recommendation to treat everything as infectious waste,
so even pieces of paper or food waste that are in the vicinity of red zones in
hospitals are discarded as such,” he said.
Lopez explained that hospitals have to first disinfect their infectious wastes,
using either autoclave, alkaline hydrolysis or microwave treatment, before
throwing them out for garbage collection.
Some hospitals have their garbage transported to designated medical waste

landfills like Metro Clark in Tarlac and Cleanway in Silang, Cavite. Others go
to municipal landfills but are segregated from municipal wastes.
Reuse, reduce
For now, the system in place is sufficient, Sañez said.
But apart from proper waste management, Lopez and Ledesma also urged
the public and hospitals to consider reusable PPE to reduce the total waste
volume.
The 110-year-old St. Paul Hospital in Iloilo was one of the first medical
establishments to adopt and promote reusable PPE.
The private hospital run by Paulinian sisters had their first suspected COVID-
19 in January, who later recovered. By March, just as the cases started to rise
nationwide, the hospital decided to make its operations sustainable, said
hospital administrator Sr. Arcelita Sarnillo.
Like other hospitals, they also had trouble procuring PPE, particularly
coveralls, or protective suits, because of the lockdown restrictions imposed
across the country.
They first used plastic raincoats as substitute for medical coveralls.
“It was the first thing that came to mind, just something to protect because
everybody was not ready,” she said. “Later we began to make our own
reusable PPE made of taffeta cloth with silver backing, [a nonpermeable cloth]
used to make parachutes and umbrellas.”
That saved the hospital over P10 million a month, and millions of pesos more
in reduced waste. But despite its advantages, Sarnillo said the reusable
protective suits was stigmatized by some local doctors who shunned them.
Sustainability
“I have heard doctors question our PPE because they’re not disposable, to
which I tell them, ‘Shouldn’t the fact that medical-grade PPE are disposable
mean they are not [of superior] quality and unsustainable?’” she said.
Sarnillo noted that there were very few cases of hospital staff getting COVID-
19 even after they shifted to reusable PPE, including cloth masks.
“This is also an issue of political will and being committed to doing your part in
sustainability,” she said. “It’s a matter of explaining and making them
understand why you need to do this.”
PH has slowed down

coronavirus spread – UP
expert
By: Katrina Hallare - Reporter / @KHallareINQ

THE LONG ROAD BACK TO NORMALITY A commuter boards a bus at
Monumento in Caloocan City as more buses are deployed on Sunday. At
right, a man gets a full body massage at an establishment in Manila that has
been allowed to reopen. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has slowed down the spread of the
new coronavirus, but it is not anything to be excited about, a University of the
Philippines (UP) researcher said on Sunday.
In a television interview, Dr. Guido David of the UP OCTA Research team

said the local reproduction number of SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that
causes COVID-19, had gone down to less than 1 percent.
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UP OCTA Research is an independent interdisciplinary research group

composed of UP faculty members and graduates.
“It’s about 0.94 when we last checked it using the latest data from around 0.99
last week,” David said. “So it is decreasing, and that is very good news. It
means we are sustaining the flattening of the curve.”
Earlier, David said the infection curve could be flattened by the end of August
or September.
Positivity rate down

Another indication of the slowdown is the decrease in the positivity rate, he
said. “We were averaging more than 4,000 cases in mid to late August, and
now we’re averaging about 3,000.”
David, however, advised the public not to be “overly excited” about the
development.
“It doesn’t mean our problem is solved. It doesn’t mean the pandemic is over,”
he said. “The virus is still here. We’re still getting around 3,000 cases per day,
and we have to sustain our momentum. So we have to keep doing the right
things and not falter.”
And it doesn’t mean Metropolitan Manila, the epicenter of the local

coronavirus outbreak, should now shift to the easiest quarantine level.
“If we ever relax to [modified general community quarantine], we should
evaluate this carefully. I’m not saying we can’t, but we have to evaluate it
carefully,” David said.
On the recommendation of the Metro mayors, President Duterte has placed

the metropolis under general community quarantine up to Sept. 30.
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The mayors have rejected recommendations for a hard lockdown to allow a

wider reopening of the economy, preferring targeted lockdowns to deal with
outbreaks.
On Sunday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,839 additional

infections, bringing the national case count to 237,365.
Mass recoveries
For the sixth time since July 13, the DOH, following its new strategy of
counting mild and asymptomatic patients as recovered after completing 14
days of isolation, reported mass recoveries—23,074, pushing the total number
of COVID-19 survivors to 184,687.
The DOH, however, also reported 85 more deaths, raising the death toll to
3,875, which, considered with the recoveries, left the country with 48,803
active cases, 88.6 percent of which were mild, 8.0 percent asymptomatic, 1.4
percent severe, and 2.0 percent critical.
Of the new cases, submitted by 96 of 115 accredited laboratories, 1,170 were

from Metro Manila, 195 from Negros Occidental, 190 from Laguna, 182 from
Cavite, and 154 from Rizal. —WITH A REPORT FROM TINA G. SANTOS
INQ
DOH warns against

‘complacency’ in COVID-
19 fight
NO ‘FAN’ OF COVID-19 A staff member of handicraft shop Tesoros opens a

fan with a message for the times. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said the
COVID-19 situation was “improving,” but it was not yet saying the health crisis
was over as it might make people drop health standards that had been
imposed to curb the transmission of the new coronavirus.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that based on DOH

indicators, such as the transmission rate, mortality doubling time, and critical
care capacity, “we can see that somehow our situation is improving.”
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“But we always say that nothing is certain at this point. We just continue to
monitor our situation. We continue to do our strategies so we can further
decrease the number of [new] cases and transmission rate,” she said.
Curve flattened
Earlier, the University of the Philippines (UP) OCTA Research team said the
country had already flattened the curve as the reproductive number of the
SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 was now below 1. Latest DOH data
show the reproductive number is 0.877, which indicates the country is on the
“right direction” with regard to its outbreak response, Vergeire said.
“But we avoid saying [we have flattened the curve] because we do not want
that there would be complacency among the population,” she said.
For the DOH, flattening the curve means the government is able to spread its
COVID-19 cases over “a longer period of time so that our health system will
not be overwhelmed.”
Before Metro Manila was reverted to lockdown last month, critical care
capacity reached 81 percent. Now, the critical care capacity in the metropolis,
where cases remain concentrated, hovers at 66 percent.
“We can say that the strategies we are doing are working. Although not
immediate, we can see that somehow we are able to decongest our
hospitals,” Vergeire said.
From 0.96 days in March, it now takes 15.09 days for the number of new
deaths to double. In June, new deaths doubled every 8.29 days.
For the third straight day, the DOH saw the national caseload increase by
fewer than 3,000 as only 1,383 cases were recorded on Monday, bringing the
total to 238,727.
Since the start of the month, new cases only went over 3,000 on Sept. 1 and
4.
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Incomplete submissions
The lower number of new cases, however, may be because only 88 of the 115
accredited laboratories submitted data to the DOH. Of the new cases, 1,206
got sick between Aug. 25 and Sept. 7, while 110 fell ill between Aug. 1 and
24.
Metro Manila remained to have the highest number of new infections, 525,
followed by Laguna (137), Batangas (99), Negros Occidental (77) and Cavite
(69).
The DOH said 230 more patients had recovered, raising the total of COVID-19
survivors to 184,906. The death toll, however, increased to 3,890 with the
The recoveries and deaths left the country with 49,931 active cases, of which
88.3 percent were mild, 8.3 percent asymptomatic, 1.4 percent severe, and 2
percent critical.
Of the newly reported deaths, three died this month, one in August, five in
July, two in June, two in May, one in April and one in March. Eleven of the
fatalities were from Metro Manila, two from Western Visayas, one from
Eastern Visayas and one from Calabarzon.
The National Task Force Against COVID-19 on Monday patted itself on the
back, citing the UP researchers’ findings.
“This is good news because it means the steps we have taken against the
pandemic have borne fruit,” said Carlito Galvez Jr., the task force chief.
Still no vaccine
Galvez, however, urged the public to continue observing minimum health
standards—wearing protective masks, physical distancing, frequent hand-
washing—to prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus.
“Even if we flatten the curve, we cannot grow complacent, particularly when a

vaccine against the disease has not yet been developed,” Galvez said.
Malacañang called on the public to help sustain the gains of the two-week
light lockdown in August, which presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said
helped to tamp down the transmission of the virus.
Roque, however, declined to say whether the government would now ease
the general community quarantine in Metro Manila.
He instead urged the public to observe the minimum health standards to avoid
a fresh surge of infections.
—With reports from Jeannette I. Andrade and Julie M. Aurelio

Puerto Princesa’s top
tourist drawer loses P80
million to COVID-19
crisis
By: Romar Miranda - Correspondent / @RVMirandaINQ
HIDDEN WONDER Beyond the narrow entrance to the Puerto Princesa

Underground River is a jaw-dropping sight of stalagmites and stalactites, rock
formations, caves, river channels and a colony of bats and marine creatures
protected by communities in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. —ROBERT
JAWORSKI L. ABAÑO
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan, Philippines — The Puerto Princesa
Subterranean River National Park (PPSRNP) suffered a major financial blow
from community lockdowns and travel restrictions as the country battles the
new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with unrealized income reaching as
much as P80 million.
Park superintendent Elizabeth Maclang said only 61,458 visitors went to

PPSRNP, roughly translating to an income of P20.68 million, from January to
March 15. This was 18 percent of the 331,556 people who came in 2019,
which generated P107.63 million.Survival
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“As the pandemic hits the [tourism] industry globally, the PPSRNP has been
heavily affected by having zero tourist arrival [from March 15 to date],”
Maclang told the Inquirer by phone on Tuesday.The loss threatens the
survival of the park, which will need at least P50 million to operate up to the
end of the year and support a 224-member workforce, Maclang said.The park
is planning to reopen some of its attractions by Sept. 18, but the Puerto
Princesa Underground River tour will remain suspended, she added.
Impressive cave system

The 22,202-hectare park, which features the 8.2-kilometer underground river
as its main attraction, has been described by United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) as having “one of world’s most
impressive cave systems, featuring spectacular limestone karst landscapes,
pristine natural beauty, and intact old-growth forests and distinctive wildlife.”
It also offers spelunking, zipline and mangrove, jungle trail and beach hopping
tours.“We are [anticipating that] we will [still have] no income for the next year.
Since the park is temporarily closed, 81 percent of community members are
experiencing a financial crisis,” Maclang said.
Front-liners, too
Park workers, whom Maclang described as “hardworking front-liners,” are “on
the verge of becoming jobless,” a situation that management is trying to avoid,
she said.
Maclang said the employees were busy guarding the park’s forest from
poachers and were also assisting health workers.
She said the quality of life in at least three villages surrounding the park had
improved because at least 90 percent of its workers were locals.
“If we remove them, they may be a possible threat in the park because they
will be unemployed and may venture into kaingin (slash-and-burn farming) or
illegal logging,” she said.
Maclang said the P50 million needed to maintain the park and support its
workers until December could be taken from its P110 million in savings from
2015 to 2019.
Reporting delays may

reflect ‘irregularly high’
number of COVID-19
cases – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — Days after new infections appeared to have started

tapering off, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday the country
might see an “irregularly high number of cases” in the coming days due to the
reporting delays brought about by efforts to further improve data
management.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH required all of
the accredited laboratories to submit the addresses and phone numbers of
people tested for COVID-19 starting Sept. 1 to help improve the government’s
contact tracing strategy.
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Because of this requirement, cases submitted by the laboratories will not be
reflected in the DOH’s system unless the contact information has been
provided. Some of the laboratories have been unable to comply.
“We may have an irregularly high number of cases in the coming days as
cases from these laboratories get reported … We expect that this is a onetime
occurrence and laboratories have changed their processes to ensure those
information are included in the reports provided to [the] DOH and of course to
their local government[s],” she said.
Tracking difficulty
Prior to the directive, Vergeire said, local governments leading contact tracing
efforts were unable to fully locate people who may have been infected with the
new coronavirus due to the incomplete patient information. This prevents
them from catching and crushing infection clusters early, she said.
“Before, we were only able to trace 45 percent of contacts with a ratio of 1:3 or
1:5. Now, the ratio is 1:4 to 1:10 and almost 70 percent of contacts are being
traced,” she said.
The DOH does not see the reporting delay to have an effect on current trends,
Vergeire said, pointing out that the agency remained “cautiously optimistic that
we are beginning to see the fruits of our increased response,” particularly in
Metro Manila.
“But with this optimism, we shouldn’t become complacent. That’s why we

have been very cautious in issuing out statements regarding these
improvements,” she said.
“Although, we would want the people to know that yes, we are seeing
improvements and there are good indicators, we still advise that we all
continue to be the solution, to enforce and to comply with the minimum public
health standards,” she added.
On Wednesday, the DOH recorded 3,176 new cases, pushing the national
caseload to 245,143.
Of these cases, 2,793 fell ill between Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, while 264 got sick
between Aug. 1 and 26. The additional cases were based on the submission
of 105 of the 117 accredited laboratories.
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Metro Manila reported the most number of new infections, 1,327, followed by
Batangas (260), Laguna (193), Rizal (176) and Negros Occidental (155).
The DOH reported that 376 more patients had recovered, bringing the total
number of COVID-19 survivors to 185,543. The death toll, however, rose to
3,986 with the deaths of 70 more patients.
Active cases
The deaths and recoveries left the country with 55,614 active cases, of which
88.3 percent were mild, 8.6 percent asymptomatic, 1.3 percent severe, and
1.8 percent critical.
Of the newly reported fatalities, 49 died this month, 10 in August, seven in

July, three in June, and one in April. Thirty-six were from Metro Manila, eight
from Calabarzon, six from Central Luzon, four from Soccsksargen, three from
Western Visayas, three from Zamboanga, two each from Cagayan Valley,
Bicol, Central Visayas and the Bangsamaro Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao, and one each from Davao and Mimaropa.
The DOH also appealed to COVID-19 patients on Wednesday to move to

isolation centers after officials said the government would no longer allow
home quarantine as this was a possible contributor to the spikes in community
infections.
Vergeire said that when National Task Force Against COVID-19

representatives made the rounds of various communities in Metro Manila
recently, they observed that home quarantine was the “preferred” option,
especially for patients with mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.
But because some houses did not have adequate space or the appropriate
environment for patients to self-isolate, home-quarantining was faulted as one
of the factors that drove community transmission, she said.
“That’s why it is now preferred by our government to place and isolate

symptomatics and close contacts in the [temporary treatment and monitoring
centers] instead of doing home quarantine to contain transmission,” Vergeire
said.
On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and COVID-19 task force chief
Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government would issue new guidelines “within the
week” disallowing home quarantine and requiring mild and asymptomatic
patients to be held in isolation centers.
Safe and effective
Also on Wednesday, Vergeire, commenting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s
statement that the Philippines would buy the cheapest vaccine offered to it,
said that while the price of a vaccine mattered, procurement wouldn’t be
based on price alone.
A vaccine should first be proven to be safe and effective before the country
would buy it, she said.
“Of course, we want what is best for our population. That’s why we are trying
to negotiate with all these manufacturers … because we want to find what is
the most appropriate that we could use,” Vergeire said.
“When we buy vaccines, the primary issue is the vaccines’ safety [and]
efficacy,” she added.
Soccsksargen lists its

highest single-day
COVID-19 tally: 72 new
cases
By: Edwin O. Fernandez - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 06:22 PM September 11, 2020
COTABATO CITY——The Department of Health (DOH) in the Soccsksargen

recorded 72 new cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on
Thursday (Sept. 10), the highest single day count in the region so far.
The regional total is now 786 cases, surpassing the Bangsamoro Region in
Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) which has 759.
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Of the 72 new cases, 29 were those of patients from General Santos City and
South Cotabato with 23, the two areas now seeing a surge in cases.
Arjohn Gangoso, speaking for the regional DOH office, said Cotabato City has
12 new cases, among them a 5-year-old boy, raising its total tally to 96.
Following the death of a 52-year-old fish vendor who recently visited the
General Santos City fish port, Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi
ordered the lockdown of the village of Poblacion 6, where the man resided.
Eight of the new cases in Cotabato City were those of residents of Poblacion
6.
In Midsayap, Cotabato province, officials said local transmission of the virus

occurred after a trader and his son were exposed to three people who
eventually tested positive for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Both came from Davao City and complained of sore throat, fever and other
symptoms akin to those of COVID-19 a few days after returning home.
“This is a localized form of local transmission wherein the source of the

infection has been identified and the infection has been confined to a small
contained area,” said Board Member Philbert Malaluan, speaking for the
Cotabato COVID-19 task force.
“This is very different from a widespread form of local transmission wherein

we cannot identify the source and the area of infection is much more spread
out,” Malaluan, a medical doctor, added.
Malaluan said all close contacts of the infected man and his son, who have
been traced, are now on quarantine.
Cotabato province has 71 COVID-19 cases.
Report ‘hardheaded
people’ to COVID task
force via Facebook —
Eleazar
By: Nestor Corrales - Reporter / @NCorralesINQ
MANILA, Philippines — After drawing flak from the public over its plan to
monitor social media for quarantine violators, the Philippine National Police
task force enforcing public health regulations is just asking concerned citizens
to report breaches of safety protocols by posting photos or videos of such
incidents on its newly created Facebook account.
In a statement on Friday, Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of Joint Task Force
COVID Shield, said “netizens could [now] directly report blatant violations of
the quarantine protocols” through the Facebook account, which was opened
in Thursday.
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The initiative was intended “to empower the people not only to help the
government in the enforcement of quarantine rules but also in protecting
themselves and their community from hardheaded people who defy the
protocols on observation of minimum health safety standard.”
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of Joint Task Force COVID Shield
Total disregard
“We in the JTF COVID Shield believe that most of our netizens have already
come across with total disregard of having quarantine violations in their
accounts through the uploaded photos and videos of their Facebook friends,”
Eleazar said.
“And we share disappointment and anger against those people because it is

really unfair that most of our kababayan are strictly abiding by the rules while
there are people who even dare to flaunt their defiance by posting them in the
social media,” he added.
Tipsters can post images of ”blatant violations” committed in public places,
such as drinking binges, large parties and illegal gambling sessions, including
cockfights (tupada).
“All they need to do is to send us the photos and videos and we will take care
of the rest,” Eleazar said.
For verification
Informants may also tag the task force via “@COVID SHIELD” or send the
images through its Messenger account.
Eleazar explained that the photos and videos would only serve as basis for
further verification of the alleged violation, with the police acting in
coordination with local governments down to the barangay level.
Reiterating an earlier statement, he clarified that “the PNP will not monitor
private social media accounts because, first, it is illegal (under the Data
Privacy Act), and ,second, our local police stations do not have the capability
to do it.”
He also guaranteed the confidentiality of the photo or video senders’ identities

or any detail that could compromise their security.
Barangay health
workers’ local
knowledge is key to
effective contact tracing
By: Jane Bautista - @inquirerdotnet
(Last of two parts)

Five times a week, barangay health workers (BHWs) of Barangay Macalong in
Asingan, Pangasinan province, performed such tasks as vaccination and
deworming, distributing medicines and vitamins from house to house, and
monitoring the height, weight and vital signs of community members.
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As COVID-19 began its gradual spread in the country in March, their work
became increasingly more difficult when persons under monitoring for the new
coronavirus started arriving in their hometown from Metro Manila.
Along with her colleagues, Monalisa Valera, 57, had to see to the community’s
needs 24/7.
They experienced being away from their family for weeks and not being able
to go anywhere near their loved ones, Valera says, adding: “We often found
ourselves in tears. We badly wanted to hug them, but we couldn’t.”
In rural areas like Pangasinan, BHWs like Valera play a vital role in containing
the pandemic, especially in the local government’s contact-tracing efforts.
“Because they know their neighbors well, BHWs are expected to have
knowledge of the people’s whereabouts and who they have interacted with,”
says Rep. Angelica Natasha Co of the Barangay Health Workers party-list
group.
Thus, Co says, she finds it quite strange that the government does not
recognize the significant role that BHWs can play as contact tracers at the
barangay level.
“I’m not entirely against it if they want to hire additional contact tracers. But it
seems like they did not consider that BHWs are actually doing the [contact
tracing] as part of their house-to-house monitoring. That’s the question in my
mind: Why did they not think about that and opted to spend more by hiring
others?” the lawmaker told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
As of 2009, the Bureau of Local Health Development of the Department of

Health (DOH) recorded a total of 196,562 accredited BHWs in the country. But
recent numbers from the Department of the Interior and Local Government
and the DOH range from 200,000 to 450,000 BHWs, Co said.
Varying amounts
Because they are doing volunteer work, BHWs receive, not a salary, but an
honorarium, the amount of which depends on the internal revenue allotment of
every barangay. Valera, for example, gets P1,500 a month, barely enough to
cover household expenses and meet the needs of her two children in college.
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In the municipality of Alcantara in Romblon, the amounts range from P200 to

P60 a month, according to Marites Reyes, a midwife who works closely with
BHWs there. But some municipalities in the Visayas give as much as P10,000
a month to their BHWs, Co said.
In April, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 28 stating

that front-line public health workers are to be granted a special risk allowance
during the imposed enhanced community quarantine. Included in the public
health workers specified in AO 28 are BHWs assigned to hospitals and other
health-care facilities.
But Co cited reports that BHWs were not being given hazard pay despite
being included in the grant.
“I think the problem is in the implementation and interpretation of the local

government unit (LGU). When we receive complaints like that, we immediately
contact the LGU,” she said.
What might have happened, Co said, was that BHWs were given hazard pay
only when there were excess funds from the cash assistance provided by the
national government.
When her party-list group communicates with concerned LGU heads, the
usual response is that the budget is just for “ayuda” (assistance) to community
members, Co said.
“That is, of course, very saddening because it only means that our BHWs are
last in the list of their priorities,” she said.
MODEL APPROACH Barangay health workers in Barangay 28, Caloocan
City, distribute food packs while conducting houseto-house visits in the
community. Their local health and emergency response team was able to
establish a system that was later recognized as a model for COVID-19
containment, where the health workers took charge of data collection and
contact tracing while ensuring that persons showing symptoms remained in
quarantine. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Model COVID-19 response
In Caloocan City, Barangay 28 Captain Edgar Galgana makes sure that
BHWs and the staff of the barangay health and emergency response teams
(BHERTs) are receiving enough support and compensation so they can
perform their job well.
“They are complete with personal protective equipment and vitamins before
they leave [to do fieldwork]. I treat the health workers the same way I treat the
patients because if I will not provide for them, they might not do ocular
inspections or even go outside,” Galgana said.
BHWs in his area receive around P4,000 monthly, which he plans to raise to
P6,000, he said.
Galgana said Barangay 28 — population 30,968, per a 2015 census of the

Philippine Statistics Authority — was able to develop a model COVID-19
response that has been recognized by City Hall.
From just two cases, the number of infections in the barangay spiked when it
was placed under general community quarantine. The alarming rise in the
number of cases — 167 as of Sept. 7 — prompted Galgana and the BHERTs
he had formed to plan house-to-house visits although the idea was frowned
upon by their LGU.
“I do not believe in [phoning] when it comes to checking up on patients,” he

said.
Thus, instead of remote monitoring, the team made databases, conducted a

daily observation of body temperatures, and ensured actual conversations
with residents.
This is because, Galgana said, based on their study using that approach,
people tended to go out of their houses because no one from the government
bothered to check on them.
When the local government heard of Barangay 28’s practice and inquired
about it, the team presented its papers and reports with the help of its experts.
And from their model, Galgana said, the city was able to develop an enhanced
formula on how to manage the COVID-19 response better.
“The BHERT was really instrumental in combating the COVID-19 cases here,”
Galgana said. “From that experience, we learned that strengthening the
barangay health and emergency response team is a must, especially in terms
of inclusion in the budget and creating local ordinances.”
What BHWs deserve

In 2019, Co filed House Bill No. 3985, or the Barangay Health and Wellness
Reform, which primarily lobbies for a standard honorarium of at least P3,000 a
month, medical assistance, and health, accident and retirement benefits for
BHWs.
The bill is pending at the committee level and Co anticipates a debate on the
minimum amount of the honorarium.
For Valera, who knows that being a BHW is an act of volunteerism, just being
able to help her neighbors is enough to give her a sense of fulfillment, even
happiness.
But she hopes that the government and the public would recognize the efforts
of BHWs and give them the benefits they deserve.
Galgana said training and support from the national government were needed
apart from compensation.
“Continue to train, empower and equip us with knowledge, especially how to

respond in times of crisis like this,” he said. “Instead of continuously giving us
[barangay officials and staff] threats, boost our morale and capabilities. Boost
our strength to act as one since that’s the government’s call: to act as one.”
Gov’t reduces physical

distancing on PUVs

DISTANCE BETWEEN US The move by transportation officials to reduce the
1-meter rule for physical distancing on public vehicles has raised fears of
more coronavirus infections and deaths. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — The government will reduce physical distancing on
public vehicles on Monday as commuter safety advocates and the Vice
President questioned the basis for the decision, which they say could lead to a
worse surge in coronavirus infections.
On Saturday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced that it

would proceed with its plan to gradually reduce the 1-meter rule, starting with
0.75 meters on Monday to help the public transport sector recover from a
slump forced by coronavirus lockdowns since March, and to stimulate growth
of the economy, which slipped into recession in the second quarter.
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More jeepney routes

At the same time, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board
(LTFRB), an agency overseen by the DOTr, said it would reopen 28 more
jeepney routes in Quezon City, Manila, Makati and Muntinlupa, adding 1,159
more jeeps to public transport, starting Monday.
According to the DOTr plan, physical distancing on public vehicles further
shrinks to 0.5 meters on Sept. 28, then to 0.3 meters on Oct. 12.
The Department of Health (DOH) objected to the plan, insisting on the 1-meter
distance recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
On Sunday, the DOH reported 3,372 additional infections, bringing the

national tally to 261,216 cases. It said 79 more patients had died, raising the
death toll to 4,371, and 20,472 more patients had recovered, pushing the total
number of COVID-19 survivors to 207,568, and leaving the country with
49,277 active cases.
7th mass-recovery report

The large number of new recoveries was the result of the DOH’s new strategy
of counting mild and asymptomatic cases as recovered after 14 days of
isolation.
It was the department’s seventh mass-recovery report since the shift took
effect on July 13, when it reported 4,325 recoveries.
In a statement on Saturday, the commuter safety coalition Move as One

warned that disregarding the health standards set by the DOH could result in
more new coronavirus infections and deaths, “squandering the sacrifices [our
health workers] and the gains achieved from the two-week timeout”—referring
to the two-week return to strict lockdown requested by the medical community
in August to tamp down a rise in infections and give hospital staff a respite.
“The medical experts in our group find no evidence [that] reducing physical
distancing to less than 1 meter, even when combined with complementary
measures, will provide sufficient protection to the riding public,” the group
said.
Allow more jeepneys

It proposed that the DOTr instead allow more open public vehicles, such as
jeepneys, to return to the road and give commuters better ventilation during
their trips.
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The LTFRB plan would bring to 17,000 the number of jeepneys operating in
Metro Manila, but the coalition said this number was only a third of the total
number of jeepneys that plied major routes in the metropolis before the
pandemic.
The coalition also recommended that the government implement service

contracting to boost public transport capacity.
Under that plan, the government hires public vehicles to ferry commuters on a
fixed trip/per kilometer rate regardless of passenger load.
But a nighttime curfew in Metro Manila works against the reopening plan, as
the absence of public transport at night prevents businesses with nighttime
operations from reopening.
On her radio program on Sunday, Vice President Leni Robredo urged

transport officials not to “gamble on things like public health” and to make
decisions “based on science.”
“Is the 0.3-meter rule based on science?” Robredo asked. “If the point is to
help drivers earn more, then that’s fine. But I think there are better ways to do
this.”
Robredo recommended service contracting, which gets rid of the boundary

system that eats up much of jeepney and bus drivers’ daily earnings.
“Let’s see what will happen in the next few weeks. But we’re praying that the
[new distancing plan will] be effective,” she said.
‘Carefully calibrated’
Malacañang defended the DOTr plan, saying it was “carefully calibrated.”
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles gave assurance on Saturday night that the
plan would be implemented with other health measures—wearing masks and
face shields, and hand sanitizing—to ensure that it would not lead to
increased virus transmission.
Nograles, cochair of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of

Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary government body overseeing
the administration’s coronavirus response, said easing public transport
restrictions was part of a plan balancing public heath and the economy.
“These adjustments being done by the DOTr are carefully calibrated. But it
doesn’t mean that if we reduce physical distancing, we won’t have more
health protocols,” Nograles said.
He noted that other countries, including Japan, have begun easing public
transport restrictions.
“In Japan they allow it,” Nograles said. “The DOTr is checking how many
passengers [Japan’s trains are allowed to carry]. What do they use? Face
masks and face shields. So it means we can slowly reduce physical
distancing as long as [we] have additional health protocols.”
He said the task force would meet with health experts on Monday and discuss
the matter during its meeting on Tuesday.
The head of the economic affairs committee of the House of Representatives

on Sunday supported the DOTr plan, saying it would help get the economy
back on its feet.
“Without public transport, people can’t go to work and businesses won’t open,”
AAMBIS-OWA Rep. Sharon Garin said.
“When supply for public transportation is less than demand, people forgo
social distancing. The wheels of the economy won’t start turning without
ample public transportation,” she said.
—With reports from Krixia Subingsubing, Tina G. Santos, Julie M. Aurelio and
DJ Yap
Drilon sees overprice in

COVID-19 testing kits
bought by government
File photo of Senator Franklin Drilon PHOTO BY EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday
questioned the government’s procurement of allegedly overpriced testing kits
and medical equipment for COVID-19, saying the items were more than P400
million more expensive than those bought by the private sector.
Drilon raised the issue at the 2021 budget hearing and asked the Department
of Budget and Management (DBM) to look closely at three contracts awarded
by its Procurement Service (PS) and by the Department of Health (DOH).
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“There are a number of procurements done by the DBM-PS and based on our
research, the prices were higher compared to the prices in the private sector,”
he said in a separate statement.
Taxpayer money
“From the three awards that we have studied alone, we could estimate that
the total price was jacked up by almost half a billion. We could have saved
around P422 million in taxpayer money if we exercised due diligence,” he
added.
One of the questioned transactions was the procurement of P688 million

worth of testing kits from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. that were allegedly
overpriced by P208 million.
The DBM-PS bought 2,000 kits from Pharmally at P344,000 each, with each
kit capable of conducting around 200 tests. But Drilon said the kit could be
bought for P240,000 each.
Another purchase he asked the DBM to look into was of macherey

nagel/nucleospin RNA virus preps kit from Lifeline Diagnostics Supplies Inc.,
valued at P73.1 million, which could be overpriced by P41.25 million.
The items were bought at P108,304 each, but the private sector could buy it
for P47,199 each, he said.
The third transaction was the DOH’s purchase of Universal Transport Medium
and the nasopharyngeal swab from Biosite Medical Instruments for P415.64
million, which was allegedly overpriced by P173 million.
Drilon said the DOH bought the items at P258 per set, but the same item was
priced in the market at around P150 per set.
Bidding prices
Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, who is in charge of the
department’s Procurement Service, said there had been instances when the
department bought items at a high price because it was bound by the prices
quoted by bidders.
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Lao said the DBM was able to get cheaper prices when it was able to
negotiate with the foreign manufacturers.
In the case of Pharmally, Lao said the P688-million contract awarded in April
was for tests worth P1,720 each.
But while Pharmally was delivering the items, the government, through the
Philippine Embassy in Singapore, was negotiating directly with the
manufacturer of the tests and was able to get the tests for P925 each.
The P1.19-billion contract for the cheaper test kits was awarded on June 23.
“This was how we were able to get a cheaper price with the second bid,
because we no longer bid it open only to local suppliers but to foreign
suppliers as well,” he said.
If the bidders all offered high prices, the DBM had no choice but to buy items
at a high price, Lao said. But when it was allowed to negotiate with suppliers,
including foreign ones, it was able to get lower prices, he added.
Lao also cited the DBM’s purchase in April of test kits from Sansure at P1,464
per test, with the total contract price at P146 million.
During this time, the department followed the regular modes of procurement,
including negotiating with local suppliers, he said.
“When we discovered it was very expensive, we tried contacting through our

embassies, to contact directly the manufacturers,” he said.
When it got in touch with the manufacturer from China, the DBM-PS was able
to buy the tests at P918 each, for a P3.6-billion contract, he said.
Blacklisted company
Drilon also questioned the DBM-PS’ award of contracts to blacklisted
companies, including Ferjan Healthlink Philippines Inc., which got a P727.5-
million deal for 500,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Lloyd Christopher A. Lao (Photo from DBM website)
Lao said Ferjan Healthlink Philippines Inc. was the winning bidder, while the
blacklisted company was called Ferjan Healthlink Enterprise. The two
appeared to be different companies upon initial checking, as one is a sole
proprietor company and the other is a corporation, he said.
Publicly available documents at the Securities and Exchange Commission

(SEC) showed that Ferjan Healthlink Philippines was incorporated only in
November last year and one incorporator was listed as the owner of the
blacklisted Ferjan Healthlink Enterprises, a sole proprietorship.
The DBM canceled the contract last Friday partly due to delayed delivery and
prices that were “significantly [higher]” compared to current levels, Lao said.
No advance payment was made to the firm, he added.
The Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) would also be changing

the rules so that the blacklisting of a sole proprietorship would be carried over
to the corporation where one of the owners of the blacklisted entity is a
stockholder, he said.
The GPPB list of blacklisted firms included Muntinlupa City-based Ferjan

Healthlink Enterprises, which had been banned from participating in
government biddings for a two-year period effective Sept. 25, 2018, until Sept.
26, 2020, due to “nonfulfillment of delivery of supplies for drugs and
medicines” to the local government of Zamboanga City.
Since Ferjan Healthlink Philippines was registered only late last year, pundits
say it could not have presented a financial statement covering a one-year
period—a prequalification requirement during bidding—when it participated in
negotiated procurement at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Due diligence
Drilon said the Procurement Service should have exercised due diligence in
awarding the contracts. Blacklisted entities, he said, should not be allowed to
hide behind the corporate structure to skirt their disqualification.
“While it is good that the contract was canceled, this begs the question: Why
is the proper due diligence not conducted prior to the award of such a huge
contract? Despite this being a negotiated/emergency procurement, blacklisted
entities should not have been allowed to participate. Considering the lapses in
screening Ferjan, it is highly possible that similarly situated suppliers may
have also secured contracts with the DBM Procurement Service,” Drilon said.
Charges
Lao said contracts with blacklisted suppliers could be canceled but this would
not stop possible cases against procuring entities that did not ensure they
sourced goods and services from eligible firms.
On Sept. 3, GPPB Executive Director Rowena Candice Ruiz told the Inquirer
that public officials and offices could face charges if found to have dealt with
blacklisted suppliers.
Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which took
effect from March to June, allowed negotiated procurement to expedite
sourcing of essential goods “with clear and simple rules on liquidation, a
liberal procedure in determining the price most advantageous to the
government considering the urgency of the present situation, and measures to
reasonably prevent abuses and corruption but not too restrictive as to delay
the process,” the GPPB said in a resolution in April.
“Under the law and the rules, procuring entities are responsible for blacklisting
erring suppliers. Procuring entities are required to submit a copy of said report
to the GPPB for posting, to inform other procuring entities. Once blacklisted,
suppliers are prohibited from joining any government bidding during the period
of blacklisting. Hence, the need for procuring entities to be made aware of the
blacklisting done by other agencies so that they do not award contracts to
blacklisted suppliers. As part of the postqualification process, procuring
entities are required to check the qualification of bidders, among which is if
they are currently blacklisted,” Ruiz said.
Safeguards
“The blacklisting rules have been implemented even before the passage of
the Bayanihan Act. Apart from the publication of the blacklisted suppliers, one
of the safeguards under the rules is the cancellation/denial of registration in
the Philgeps of blacklisted suppliers,” she added, referring to the Philippine
Government Electronic Procurement System, an online one-stop shop to
source for provision of public goods and services.
When the Inquirer checked at the start of this month if any of the 67
blacklisted entities on the GPPB list landed contracts during the emergency
procurement period, it found at least three—Ferjan Healthlink Enterprises,
Cebu Business Materials Trading Co. Inc. and Jozeth Trading.
Ruiz said “procuring entities that awarded contracts to blacklisted suppliers

have a remedy under the rules on termination of contracts.”
Also, “any interested person may likewise file a case before the Office of the
Ombudsman against the responsible officials since the GPPB has no quasi-
judicial function under the law,” Ruiz said.
“The Commission on Audit likewise has the authority to audit the financial
transactions of an agency, and award of contracts to a blacklisted supplier is
one of the items that COA monitors in its audit of agency transactions,” Ruiz
added.
—With a report from Ben O. de Vera
Tough isolation policy

prevented 100,000
COVID-19 infections –
Galvez
Carlito Galvez Jr.

MANILA, Philippines — The chief enforcer of the national action plan against
COVID-19 on Tuesday claimed that the government’s aggressive isolation
policy had prevented more than 100,000 coronavirus infections.
Carlito Galvez Jr., head of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said
the government was looking to convert more hotels in Metro Manila, Central
Luzon and Calabarzon into quarantines.
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He said the isolation of 24,538 COVID-19 patients helped slow the spread of
the coronavirus in the three regions.
Exponential growth avoided
“If we were not able to [remove COVID-19 patients] from home quarantine, we
would have had an exponential growth [in cases] of three or four times … The
number of cases would not have been reduced in Metro Manila,” Galvez said,
noting that Metro Manila had 88,109 cases on Aug. 14, which were reduced to
53,754 by Sept. 14.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) logged 3,544 additional

infections, bringing the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to
269,407.
Of the additional cases, 3,177 got sick between Sept. 2 and 15, while 254 fell
ill in August. Metro Manila reported most of the new cases, 690, followed by
Cavite (305), Rizal (201), Negros Occidental (173), and Bulacan (98).
number of recoveries to 207,352, and that 34 more sufferers had died,
pushing the death toll to 4,663.
87.9 percent were mild, 8 percent asymptomatic, 1.2 percent severe, and 2.9
percent critical.
Of the newly reported fatalities, 29 died this month, three in August, and one
each in May and April. Thirteen of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, five
from Calabarzon, three from Cagayan Valley, three from Central Visayas, two
each from Central Luzon, Bicol and Northern Mindanao, and one each from
Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga and the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
P4.5B for converting hotels

Galvez said his task force had P4.5 billion in the second coronavirus relief
measure for the conversion of hotels into quarantines.
“We can isolate 128,000 COVID-19 [patients] in hotels. We are making

arrangements with the Department of Tourism for all two-star and three-star
hotels to be made into quarantine[s]. Four-star and five-star hotels would be
for staycations,” he said.
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The Philippines is participating in human trials of candidate vaccines for
COVID-19, including drugs from Russia and China.
It is also negotiating for supplies with pharmaceutical companies, and has

encountered reservation fee demands from some Western drug makers.
Reservation fee
In a televised speech on Monday night, President Duterte slammed those
companies for their “profit, profit, profit” mentality.
Mr. Duterte vowed not to pay the reservation fees, saying the demand was
“foolish” and a “scam” that would violate the Philippines’ procurement law.
“There’s no vaccine yet, there is nothing with finality, and you want us to make
a reservation by depositing money. You must be crazy,” he said. “[T]he
procurement law of the Philippines, this country, does not allow you to buy
something which is nonexistent or to be produced yet. It’s a very exacting law
and you must always reckon with prosecution and going to jail.”
—With reports from Jovic Yee and Julie M. Aurelio
2 of 8 new COVID-19
patients in Cabanatuan
are kids
By: Armand Galang - Correspondent / @AMGalangINQ
CABANATUAN CITY-Eight new cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-

19) were recorded in this city on Thursday (Sept. 17), some of them involving
children, the city’s health office said.
Among the new COVID-19 cases were those of a 2-year-old girl and a 12-
year-old boy.
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The girl from the remote village of Sta. Arcadia showed no symptoms and had
no history of travel. Droplets were collected from the girl on Sept. 14 and
positive test results came out four days later on Sept. 18, the report said.
Her 32-year-old relative also tested positive on the same day.
The 12-year-old boy from the village of Quezon District was tested for SARS
Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19, after he complained of fever, sore
throat and loss of taste. He also had not traveled but could have been
exposed to a COVID-19 patient who is a close contact.
TSB
Provincial LGUs buck

reduced distancing in
public transport
LEGAZPI CITY — Officials in Bicol, Western Visayas and Cebu City have
opposed the move to shorten physical distancing in public transportation and
called on the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to abandon the proposal.
Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal on Friday said the DOTr proposal to reduce
the one-meter physical distancing rule in public transport was “dangerous”
and should be rejected.
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The DOTr on Thursday decided to suspend the implementation of the less-

than-a-meter distancing policy on public transport after the Department of
Health reported over 3,000 additional new coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
cases.
Volatile
But for Rosal, the policy should not be implemented at all, particularly at this
time when the “coronavirus situation is still volatile” and because of the high
risk of infections since there could be commuters who were actually virus
carriers but were asymptomatic.
Lawyer Anthony Nuyda, Department of the Interior and Local Government

regional director and chair of the Bicol Inter-Agency Task Force for the
Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, also said in a telephone
interview on Friday that the one-meter distance rule could not be set aside at
this time when virus cases were still rising.
For Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara, however, the issue should not be about
physical distancing inside public transport, saying that a final policy on the
matter would not make any difference to Albayanos unless the government
would allow the resumption of interprovincial bus travel that was suspended
after the pandemic struck in March.
In Western Visayas, officials of the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras, Capiz and

Negros Occidental and the independent cities of Iloilo and Bacolod held an
online meeting on Wednesday and collectively pushed to retain the 1-m
minimum distancing in public utility vehicles, according to Iloilo City Mayor
Jerry Treñas.
Ill-advised
Officials of Aklan and Antique failed to attend the meeting. But Antique Gov.
Rhodora Cadiao earlier said the DOTr plan, while “helpful to the economy
especially for drivers and commuters,” was “ill-advised for the health” of the
people.
In Cebu City, Mayor Edgardo Labella also decided to retain the 1-m physical
distance inside public utility vehicles to avoid another surge in coronavirus
infections.
“With due respect to our leaders from [the] DOTr, here in Cebu City, we will
continue the imposition of 1-m distance because we can never take the risk
[because] the virus is very much around,” he told reporters. —reports from
Mar Arguelles, Nestor P. Burgos and Ador Vincent Mayol
Health professionals
welcome retention of 1-
meter distancing
By: The Inquirer Staff - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to retain the 1-

meter physical distancing requirement for passengers on public utility vehicles
(PUVs), drawing praise from health professionals who said the decision would
help prevent at least 700 new coronavirus infections and at least seven
deaths daily.
“The President’s decision is to keep the 1-meter social distancing in public

transportation,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced on state-
owned PTV4 on Saturday, effectively suspending the contentious new policy
that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) wanted to implement last week.
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The DOTr wanted to reduce the social distancing rule in a bid to increase the
capacity of public transportation, make it faster for people to report for work
and revive an economy in recession, but the Healthcare Professionals
Alliance Against COVID-19 (HPAAC) countered “that reviving the economy
and protecting lives must go hand in hand in our COVID-19 response.”
Other options available

“Reducing physical distancing is not our only option to address transportation
shortage,” HPAAC said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the group
hopes the 1-meter requirement would remain in place “until the situation
becomes more favorable.”
HPAAC recommended that, instead of tweaking measures proven to curb the

spread of COVID-19, the government should facilitate transportation service
contracting and give incentives and subsidies to PUV operators.
More bicycle lanes and walkways should also be put in place and staggered
work hours should be implemented in select businesses to help reduce
congestion, the group added.
HPAAC, a coalition of over 160 medical societies, estimated that even with
the implementation of preventive measures, such as the wearing of masks
and face shields, there will be at least 700 new Covid-19 cases daily if
physical distancing on public transport is reduced to 0.75 meters as
prescribed by the new DOTR policy.
This means that the government would have to ramp up its manpower for
contact tracing to look for 25,000 more individuals.
Given how the disease affects patients, 140 of the 700 new infections may
require hospitalization, seven of which would result in deaths.
“These figures are based on conservative assumptions, and the real picture
could be worse,” HPAAC said.
PH cases reach 283,460

On Saturday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,962 new cases,
pushing the national tally to 283,460.
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Metro Manila still accounted for most of the new infections with 1,440 cases,
followed by Bulacan (354), Cavite (287), Laguna (222) and Batangas (213).
A total 209,885 patients have recovered from COVID-19, with 1,128 new
recoveries.
The death toll rose to 4,930, with 100 more patients succumbing to the severe
respiratory disease.
That tallies a total of 68,645 active cases, of which 87.4 percent are mild, 9
percent asymptomatic, 1.1 percent severe and 2.5 percent critical.
The DOTr said it would strictly enforce the decision of President Duterte to
retain the 1-meter gap between passengers.
Trains and ferries can easily revert to that rule, the DOTr said, but the
capacity of other land vehicles, such as jeepneys and buses, will have to be
reduced further because the current practice of spacing passengers one seat
apart does not equate to 1-meter distancing.
New guidelines readied

“It doesn’t make sense to allow PUVs to separate passengers one seat apart
while trains and maritime vessels are required to enforce 1-meter physical
distancing,” Assistant Transportation Secretary Goddes Libiran explained,
adding that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board
(LTFRB) would be releasing new guidelines on the matter.
The LTFRB has so far allowed about 69,000 PUVs to operate in areas under
general community quarantine, including 24,295 regular buses, P2P (point-to-
point) buses, UV Express units and jeepneys allowed to ply a total of 378
reopened routes.
Of this number, around 18,000 conventional and “modernized” public utility

jeepneys were allowed to ply 251 reopened routes.
Also authorized to resume operations were 20,891 taxicabs and 23,898

vehicles that can be booked via ride-sharing apps.
Disagreements
The DOTR’s move to reduce the distance between passengers was met with
opposition, as even top administration officials disagreed among themselves
on the wisdom of the new rule.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade maintained that the proposal was

intended to help more people get to work in line with efforts to revive the
economy after months on lockdown, but Interior Secretary Eduardo Año noted
that medical experts were not consulted about it.
Metro Manila mayors also expressed their disapproval and even doctors
differed on their views, with some saying it was not so much the distance as
the wearing of face masks and shields, and avoiding talking that would
prevent transmission of the virus.
—Jovic Yee, Leila B. Salaverria and Mariejo S. Ramos

DBM office denies
COVID-19 supply
overprice, says PPEs
bought by Aquino
administration 50
percent costlier
By: Ben O. de Vera - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ
After some senators last week accused the government of buying personal
protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits at an overprice under his watch,
Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao on Monday (Sept. 21) said
similar items bought by the Aquino administration near the end of President
Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s term were even more expensive by at least 50
percent.
Lao sent a copy of the Sept. 28, 2015 purchase order of the Department of
Health (DOH) which showed that the Office of the Secretary bought 2,500
PPE sets at P3,500 per set. Each set is composed of goggles, gloves, shoe
covers, coveralls, surgical gowns, face masks, surgical masks and head caps.
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The P8.75-million contract was then awarded to Quezon-City based Rebmann

Inc., which supposedly bought the PPE sets from local distributors of 3M and
TG Medical.
The PPEs purchased in 2015 were intended for the DOH’s Disease
Prevention and Control Bureau (DCPB), which had a higher approved
procurement budget of P10 million.
On June 23, 2016, Rebmann Inc. again snagged a P14.49-million deal with
the DOH, which records showed bought 3,750 eight-item PPEs at P3,864 per
set, a price higher than that in the 2015 contract.
The 2016 purchase order showed that the coveralls, goggles, and surgical
masks were imported from China; gloves from Malaysia; face masks from
Singapore; head caps from Thailand; and plastic shoe covers as well as
surgical gowns from the United States.
The PPEs obtained in 2016 were distributed to school-based health stations

through the DOH’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program Management
Office (HFEPMO), which had a budget of P15 million.
The documents showed that the procurements in 2015 and 2016 underwent
competitive bidding, although Rebmann Inc. was the lone eligible bidder in
both occasions.
Both 2015 and 2016 purchase orders were signed by then health
undersecretary Vicente Y. Belizario Jr., on behalf of the DOH secretary.
The PPEs purchased by the DBM’s Procurement Service (PS-DBM) headed

by Lao through emergency or negotiated procurement under the Bayanihan to
Heal as One Law had a budget of P2,000 per set based on the DOH’s
requirements, PS-DBM said last week.
Asked by the Inquirer if he intentionally wanted to compare PPE purchases

made by the Aquino administration with those bought by the Duterte
administration amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Lao replied: “Yes, we compared
the two administrations because they said we sourced expensive items. So
we matched who’s more expensive — them or us,” he said. Opposition
Senators Franklin Drilon and Risa Hontiveros, allies of former president
Aquino, last week assailed the allegedly overpriced PPEs and testing kits that
Lao’s office bought.
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“All I can say is that their procurement cost is more than double the
procurement cost made by PS-DBM this 2020,” Lao said.
“What puzzles me is that we are being insinuated to have caused the loss of
P1-billion government money and being subjected to investigation, whereas
the procurements made during the previous administration were double the
cost [but were] not being questioned and subjected to investigation,” Lao said.
As far as how supply and demand affected pricing this year amid a pandemic
against market conditions four to five years ago, Lao said: “Back then, there
were a lot of supplies but few demand, so prices should be low. Now, demand
is high due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so prices should be high.”
“But comparing both [2015 and 2016] procurement, we bought at cheaper

prices in 2020 despite scarcity in supply and [high] demand,” Lao said.
Lao had explained that the medical items had been mostly from overseas
suppliers due to a lack of domestic manufacturers and supplies at the height
of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Given foreign and domestic transport restrictions at the onset of the

pandemic, PPE prices had also shot up amid massive global demand, but Lao
had said these already levelled off when supply eventually caught up.
DTI chief urges easing of

quarantine as ‘self-
discipline’ can slow
down COVID-19
MANILA, Philippines — Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Monday said

quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces should be
eased as the spread of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could be
slowed if people had “self-discipline.”
Lopez told a news briefing that he believed Metro Manila and nearby
provinces should be placed under modified general community quarantine so
that more sectors of the economy could be reopened.
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The metropolis is under general community quarantine up to the end of

September, and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of
Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary government body overseeing
the administration’s coronavirus response, has made no recommendation for
its lifting or extension.
Only his view

“After six months with the virus … I believe we [have learned] how to move
[with] and how to manage the virus,” Lopez said. “In my view, and it is only my
view, we could already push for a lighter community quarantine because what
is important here is that the whole country would have self-discipline and self-
regulation so that the transmission [rate] would go down … That would allow
us to open more sectors [of] the economy.”
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has his own recommendation, though

it is not a quarantine level.
Speaking at a news briefing in Cagayan de Oro City, Roque said he had

suggested to the task force to place parts of the country with zero coronavirus
infection in the past month under a new classification by October—”new
normal.”
“We’re still data-driven and guided by science,” he said. “I myself suggested,

and the [task force] agreed, that areas with zero transmission for the past
month can be declared as under the new normal. In that sense, we will have a
new classification. There will be new normal aside from modified general
community quarantine.”
Lopez and Roque spoke hours before the Department of Health (DOH)
reported 3,475 additional coronavirus infections, pushing the overall number
of COVID-19 cases to 290,190.
Most cases in Metro

Metro Manila still had the most number of new infections, 1,543, followed by
Batangas (194), Rizal (192), Cavite (166) and Cebu (165).
COVID-19 survivors to 230,233. But the death toll increased to 4,999 with the
Eight of the newly reported fatalities died this month, six in August, and one in
April.
86.6 percent are mild, 8.9 percent asymptomatic, 1.4 percent severe, and 3.1
percent critical. —REPORTS FROM ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL, JULIE M.
AURELIO AND JOVIC YEE INQ
Doctors caution against

easing of quarantine
A week before President Duterte is expected to announce new quarantine

levels, the medical community advised the government to be cautious about
further easing control measures as new infections have yet to drop to a
significant level while there is a steady rise in the number of severely and
critically ill COVID-19 patients.
The Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 pointed out

Tuesday that while the number of new COVID-19 cases was slowly declining,
there was still a need to carefully consider the further loosening up of
quarantine measures as the country risks seeing yet another surge in
infections.
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“We can now see a slow decline in the number of new cases, but it hasn’t
dropped to a significant level. Right now we’re under general community
quarantine, where we have somehow loosened up. Yet we can already see
many people disregard or do not follow the health protocols,” said Dr. Maricar
Limpin of the Philippine College of Physicians, one of the alliance’s lead
organizers.
Manila Beach crowd

For instance, Limpin said that when authorities opened an artificial white-sand
beach on the Manila Bay shore on Sunday, hundreds of people flocked to the
area and failed to observe physical distancing.
“That’s why we repeatedly call that we think this through. If we really want to
effectively control this pandemic, we must follow all health protocols, which
include the wearing of masks and face shields and maintaining a distance of 1
meter,” Limpin said.
Amid calls to further relax the six-month-old quarantine measures, Dr. Antonio
Dans, the spokesperson for the alliance composed of more than 160 medical
societies, said the question now is if all sectors of society are already at that
point where they can say they are ready to dance with the virus.
“Are we ready? Is the transportation [sector] ready to implement all the safety
measures? Are the employers ready to ensure the workplace is safe? Are the
people ready [to strictly observe the] wearing of masks, face shields, and
observing physical distancing?” Dans asked.
“Because if the answer is we are ready to dance with the virus—that we

already know everything that should be done—then why not. We should
lighten the lockdown,” he added.
Apart from the number of new infections, Limpin said the government should
look into the growing number of patients who are severely or critically ill.
Data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed that on Aug. 1, there were
only 350 patients classified as severe, while 246 were critical. By Sept. 1,
there were 620 severely ill patients, while those in critical condition had
increased to 908.
As of Sept. 20, the figures had ballooned to 742 severe and 1,728 critical
cases.
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Intensive-care patients
“While there have been fewer cases in the last few weeks, we are seeing
more patients that need to be placed in the intensive care unit. Because of
this situation, our [medical] front-liners still cannot rest,” Limpin said.
She explained that one of the reasons patients appear to be sicker this time is
because a lot of them do not seek medical help at the onset of their illness.
She noted that some waited up to a week before seeing a doctor.
“By then, their condition had already worsened,” Limpin said.
“This is why we emphasize … the need to improve our health-seeking

behavior. That once you feel unwell, you’d consult a doctor … There are ways
to prevent the disease’s progression. Therefore, it’s important that patients are
seen at the right time so that their condition wouldn’t become severe,” she
added.
On Tuesday, the DOH logged 1,635 additional infections, the lowest recorded
daily increase this month. This is the second time this month that cases rose
by fewer than 2,000.
On Sept. 3, cases increased by only 1,987, but at the time, 22 laboratories

failed to submit their data on time to the DOH. This time, only nine
laboratories were unable to submit their data on time.
Metro Manila accounted for a third of the new infections with 583, followed by
Cavite (102), Iloilo (97), Rizal (67) and Cebu (57). The overall number of
confirmed coronavirus infections stood at 291,789.
Of the newly reported cases, 1,435 fell ill between Sept. 9 and 22, while 98
got sick in August.
Deaths pass 5,000 mark

There were a total of 230,643 patients who had recovered from COVID-19
with the recovery of 450 more. The death toll, however, breached the 5,000
mark as 50 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease, bringing
the total to 5,049.
Thirty-eight of the patients died in September, eight in August, three in July

and one in April. Twenty were from Metro Manila, 10 from Western Visayas,
eight from Calabarzon, four from Central Luzon, three from Zamboanga, two
from the Cordillera Administrative Region, and one each from Bicol, Central
Visayas and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
3.1 percent critical. INQ
Gov’t asked to suspend

privacy law enforcement
for better COVID-19
contact tracing
MANILA, Philippines—Some local business groups have asked the

government to suspend the enforcement of the data privacy law so others
could know who exactly got infected with coronavirus, a move which the
privacy watchdog said would only shame people who needed help instead.
Four business groups signed a letter, dated Sept. 21, seeking suspension of
implementation of the privacy law and addressed to the Inter-Agency Task
Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF). A copy of
the letter was shared to reporters on Thursday (Sept. 24).
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The letter was sent after the IATF opened its doors to the Philippine Chamber
of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), letting its officials serve as resource
speakers, following PCCI complaints that some of the IATF’s health protocols
were impractical in the workplace.
Interestingly, PCCI president Benedicto Yujuico did not sign the letter, but
some top PCCI officials did.
The signatories included George Barcelon, which the letter described as as
PCCI president emeritus and member of the Legislative-Executive
Development Advisory Council (Ledac), a body that recommends measures
on the economy and other matters to the President.
PCCI, considered as the largest in the country, did not respond to Inquirer’s
request for clarification on why Yujuico didn’t sign the letter but other chamber
officials did.
In the letter, the businessmen said they have been receiving suggestions on
how to facilitate contract tracing. One way of doing so, they said, is to reverse
the process.
Instead of looking for people who might be infected, the government should
encourage them to “come out in the open” by building “decent and
comfortable quarantine facilities.”
“Supplementing this call for voluntary disclosure is the temporary suspension

of the Data Privacy Act, including the patient confidentiality clauses, as part of
government prerogatives in this crisis,” the letter said. “After all, in the interest
of saving lives, the government has already taken away many constitutional
rights to implement the strict quarantine,” it said.
Other PCCI officials signed the letter as representatives of three other

business chambers, which they also headed. The letter listed
recommendations, which the business leaders said they came up with after
participating in the IATF meeting last Sept. 14.
The other signatories are:

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 Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr., PCCI treasurer and also president of the
Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc.
 Edgardo G. Lacson, PCCI auditor and chair of Employers’
Confederation of the Philippines

 Francis C. Chua, PCCI director for international trade affairs and chair
of Philippine Silkroad International Chamber of Commerce
“If we can suspend the DPA in the context of this emergency, we may not
have to use the full P5 billion budget allocated for contact tracers,” the letter
said. “Instead, we can start with even P1 billion to build or repurpose existing
schools or other buildings in strategic barangays in the NCR [National Capital
Region],” it said.
When asked for comment, the National Privacy Commission said the request
was “anti-poor, bereft of science and ethics.”
“There’s no scientific proof that publicly naming Covid infected individuals has
public health benefits in a pandemic response,” said NPC Commissioner and
Chair Raymund Liboro. “What has been proven is that this disease causes
discrimination, shaming and has led to social vigilantism,” he said.
“It will prevent Covid positive individuals and their close contacts from coming
out to seek testing and treatment. [This will just be] making it more difficult for
authorities to control this pandemic,” he added.
This was just one of four suggestions listed in the letter.
It also asked the IATF to bring back all public utility vehicles that operated
before the pandemic, to exempt workers (except those on the frontlines) from
having to wear face shields inside offices and factories and to further ease
restrictions on nonessential sectors, including non-contact sports activities.
“One good example of these are golf clubs which are very, very low risk,” the
businessmen said.
TSB
53 new cases of COVID-
19 stalk Eastern Visayas
By: Joey Gabieta - @inquirerdotnet
TACLOBAN CITY –– The Department of Health (DOH) in Eastern Visayas

has reported 53 new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), increasing
its total number of infections to 4,419 on Friday.
The new cases are from Leyte province with 33; Samar, 10; Southern Leyte,
seven; and Northern Samar, 3.
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In Catarman, Northern Samar, COVID-19 infected a one-year-old boy.
The baby and his mother were still at the town’s isolation facility, where they
will stay for 14 days as part of the protocol.
The provincial inter-agency task force on COVID-19 in Samar has approved

on Thursday the request of several local government units in the province to
extend the moratorium on the return of the locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
The moratorium on the return of the LSIs in the province will start on Friday,
Sept. 25, and end on October 8.
LZB
Most Metro Manila

mayors want GCQ
retained
By: Nestor Corrales - Reporter / @NCorralesINQ
MANILA, Philippines — Majority of Metro Manila mayors want to retain the

existing general community quarantine (GCQ) in the metropolis, Interior
Secretary Eduardo Año said on Friday.
“Most of the mayors in NCR (National Capital Region) still want to be placed
under GCQ, but this will still depend on our discussions on Sunday,” Año told
a press briefing of the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 event in
Taguig City.
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Metro Manila mayors are scheduled to meet on Sept. 27 to discuss their

recommendation on the GCQ in National Capital Region set to end on Sept.
30.
“It is difficult that we rush [to implement a new quarantine status] then
suddenly we will regret it. There are two options: stricter MGCQ or less strict
GCQ. If you look into this, it is better for us to be placed under GCQ even if it
is less stringent, we have strict policies compared to a stricter MGCQ,” Año
said.
“Of course the No. 1 concern of our mayors is the safety of their constituents,”
he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier retained GCQ in Metro Manila while most of
the country were under the most lenient modified GCQ.
Longest lockdown, lost

opportunities: PH
COVID-19 cases go past
300,000
MANILA, Philippines — The country reached an undesirable milestone when

its total COVID-19 cases topped 300,000 on Saturday, nearly eight months to
the day since the country recorded its first infection in a visiting Chinese
woman.
With 2,747 new infections, the national total rose to 301,256, a reminder of
how the government is still grappling with how to stem the spread of the new
coronavirus virus that causes the severe respiratory disease.
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Despite the world’s longest lockdown, the country has not significantly
reduced the number of new COVID-19 cases.
In the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 22-member Western Pacific region,

it is only the Philippines that continues to report cases in the thousands daily.
Among the Philippines’ partners in the Association of Southeast Asian

Nations, Indonesia is the only other country seeing high numbers of infections.
Comparing countries
The Department of Health (DOH) says comparing countries’ successes or
failures in dealing with the pandemic should account for their varying health
systems, resources and populations.
But in an interconnected world, critics say they cannot be faulted for making
comparisons, seeing other countries proving to be more capable in handling
the pandemic.
At the onset, the DOH was unable to find even half of the 1,195 persons who
possibly came in contact with the three Chinese tourists from Wuhan who
were the first reported cases in the country.
When the first local case was confirmed on March 7, health offiials could not
explain how and where that elderly man who frequented Greenhills in San
Juan got the virus.
Acceleration
The outbreak accelerated rapidly. By the end of March, 2,084 were infected.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said the authorities lost the
best and earliest opportunity to catch those who had the virus before they
turned into severe cases or infected others at the time when majority of the
population was locked down.
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People with mild symptoms should have also been tested as it was then
easier to trace those with whom they had come into contact.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted the “efforts [at that
time] were not enough.”
“So now we are strengthening that,” she said.
It was only in August that active case finding became a high priority under the
Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) strategy. CODE provides
a stronger support to cities and municipalities which have big numbers of
cases or clusters but fewer resources like health personnel and quarantines.
The strategy is one of the “more efficient ways for localized lockdowns to
work” to avoid going back to strict quarantine, Vergeire said.
COVID CONTAINERS Taguig City opened on Saturday a quarantine made of
several shipping containers fitted with beds, air conditioners and toilets. A
molecular laboratory and a testing facility were also set up near the site. —
NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
Call for ‘timeout’
When Metro Manila came under the less strict general community quarantine
on June 1, it had over 18,000 cases. The number more than doubled to
37,000 by the end of the month.
The country went past the 100,000 mark on Aug. 2, a day after the call for a
“timeout.” On Aug. 26, the number of infections was over 200,000.
During that period, the rate of critical care utilization, or the use of hospital
wards, isolation areas, intensive care unit beds and mechanical ventilators for
COVID-19 patients, particularly in Metro Manila, peaked at 81 percent.
Currently, it is down to 54 percent.
DOH: Stay vigilant

But Vergeire warned against complacency whenever the health system
showed improvements.
“The virus is still here,” she said during Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing. “Let
us remain vigilant. We must always be aware and conscious.”
The Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) also reminded the public to

cooperate and follow health protocols. Controlling the spread of the disease
isn’t the responsibility solely of the authorities, it said.
“We cannot be complacent because if we do we may see another peak or

surge of COVID-19 cases. The fight is not yet over,” said Dr. Maricar Limpin,
PCP vice president.
She urged the public to continue wearing masks and face shields,
handwashing and maintaining physical distance of about 2 meters as they
were very effective preventive measures.
Medical experts and scientists also are continuing to insist that their voices be
heard as the health crisis persists.
In a statement last week ahead of the opening of the United Nations General
Assembly, the Lancet COVID-19 Commission stressed the need for
governments to listen to the medical community to effectively control the
spread of the virus.
At odds with science

“All countries should combat decisions based on rumormongering and
misinformation,” the statement said. “Leaders should desist from expressing
personal viewpoints that are at odds with science.”
The commission was launched in July to assist government, civil society and
the UN institutions to respond to the pandemic. The Lancet is a renowned
medical journal founded in 1823.
In the country, the Healthcare Professional Alliance Against COVID-19 said

various government task forces were now more frequently seeking advice
from health experts on key policies and how to improve the responses to the
pandemic.
“We are very thankful that that’s happening. That the voice of science is being
heard,” said Dr. Antonio Dans, spokesperson for the coalition of more than
160 medical societies.
The rise in the number of infections due to continued community transmission
mainly attributable to the failure to strictly follow the prescribed health
measures is reflected in the increased capacity of the country to conduct tests
for the new coronavirus.
From just one at the beginning of the pandemic, there are now 134
laboratories able to do more than 30,000 tests daily. The DOH reported that
as of Friday, 3,383,141 individuals had been tested for the virus.
Apparent slowdown
The additional cases reported on Saturday show an apparent slowdown in
new infections. There were only three times in September when daily cases
went beyond 4,000. There has been an average of 3,169 cases daily this
month.
Of the newest cases, 2,471 fell ill between Sept. 13 and Sept. 26, while 162
got sick between Sept. 1 and Sept. 12. Metro Manila still has the highest
number of infections with 1,115.
The recovery of 787 patients raised the number of survivors to 232,906.

However, the death toll rose to 5,284 after 88 patients succumbed to the
disease.
The recoveries and deaths leave the country with 63,066 active cases.
—With a report from Leila B. Salaverria
Tawi-Tawi hospital shut

down amid COVID-19
spread
72 medical front-liners, including 8 doctors, in Bongao health center positive for coronavirus
By: Chris Panganiban, Edwin Fernandez - @inquirerdotnet

COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao Philippines —Health officials in the
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have
ordered the shutdown of a government hospital in Bongao town, Tawi-Tawi
province, after 72 health-care providers, including eight doctors, contracted
the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Dr. Amirel Usman, acting regional health minister, approved the request of the
Integrated Provincial Health Office (Ipho) in Tawi-Tawi to temporarily close
Datu Halun Sakilan Memorial Hospital (DHSMH) after personnel attending to
COVID-19 patients in its isolation facility tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the
virus causing the disease.
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“[This is a] very alarming situation,” Usman said.
He said closing the hospital for other health services would help prevent the
spread of the virus. But the isolation center within the hospital compound will
continue to operate to attend to the health needs of 80 new infections.
Reassignment
Usman has also allowed Ipho and hospital authorities to temporarily reassign
health-care workers from other stations in the province to augment the
remaining personnel at DHSMH.
He directed Tawi-Tawi health officials to request the BARMM Ministry of

Health to send more doctors to the province. He also advised women who are
giving birth to go to barangay and rural health stations, and private lying-in
clinics as the hospital could not accommodate them.
Municipal health stations will assume other services of DHSMH, such as

consultations, outpatient department services and minor surgeries.
BARMM, Caraga cases

“If health-care workers fall victims to this outbreak, then we have shattered our
first and only line of defense against the pandemic. We need to support our
health-care workers with everything we’ve got before it’s too late,” said
BARMM lawmaker Eddie Mapag Alih, a member of the Bangsamoro
Transition Authority parliament, in a statement.
Tawi-Tawi, as of this week, had recorded 104 COVID-19 cases, with seven
deaths.
On Sunday, 29 new cases were reported in the BARMM, raising the total
number of COVID-19 infections in the region to 1,083.
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The region has 255 active cases and recorded 787 recoveries and 41 deaths.
In Caraga, the regional Department of Health’s Center for Health

Development (CHD) identified four towns and cities with new cases of local
virus transmission.
Sixteen of the 34 new cases on Saturday were reported in the towns of

Nasipit, Remedios T. Romualdez, Buenavista and the city of Cabadbaran in
Agusan del Norte province; San Francisco town in Agusan del Sur province;
and Surigao City.
CHD monitored a total of 560 cases of local transmission in the region, or 50

percent of the 1,125 COVID-19 cases in the region.
San Francisco Mayor Solomon Rufila placed at least three villages under
lockdown after an elderly couple was reported to have contracted COVID-19
from three health workers at a private hospital.
The town’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging

Infectious Diseases (IATF) on Saturday passed a resolution asking the
provincial IATF to revert its status from modified general community
quarantine to modified enhanced community quarantine to restrict the
movement of people as a measure to stop the spread of the disease.
Agusan del Sur Gov. Santiago Cane Jr. has canceled all meetings, training
and social gatherings. He asked government offices, and private and
nongovernmental organizations to suspend face-to-face meetings in their
workplaces.
Robredo urges gov’t to

plan vaccine deployment
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday urged the

government to start planning how to deploy the much-awaited coronavirus
vaccine, which President Rodrigo Duterte himself has been trumpeting as the
silver bullet that would end the pandemic.
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In her third national address since the global coronavirus pandemic, Robredo
laid down vaccine deployment as one of five new COVID-19
recommendations focusing on city governments and jobs creation.
“We agree that the vaccine is important—which is why it is not enough to

simply wait for it. As early as now, we have to prepare for its massive
deployment once it’s developed,” she said in her 16-minute address.
“Administering a vaccine to millions of Filipinos is no easy task—we need to
have a plan, the infrastructure, and a mechanism, that as much as possible
can be downloaded to the level of Barangay Health Units.”
As health experts have pointed out, the creation of a vaccine is only the
beginning of an arduous process to inoculate enough of the population to
achieve herd immunity.
Positivity rate
The Vice President noted that the budget for next year allotted only P2.5
billion for the vaccine. Based on the Department of Health’s own estimates,
this would be enough for only 3.8 million people or 3 percent of the country’s
population.
“What about the rest of the 100 million? As early as now, we need to focus
and prepare for the financial and other needs for the vaccine,” Robredo
added.
The Philippines could, for example, target by the end of October to achieve a
positivity rate of below 5 percent, and a virus reproduction rate below 1,
Robredo said.
“Other specific goals can be set for densely populated cities where the risk of
transmission is greater,” she noted.
The Vice President also urged the government to look at the best practices of
local government units, and give them ample support “based on the gravity of
the situation in their respective areas.”
Robredo suggested appropriating funds strategically to high-risk local

governments. In communities where there is no longer community
transmission, meanwhile, city governments can “start planning different ways
to resume face-to-face classes in accordance with health standards.”
She also proposed ramping up financial assistance mechanisms for small

businesses, and for the government to play a bigger role in jobs creation and
matchmaking for the pandemic’s displaced workers.
Hontiveros shows
‘evidence’ of overpriced
PPE
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros has identified 11 contracts that

the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) entered into in April and
May to procure millions of personal protective equipment (PPE) and defended
her allegation that the government bought them at an overprice.
Hontiveros cited the contracts in a statement on Tuesday to support her

findings, which she disclosed two weeks earlier, that the DBM bought PPE at
a “very conservative” overprice of P1 billion and called for an audit of COVID-
19 funds.
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She was also responding to remarks by Anakalusagan Rep. Michael Defensor

describing her allegations as baseless, saying she had no proof. Malacañang
had also challenged her to file charges if she had evidence.
“You want evidence? Here are 11 pieces. DBM should plainly explain these
contracts. They should not fool the people using false information. What we
need is clarity,” Hontiveros said.
Contract figures
Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, head of the Procurement
Service of the DBM (PS-DBM), had earlier denied the senator’s allegation and
said the government even saved P800 million from emergency PPE
purchases.
In a statement on Tuesday, he dismissed Hontiveros’ repeated allegation as

“absurd and nonsensical,” and claimed that it was “becoming political in
nature.”
Hontiveros said that of the 11 contracts amounting to P9.2 billion, four were
with local manufacturers and the rest with Chinese companies.
The cheapest set, or unit, of PPE was procured from Filipino company Hafid
N’ Erasmus Corp. in May, at P1,700 each. The DBM bought 30,000 units from
the company for P51 million.
A typical PPE set includes coveralls, masks, gloves, head cover, shoe cover,
goggles and a surgical gown.
The highest-priced PPE came from Xuzhou Const. Machinery Group Imp. and
Exp. Co. Ltd., which offered it at P2,000 per unit in April. The DBM purchased
250,000 from the Chinese company for P446.43 million. But Xuzhou grabbed
a second contract for 1 million units at P1,898 each, for a total of about P1.9
billion.
But the biggest contract went to the Filipino-owned Pharmally Pharmaceutical

Corp., which provided 2 million PPE at P1,910 each, for a P3.82-billion
contract. The others that bagged the PPE contracts were Nikka Trading and
Wamrus Trading, both local; and Chinese companies Wen Hua Dev’t
Industrial Co., Ltd. (two contracts totaling about P1.45 billion), Chushen
Company Ltd.; Pacific Field (Hong Kong) Ltd., and Shanghai Puheng Medical
Equipment Co. Ltd.Hontiveros earlier said the average estimated cost of the
PPE by the Philippine General Hospital was P1,200 to P1,500.
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Why Chinese companies?

She questioned the DBM’s decision to procure the PPE from Chinese
companies. According to her, the department could not say that local
companies did not have the capability to produce PPE.
Hontiveros said that as early as Feb. 6, Bataan company Medtex said it could
produce 2 million face masks a month. It has a sister company producing
PPE, she added.
“Why did the DBM not negotiate with companies like them? Why did it turn to
foreign companies first?” she said.
Hontiveros also said the Department of Health initiated a price freeze from
March 23 to April 13 for supplies needed for COVID-19 response.
This means that the components of the procured PPE sets should only have
cost a maximum total of P945 at that time, she said.
Of the 11 contracts, three came in the same time period as the price freeze,
meaning one PPE set should have cost a little less than P1,000 if procured
from local companies, Hontiveros said.
“But no, DBM opted to transact with Chinese firms. If you think about it, the
P1-billion overpricing is highly conservative,” she added.
Congressional oversight
Hontiveros also responded to Defensor who said the Aquino administration, to
whom the senator was closely allied, had purchased PPE at a higher price.
She said that if the previous administration had purchased higher priced PPE,
then it should be investigated and charged, but that would not stop her from
questioning the actions of the current administration.
“As senator during the current administration, I am simply exercising our

congressional oversight. We saw something wrong, which is why we are
questioning it,” Hontiveros said.
Lao issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the office of Hontiveros had
not responded to the PS-DBM’s request for a copy of the basis of her findings.
“Our office operates with utmost transparency and we have cooperated for
any request of inquiry. However, we are distressed as this issue on PPE
procurement has become political in nature. Our interest is transparency and
not politics,” he said.
“It has been often said that reiteration of a baseless allegation does not make
it legitimate—it only makes the allegation absurd and nonsensical. We at the
PS-DBM stand by our previous expression of facts.”
—With a report from Ben O. de Vera
OCTOBER-REVISED
Metro Manila mayors
eyeing more relaxed
quarantine in November
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:38 AM October 01, 2020
MANILA, Philippines — Quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila could be

relaxed by November if the current downward trend in COVID-19 cases
continues and residents consistently follow health measures, according to
Metro Manila Council Chair Edwin Olivarez.
Metro Manila, composed of 16 cities and one municipality, remains under

general community quarantine (GCQ) until the end of October. It has the
highest number of COVID-19 cases and has been under some form of
quarantine since mid-March to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
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Olivarez, who is also mayor of Parañaque City, on Wednesday noted that the
number of cases had been going down and the recovery rate was more than
90 percent in some parts of the metropolis. He gave no figures showing the
decline in the number of infections and recoveries.
If this continues and people follow health rules, Metro Manila may be placed
under the more relaxed modified GCQ by November if the President allows it,
he said.
“Our strategy is to continue to implement health protocols. Our [local

governments] continue to implement the wearing of face shields and face
masks, social distancing and the improvement of critical care,” he said in a
news briefing.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday said the average

number of new cases per week nationwide had gone down to less than half—
from 3,000 to 1,000-1,200. No average weekly figures for Metro Manila were
immediately available from the health department.
Local officials are working to improve hospitals and services so that medical
workers would not be overwhelmed, Olivarez said.
But in the meantime, Metro Manila needs to remain under general community
quarantine despite the downward trend in cases, Olivarez said.
“Local government[s] are concerned that if we relax restrictions or if we

increase the operational capacity of businesses, of public utility vehicles, we
might have a spike in cases. So the Metro Manila Council thinks we need
another 30 days for GCQ,” he said.
Reopening economy
The lockdown has shrunk the economy and has led to a rise in hunger and
joblessness. Officials and business leaders are trying to find ways to revive
commerce without compromising people’s health.
Olivarez said he and the other mayors would be discussing the possibility of
lifting the curfew in Metro Manila in their next meeting “so that we could
reopen the economy.”
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Curfew
Currently, Metro Manila has a curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. But cities have also
allowed food delivery services to operate for 24 hours.
Olivarez was not receptive to the proposal of the Department of Trade and
Industry to allow businesses currently operating at 50-percent capacity to fully
reopen even under GCQ. He explained that the number of people allowed in
commercial areas and establishments was still controlled in towns and cities.
He also defended the decision of the national government to appoint Cabinet

members as overseers of cities and provinces with a high number of COVID-
19 cases. That move by the administration has been criticized as
micromanagement of local governments by Malacañang.
But the Parañaque mayor said the appointment of Cabinet members was a
big help as they served as bridges to the national government, making
coordination easier.
“If the local government needs something, there is a focal person who acts as
a big brother to us to assist us with our needs,” he said.
How much should

COVID-19 tests cost?
DOH surveys market
The Department of Health (DOH) is doing market surveys to set affordable

prices for coronavirus tests, including the real-time polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) test that it considers the “gold standard” in determining infection
with the COVID-19 agent.
“We have already instructed our concerned offices to do the preparations like
survey the price range of different testing methods currently on the market,”
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told an online briefing on
Thursday.
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Vergeire said the study would enable the DOH to issue specific guidelines in
case the Office of the President approves the health agency’s
recommendation for caps on the prices of coronavirus tests.
Price ceilings
Earlier, the DOH submitted a proposal to Malacañang for the issuance of an
executive order that would set ceilings for the prices of coronavirus tests, after
the agency had observed that the prices of tests in laboratories and hospitals
varied.
The proposal won support from the medical community, which said current
prices were beyond the reach of the poor. Doctors said it was unfair that
people who could pay for tests got the results within hours, while the poor had
to wait for weeks before they could get the results of their tests.
The DOH considers the PCR test the best for determining infection with
SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory ailment
COVID-19. But its price in public and private laboratories ranges from P1,500
to P19,000.
In its revised benefit package, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. pays only up
to P3,409 if all the services for the testing were done by the laboratory or
hospital.
Vergeire said the DOH had yet to complete the guidelines for the use of
different tests for the COVID-19 virus.
“It has been stalled,” she said. The guidelines were supposed to have been
issued on Sept. 11 but that the agency was still studying how the controversial
antigen test could be used.
Earlier, the World Health Organization said the antigen test could not be used
in specific circumstances, causing “a sudden change in the recommendation”
of DOH experts, Vergeire said.
She said an antigen trial should be completed first before the guidelines could
be released. The trial is being carried out in Baguio City.
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RICH MAN’S TEST The real-time polymerase chain reaction test for the new
coronavirus costs P1,500 to P19,000 at public and private laboratories. The
Department of Health is doing a market survey to bring the price of the test
within the reach of poor COVID-19 patients. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
Saliva test
Vergeire said experts were also evaluating other tests, including the saliva
test.
The Philippine Red Cross and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine are
looking into the use of saliva test to detect the coronavirus, she said.
There are 105 PCR testing laboratories and 33 Genexpert labs in the country
that have tested 3.5 million people, the DOH said.
314,079 cases
On Thursday, the DOH reported 2,415 additional coronavirus infections,
raising the overall number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 314,079.
Of the new cases identified by 138 accredited laboratories, 930 were from
Metro Manila, 238 from Cavite, 128 from Rizal, 123 from Laguna, and 103
from Negros Occidental.
The DOH said 771 more patients had recovered, bringing the total number of
COVID-19 survivors in the country to 254,223. It said, however, that 59 more
patients had died, raising the death toll to 5,562.
That left the country with 54,294 active cases, of which 86.6 percent were
mild, 9.0 percent asymptomatic, 1.4 percent severe, and 3.1 percent critical.
DOH cites ‘improved’

COVID handling; PH 20th
highest in global case
tallies
The country’s health system has “improved tremendously” in the last six
months and led to better management of the coronavirus infection, the
Department of Health (DOH) maintained on Friday, despite the Philippines’
20th ranking among countries with the highest number of new coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) cases.
The latest global data by various monitoring agencies—including Johns

Hopkins University and Bloomberg.com—shows the Philippines with 316,678
cases, outpacing Pakistan’s 21st ranking with 313,431 cases and trailing
Italy’s 19th ranking with 317,409 cases.
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The United States still has the highest number of cases with 7,278,384,
followed by India, Brazil, Russia and Colombia.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said it was important to

consider, when looking at the data, how many of the cases were active.
Wider coverage
“We have to focus on the active cases, and not the cumulative number of
cases,” she said. “When we look at our active cases, our recovery rate, case
fatality rate and our health system capacity, we can see that we have
improved and we think that we are able to keep up with our response for
COVID-19.”
The country’s recovery rate was at least 80 percent, while its case fatality rate
remained stable at less than 2 percent, Vergeire said.
Vergeire also said government efforts in contact tracing have become “more
efficient” —although she also said there was room for improvement,
particularly among the local governments.
With regard to testing capacity, “Our response has greatly improved

compared to before,” she said.
Vergeire also pointed out the wider coverage of hospital treatment. “By now,
we have already expanded our units in our hospitals. It really helped that the
private sector worked with us and they, too, expanded their units. It’s
important that we look at our health system capacity, aside from the
numbers,” she said.
“We might be in the Top 20 among all of the countries in the world with the
[highest] number of cases, but when we look at our health system, it has
improved tremendously. There was a time when patients had to wait outside
the hospitals [or] weren’t able to reach the hospitals,” Vergeire said.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque

said the country had improved in its response to the pandemic.
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“We have learned from the past and we know how to take care of COVID-19
patients better,” he said.
An additional 2,611 cases were recorded on Friday, which pushed the current
national tally to 316,678.
Of the newly reported cases, 2,150 got sick between Sept. 19 and Oct. 2,
while 359 fell ill between Sept. 1 and Sept. 18.
Metro Manila accounted for the most number of new infections with 1,084,
followed by Cavite (202), Iloilo (182), Bulacan (163) and Rizal (132).
There are now a total of 254,617 patients who have recovered from COVID-
19 with the recovery of 416.
The death toll, however, climbed to 5,616 after 56 patients succumbed to the
Of the newly reported deaths, 43 died in September, six in August, five in July,
and one each in May and April.
Twenty-two of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, seven from Central
Visayas, seven from Calabarzon, six from Central Luzon, four from Bicol, two
each from Cagayan Valley, Western Visayas and Northern Mindanao, and
one each from Zamboanga, Davao, Soccsksargen and Caraga.
The recoveries and deaths leave the country with 56,445 active cases, of
which 87 percent are mild, 8.8 percent asymptomatic, 1.3 percent severe and
2.9 percent critical. As of Oct. 1, more than half of all ward, isolation and
intensive care beds in the country remain unoccupied, while only 24 percent
of the more than 2,200 mechanical ventilators are in use.
In Metro Manila, 53 percent of the 1,800 ward beds, 52 percent of the 4,100
isolation beds, and 55 percent of the 745 intensive care beds are occupied.
A total 3,558,535 persons have been tested for COVID-19 by the 138
accredited laboratories, as of Friday noon. —WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE
M. AURELIO
WHO coronavirus
vaccine trials to cost P89
million – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — The government expects to spend P89 million in

hosting the World Health Organization (WHO)-led Solidarity Trials but the cost
of the potential COVID-19 vaccine will be shouldered by the global health
agency, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the amount was the
country’s small contribution to help in the worldwide effort to find an effective
COVID-19 vaccine.
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She pointed out that the Philippines will pay for operational expenses like
transportation, cold chain and laboratory supplies, such as the protective gear
that will be used for the trial that would likely start in December.
“This also includes the payment for the personnel who will conduct the clinical
tests and monitor the patients,” Vergeire said.
Earlier, Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said that 12
hospitals were identified as trial sites, with the Philippine General Hospital as
the main project implementer.
Vergeire stressed that it is important for the country to participate in the WHO
trials and not just wait for pharmaceutical firms to complete their research.
“We cannot just rely on a few pharmaceutical companies to search for an

effective COVID-19 vaccine, especially that most countries are already racing
to secure their doses,” she said.
At least 34 vaccines are being studied for inclusion in the WHO trials.
According to Dela Peña, participants in the trial may be chosen from the five
to 10 barangays with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
As of Saturday, the DOH reported 2,674 new cases, pushing the national tally
to 319,330, 58,606 of which are active cases.
Metro Manila accounted for a little over a third of the new infections at 1,046,
followed by Cavite (257), Rizal (165), Batangas (137) and Laguna (121).
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The total number of COVID-19 survivors rose to 255,046 with the recovery of
459 more patients. However, the death toll climbed to 5,678 as 62 patients
A total 3,602,725 patients have been tested by the 138 accredited

laboratories, as of Saturday noon.
Robredo pushes for in-

person classes in
COVID-19 low-risk areas
MANILA, Philippines — As the country’s public school system began its

distance and blended learning system on Monday, Vice President Leni
Robredo again urged the Department of Education to consider in-person
classes in areas where there were no more coronavirus community
transmissions.
This developed as her office fielded concerns from teachers worried about the
immense, often expensive, workload brought about by online classes.
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In her weekly Sunday talk show, Robredo said it was possible for some areas
with no community transmissions to hold in-person classes at least twice a
week to accommodate core competencies like reading, math and science.
Based on Department of Health data, she said, around 400 areas across the
country fit the bill.
“So maybe it would be easier for them to devise a design for face-to-face
classes, even if not every day, so long as there are students who go to class,”
she said.
Robredo noted that several teachers still had no access to gadgets or stable
internet signal. This means that most of the 24 million public school students
will opt for modular instructions. INQ
Cluster infections
recorded in Pangasinan,
Davao work sites
STA. BARBARA, PANGASINAN—At least 119 workers of a brewery here

have contracted the coronavirus and have been confined in the town’s
isolation centers, including the plaza where tents have been put up in
response to the surging cases.
Mayor Joel delos Santos said the brewery plant in Barangay Tebag West had
stopped operations due to the infections. The village has been placed on
lockdown for 14 days, along with Maticmatic, Carusocan, Ventinill, and
Banaoang where some residents have also been infected by the virus.
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Health officials were also closely monitoring two more villages for possible rise
in virus transmission.
The infections at the brewery were detected after the mass swab testing of its
536 employees and contractual workers between Sept. 29 and Sept. 30.
12 establishments
In the Davao region, 50 new coronavirus cases were reported in at least 12
workplaces, prompting authorities to tighten health protocols, said Dr. Lenny
Joy Rivera, assistant regional director of the Department of Health.
While clustering of cases used to be rampant only in villages, easing the
region’s quarantine measures to revive the economy also brought about the
clustering of new cases in the workplaces, Rivera said.
She said health authorities had been working closely with the Department of
Labor and Employment and the local governments to ensure that health
protocols were strictly followed.
Hazard pay
In Subic Bay Freeport, workers in the front-line and essential services of the
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) recently received P22.73 million in
hazard pay for reporting for work during the enhanced community quarantine.
Most of those who received the pay were security officers and firefighters who
were on field assignments at a time when most employees worked from
home, said Wilma Eisma, SBMA chair and administrator. —REPORTS FROM
YOLANDA SOTELO, JUDY QUIROS AND JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT INQ
WHO lauds ‘proactive’

PH but notes delays in
contact tracing, isolation

‘DONE A LOT’ Health workers prepare to test residents of Baseco Compound
in Tondo, Manila, for coronavirus infection on Tuesday. The World Health
Organization says the Philippines has “done a lot” to control the spread of the
virus, but there are areas of the government’s response that need to be
improved. —GRIG C.MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — While it lauded the Philippines for its efforts to
suppress the spread of the new coronavirus, the World Health Organization
(WHO) said on Tuesday there were still areas of the response that needed to
be improved for the country to effectively contain the outbreak.
WHO country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe recognized that the

government had already “done a lot” to control the spread of the virus since
the first local case was detected in March. These include putting in place
measures for early diagnosis, contact tracing, and isolating and quarantining
of close contacts.
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Room for improvement

“The Philippine government is very proactive in the enforcement of the
nonpharmaceutical interventions and in ensuring that there are mobility
restrictions,” Abeyasinghe said in a briefing.
“[B]ut there’s still room for improvement on the harmonized speedy contract
tracing and management of close contacts and early isolation of positives.
Delays in doing this have resulted in more secondary cases happening and
more secondary transmission occurring,” he added.
The WHO official, however, pointed out that the government was already
dealing with this by putting in place measures to strengthen these areas,
that’s why the country is now seeing a gradual decline in new cases.
Earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that while the
country’s COVID-19 response had improved, she noted certain areas that
needed to be refined, such as contact tracing, where there is a need to better
identify the close contacts of a patient.
“For us, we want local governments to trace as much of the first-level

contacts,” she said.
A close contact is someone who had face-to-face interaction with a probable

or confirmed case within a meter and for more than 15 minutes as well as
those who cared for a probable or confirmed case without wearing the
appropriate protective gear.
Tracing the contacts of positive cases is the responsibility of the Department

of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). To effectively trace these close
contacts, the DILG hired an initial 10,136 tracers out of the 50,000 allotted to it
under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.
Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said on Monday the new recruits

would be deployed to their localities this week.
Half of WesPac cases

On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 2,093 additional
infections, pushing the overall number of confirmed cases to 326,833. The
Philippines’ total number of cases accounts for half of the recorded cases in
the 23-member WHO Western Pacific region, which includes China where the
SARS-CoV-2 virus originated.
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Metro Manila accounted for a little over a quarter of the new cases, 557,
followed by Cavite (253), Iloilo (166), Bulacan (124) and Batangas (118). The
majority of the newly infected, or 1,741, got sick between Sept. 23 and Oct. 6,
while 221 fell ill between Sept. 1 and 22.
The slightly lower number of new cases, however, may have been due to the
failure of 20 laboratories to submit their data to the DOH on time.
of COVID-19 survivors to 273,313. But the death toll climbed to 5,865 with the
Of the newly reported deaths, nine died this month, 15 in September and one
in August. Nine of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, six from Calabarzon,
three from Caraga, and one each from Central Luzon, Bicol, Central Visayas,
Zamboanga, Northern Mindanao and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao.
The residence of one of the fatalities has yet to be verified.
85.6 percent were mild, 9.5 percent asymptomatic, 1.6 percent severe and 3.4
percent critical.
A total of 3,711,021 people have been tested for the coronavirus by the 141
accredited laboratories. The Philippine Red Cross said in a statement that its
21 laboratories accounted for at least a million of the tests conducted.
Red Cross eyes cheaper,

faster COVID-19 test

CUTTING COSTS A Red Cross worker takes a swab sample of a patient at
the Philippine Red Cross laboratory in Mandaluyong City in April. —
INQUIRER PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is working with two
universities on a saliva test for COVID-19 that will not only be faster but also
cheaper.
In a Laging Handa public briefing on Tuesday, Red Cross chair Sen. Richard
Gordon said they were experimenting with the use of reagents that could be
used to test three samples, which means lower costs for swab testing.
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“We are studying a reagent which can test up to three (samples). We are
working on a new saliva test with the University of Illinois and the University of
the Philippines with faster results,” he said.
According to Gordon, “once we get the permits from the Department of Health
on the saliva test, the costs will go down. It’s already with the expert panel for
approval. We have to expedite that.”
“In our regular COVID-19 testing, we can lessen the reagent. Doctors told me
it’s still good. The dilution can have a 1:3 ratio, so one reagent can possibly be
used to test three. Divide the P3,500 or P4,000 by three, the costs would
reach P1,500 or P2,000,” he said.
A swab test conducted by the PRC currently costs around P4,000, still
relatively cheaper than those done in private hospitals, which can go up to as
high as P9,000 for faster results. Hospitals and laboratories that use donated
machines and test kits charge around P1,750 to P2,000 per swab test.
The PRC has 10 molecular laboratories to validate the samples. These are
located in Mandaluyong City, Manila, Clark in Pampanga, Subic Bay
Metropolitan Authority in Zambales, Batangas City, Mandaue City in Cebu,
Bacolod City and Zamboanga City.
Other laboratories will also be opened in Isabela, Surigao del Norte, Antique,
Quezon and Laguna.
Gordon assured the public that the PRC’s medical technologists were well-
trained and very careful in collecting swab samples amid reports that a patient
in the United States ended up with injuries to her brain lining after a swab test.
“I don’t think it’s [going to] happen here because we are very, very careful with
Red Cross. We have not encountered any incidents. They only complain of
itchy noses afterwards,” he said.
Over 1M tests conducted

According to Gordon, the PRC has conducted 1,003,754 PCR tests, the
highest in the country, followed by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine
and the Chinese General Hospital.
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“It’s not a competition, but I use this to give my people a pat on the back. The
truth is we work with everybody, the government and other institutions so we
can fight COVID-19 and finally eradicate it in our country,” he said.
Those who want to book and pay for a swab test to be conducted by the PRC
can go to its website https://book.redcross1158.com/index.php/book-a-swab-
test.
Virus spreads in Davao,
De Oro jails
By: Carmelito Francisco, Froilan Gallardo - @inquirerdotnet
DAVAO CITY—Infections among detainees in the cities of Cagayan de Oro

and Davao are the latest clusters of COVID-19 cases that have emerged in
Mindanao in the past few days, police and health officials said.
Police Col. Kirby John Kraft, Davao City police chief, said detainees in the
city’s 12 police stations were tested for the coronavirus but only specimens
from those held at Police Station 8 in Toril District came out positive.
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Police Maj. Michael Uyanguren, commander of the Toril police station, said 30
of 43 detainees had the virus. The rest have been isolated, he said.
Lockdown
Uyanguren said police were still clueless on how the virus got into the
detention cell, noting that the detainees had been subjected to rapid
diagnostic tests before detention.
Kraft said the Toril police station had been put on lockdown to contain the
spread of the disease. He said 14 personnel, including the investigator and jail
guards, at the police station were quarantined.
The rest of the 91 station personnel who were not exposed to the detainees
were assigned to patrol the streets.
“Let me assure the public that our law enforcement work continues and will
not be affected by the lockdown,” Kraft said.
In Cagayan de Oro City, 28 detainees awaiting entry into a jail in Lumbia

village contracted the virus.
Dr. Joselito Retuya, epidemiologist at the city health office, said the detainees
were staying in a holding area while awaiting results of their COVID-19 tests,
a standard procedure by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology which
runs the facility.
Holding area
Retuya said the holding area was cramped, making them vulnerable to the
But he said the detainees could have been infected at police precinct cells
where they stayed while waiting for court orders for admission to the city jail.
Retuya, however, said there was a “slim chance” for the 28 detainees to infect
others because they had been isolated at a city government-run facility.
7 inmates of Northern
Samar jail test positive
for COVID-19
By: Joey Gabieta - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:51 PM October 10, 2020
TACLOBAN CITY – At least seven inmates at the Northern Samar Jail in

Laoang town have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Laoang Mayor Harris Ongchuan said the facility was immediately placed
under lockdown hours after the result was announced by the Department of
Health (DOH) on Friday night.
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Rei Josiah Echano, head of the Northern Samar Provincial Disaster Risk
Reduction Management Office, said it is not yet clear how the inmates were
infected.
“The local task force is still investigating the possible source of the infection
inside the sub-provincial jail,” he said.
Echano said those who tested positive were immediately placed in isolation.
Gov. Edwin Ongchuan also distributed vitamins to all the inmates and jail
guards of the facility.
The Laoang sub provincial jail currently holds 180 prisoners and has over 80
jail guards.
Meanwhile, the Dr. Gregorio B. Tan Memorial Hospital in Laoang was also
closed to the public since Friday after one of its patients turned out positive for
COVID-19 and could have exposed its health workers and other patients.
The public hospital will be disinfected and will resume its operations on
October 13.
Northern Samar now has 171 cases of COVID-19 with one death.
How a reenacted budget

can cripple COVID
response
MANILA, Philippines — A reenacted budget in 2021 will exact a “huge” toll on

the economy and the government’s coronavirus response to the tune of P1.23
trillion in forgone infrastructure spending and P67 billion in unfunded programs
to manage the pandemic, according to economist and Marikina Rep. Stella
Luz Quimbo.
This could be the grim scenario that President Duterte wanted to avoid when
he called a special session of Congress to pass the P4.5-trillion General
Appropriations Bill (GAB), which the political turbulence in the House of
Representatives was threatening to delay.
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The specter of a reenacted budget continues to haunt the government after

experiencing its ravages in the first quarter of 2019 when state spending fell
by P75 billion from lost opportunities to fund new public works projects. That
resulted in sluggish growth in the first half of last year.
The reenactment of the 2018 spending law resulted from a disagreement over
the 2019 budget between the House and the Senate. This time, it could result
from a disagreement over who should be Speaker of the House.
Stella Luz Quimbo —PHCC PHOTO

‘Consequence is death’
While the President might take a personal interest in the leadership dispute in
the 300-member House, politics could only take a backseat to what’s at stake
for the distressed economy.
“The consequence is death,” said Quimbo, a doctor of economics from the

University of the Philippines specializing in health.
The minority lawmaker pored through the 2021 GAB and the administration’s
National Expenditure Program to determine the economic costs of reverting to
the 2020 budget.
Her findings, shared exclusively with the Inquirer, showed a startling impact.
“If the 2020 budget is reenacted in 2021, that means forgone spending of
P1.23 trillion, or about 6 percent of the 2019 GDP (gross domestic product),”
Quimbo said.
The government would be spending only for personnel services and

maintenance and other operating expenses, forgoing capital outlays.
Immediate fallout
The immediate fallout from a reenacted budget would be a severely
weakened government effort to stem the pandemic.
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Up to P67.06 billion set aside for responding to the health and economic crisis
caused by COVID-19 would be forgone, Quimbo said.
She said 18 programs or budgetary items would lose funds devoted to

pandemic response under the following eight sectors: health, agriculture,
education, livelihood and worker support, tourism, information and
communication technology connectivity, emergency subsidies and social
protection.
By her reckoning, at least P18.81 billion in COVID-19-specific items under the

Department of Health (DOH) would be lost. That includes P6.63 billion from
the P16.58 billion allocated in 2021 for the deployment of 23,364 health
personnel, including doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, dieticians, medical
technologists and physical therapists.
Vaccine purchase
The DOH’s 2021 budget sets three major priorities, foremost of which is the
implementation of the Universal Health Care Act and COVID-19 initiatives with
a funding of P51.99 billion.
About P13.03 billion was set aside specifically for “COVID-19 Initiatives and
Health System Resilience,” including extra funding for the national
immunization fund, which was increased by P3 billion from P7.54 billion in
2020 to P10 billion in 2021.
Of that amount, P2.5 billion was earmarked for future purchase of COVID-19
vaccines for distribution to medical front-liners in public hospitals, jail and
prison officers, education and social welfare workers, police and military
personnel and senior citizens.
An item for prevention and control of other infectious diseases was also raised
by P3 billion—P2.67 billion for personal protective equipment and P1.03 billion
for GeneXpert COVID-19 cartridges to be used for coronavirus tests.
Flexible learning program

Other COVID-19-related programs that could be orphaned under a reenacted
budget include the Department of Education’s Flexible Learning Program,
which was increased from P600 million in 2020 to P15.2 billion in 2021, and
its Computerization Program, which was raised by P4.18 billion in response to
the distance learning requirements of the pandemic.
Various programs under the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole)

could also be crippled. These include its emergency employment program
under Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers
(Tupad), livelihood support under COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program
(CAMP), assistance for overseas Filipino workers under Abot Kamay Ang
Pagtulong (Akap) and the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration’s
emergency repatriation program.
A separate fund called Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations could lose

P3.32 billion.
All told, the new items or fresh infusions to existing ones under the Dole would
amount to more than P10 billion.
Hurting economy again

Quimbo said a reenacted budget meant that there won’t be any spending on
new infrastructure projects, which would hurt the economy again.
The total infrastructure budget for 2021 is P1.1 trillion, up from P989 billion in
2020. Under budget laws, however, the government can only use the unspent
money outlayed in 2020, not the entire allocation, if the budget were
reenacted.
“For example, if 10 percent of P989 billion was unfinished in 2020, then only
P9.89 billion can be spent for infrastructure projects,” Quimbo said.
She said that appropriations for completed projects “can end up as savings,
which the President can use to augment other items.” But determining that
amount was not so “straightforward” as certain conditions had to be met, she
added.
Other potential losses

The Department of Tourism, according to Quimbo, also stands to lose P4.68
billion in extra funding for its Convergence Program for Tourism Development.
Another P10.1 billion for a new item called “Social Protection Programs due to
COVID-19 pandemic” would also be left unfunded.
Despite such a grim prospect, Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin is not worried about a
reenacted budget because, first of all, she does not believe the 2020 budget
will be reenacted.
“Being a former senior deputy majority leader and being a member of the
committee on rules for my first nine years in Congress and currently a
member of the rules committee again representing the minority, [I believe] the
passage of the budget within the year is doable,” she told the Inquirer.
Focus on oversight powers

Garin, who served as health secretary under the Aquino administration, said it
was more important to focus on Congress’ oversight powers in relation to
public spending and to “check whether allocations for COVID-19 response are
being spent on the ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants.’”
She said the money for the COVID-19 pandemic was “already sufficient.”
“Pandemic response should incorporate recovery and living the new normal.
This entails support to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), job
provision, capitalization, support for maintenance medicines, as many people
lost their jobs,” Garin said.
Students overwhelmed
by tasks under ‘new
normal’ way of learning
TUTORING Victor Torres of Tondo, Manila, helps his grandson, Grade 2

student John Audrey Bucog, with his online lessons. —GRIG C.
MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — Just three days after classes opened last week, Lolit
Arasola heard her daughter, Ariane, a Grade 9 public school student in
General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite province, weeping in the middle of the night.
“At first, she would not tell me why she was crying. But after a while, she told
me that she was afraid she would not be able to finish her requirements in
time for collection the next day, or that the teacher would not accept them,”
Arasola told the Inquirer on Sunday.
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The 59-year-old mother of five said she later learned that her daughter was
expected to finish within a week three weeks’ worth of homework for her
entrepreneurship class.
Ariane was among the scores of students who found themselves

overwhelmed and overworked under the new way of learning due to COVID-
19, with in-person classes indefinitely banned.
While her daily school schedule was from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., classes often
extended into the evening, with Ariane forced to skip meals just so she could
finish her modules in time for submission the next day.
Arasola said that based on the schedule printed on Ariane’s modules,

students were expected to learn and comprehend within a day lessons usually
taught in school for a week.
“I told her to do only what she can and to not to be scared. If her teacher
scolds her because of homework, then she should leave it to me. It pains [my
husband and I] to see her like this,” said Arasola, a sari-sari store owner
married to a jeepney driver.
She added that she had asked her other daughter, a Grade 12 student, to
help Ariane answer the modules.
“I can clearly see that my daughter is sincere in her studies. But the
requirements really are too much even for her,” Arasola said.
According to her, the class schedules and requirements could not be changed
even with consultation with Ariane’s teachers, adding that any adjustments to
the modules was up to the Department of Education (DepEd).
Further fueling her fears was the news about a student who committed suicide
after a teacher rejected his unfinished module, as well as “pressure and
difficulty” in using the learning materials.
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The DepEd, however, said that according to the student’s relatives, he had
been experiencing episodes of depression a month before the country was
locked down due to COVID-19.
“This [was] a very sad incident and that’s the reason why we [have]
psychosocial programs in place,” June Arvin Gudoy, DepEd public service
affairs director, told reporters.
The DepEd said there were webinars and psychosocial interventions available
on its social media pages to deal with stress among teachers, parents and
students.
At a recent press conference, Ronilda Co, education director for disaster risk
reduction and management services, said the DepEd was creating a referral
system to “link” students and teachers to institutions that would handle mental
health concerns.
She added that weekly webinars also discussed ways to ease mental and
emotional stress among students when accomplishing tasks, as well as
“mental prayers” that could provide a boost.
Even Education Secretary Leonor Briones herself acknowledged the problem

and assured the public they were working with mental health professionals to
find solutions. INQ
DOH issues guidelines

on enclosed spaces
during pandemic

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) issued new
guidelines on Monday on good ventilation and proper air circulation in
enclosed spaces, amid the continuing threat of the coronavirus pandemic.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that with the updated
guidelines, the public can put in place administrative and engineering controls
that would minimize the risk of one being infected should experts definitively
determine that the new coronavirus can be transmitted through the air.
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“While there is yet conclusive evidence of airborne transmission, [the] DOH is

already recommending that we make sure that there is proper ventilation in
enclosed spaces, like workplaces, restrooms and vehicles,” Vergeire said.
Under Department Memorandum No. 2020-0429, signed by Health Secretary

Francisco Duque III on Thursday last week, activities are
recommended to be held in open-air spaces. If this cannot be done, “opening

windows and doors should be put into practice to facilitate the flow of outdoor
air into space.”
Vergeire said the public should avoid sitting directly in the air flow coming from
electric fans and air conditioners, especially in hot weather.
Exhaust fans, car vents

“Electric fans and air-conditioning units may facilitate transmission of the virus
if it directs air from infected individuals to others in the room,” the
memorandum read.
For public restrooms, Vergeire said exhaust fans should be installed and kept
open continuously as much as possible.
Cars, particularly those used for public transport, should “avoid using the
recirculated air option.”
“Utilize the car’s vents to bring in fresh outside air and/or lower the vehicle
windows,” the DOH said.
‘Special circumstances’
Vergeire said that the guidelines may be adjusted depending on the needs of
the area, and in consultation with heating and ventilation experts.
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The DOH guidelines came a week after the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) of the United States said airborne transmission of the
SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, “can occur under special
circumstances.”
These include enclosed spaces where an infected person has been or where
susceptible people have gone after the infected person has left and areas with
inadequate ventilation that allow a buildup of suspended small respiratory
droplets and particles.
Still, the CDC said that based on available data, the new coronavirus is mainly
transmitted through respiratory droplets since if it were primarily airborne,
“experts would expect to have observed considerably more rapid global
spread of infection in early 2020 and higher percentages of prior infection
measured by serosurveys.”
Virus case update

On Monday, the DOH logged an additional 3,564 new cases, bringing the
nationwide total to 342,816. Of the newly infected, 3,197 got sick between
Sept. 29 and Oct. 12, while 304 fell ill between Sept. 1 and 28.
Metro Manila still has the most number of new cases, 1,344, followed by
Cavite (215), Laguna (212), Rizal (211), and Iloilo (164).
There are now a total of 293,152 COVID-19 survivors with the recovery of 150
more patients. The death toll, however, rose to 6,332 as 11 patients
Of the newly reported deaths, eight died this month, two in August and one in
July. Four of the fatalities were from Davao, three from Calabarzon, two from
Ilocos, and one each from Northern Mindanao and Caraga.
83.9 percent are mild, 10.8 percent asymptomatic, 1.7 percent severe and 3.6
percent critical.
The DOH said the country’s 10.03 percent positivity rate still “needs
improvement” as it was still double the less than 5 percent benchmark of the
World Health Organization.
As of Monday noon, a total of 3,914,643 patients had been tested for COVID-
19 by the 145 accredited laboratories.
Health execs want

MGCQ for Cebu City
until December
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — While cases of COVID-19 in this city have
significantly dropped in the past weeks, local health officials are not letting
their guard down.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson for the Department of Health (DOH) in
Central Visayas, said she wanted the city’s modified general community
quarantine (MGCQ) status extended until the middle of December. The city’s
possible easing into the “new normal” classification in the next couple of
months could lead to complacency among Cebuanos, she said.
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“We would not want another surge to happen here when we’re having
Christmas. So we recommend that it would be better for Cebu City to extend
its MGCQ (status) up to mid-December so that we would be able to enjoy a
safer Christmas,” Loreche said.
She said the city’s critical care utilization had gone down to less than 15
percent as of Sunday, but she feared that people might turn
complacent.“We’re already under MGCQ, but we still see people not wearing
their masks. If we proceed to the new normal after two months, we might
forget that the virus is still here,” she said.
On June 16, Cebu City was placed under enhanced community quarantine
(ECQ), the strictest form of lockdown, due to a surge in the number of COVID-
19 cases, as well as its problem of providing critical health-care assistance to
patients.
It took a month before the city was downgraded to a slightly relaxed modified
ECQ, which allowed the reopening of shopping malls, and some
manufacturing and processing plants. On Sept. 1, the city was placed under
MGCQ, the most relaxed form of community quarantine.
As of Oct. 11, data from the DOH showed that the city had already recorded
10,123 COVID-19 cases, with 9,091 recoveries and 676 deaths.
—Ador Vincent Mayol
Sacrifices needed to
avert COVID-19 case
surge, says DOH
Maria Rosario Vergeire
MANILA, Philippines — With Europe seeing a rapid spike in new coronavirus
cases partly due to “pandemic fatigue,” the Department of Health (DOH) on
Wednesday advised the public to accept that “little sacrifices” have to be
made to avoid a surge in infections.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH understood the
fatigue everyone was going through these days because of the restrictions put
in place to control the spread of the virus. But people, she said, must also
understand that they can no longer return to life as they knew it prior to the
pandemic.
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“That’s why we have the new normal. We have to remember that this new
normal comes with little sacrifices like always wearing a mask, face shield,
practicing distancing and washing hands,” Vergeire said.
A number of European countries like France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the
United Kingdom are currently seeing a fresh wave of new infections, and
experts partly attribute this to pandemic fatigue, or the public feeling less
motivated to observe health measures against COVID-19, the severe
respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
It is to be expected, Vergeire said, that when the economy gradually reopens,
new cases may rise. But she stressed that this can be tempered through strict
compliance with health measures.
“If all of us will cooperate and enforce compliance to these minimum health
standards, hopefully this wouldn’t happen to us. We are gradually reopening
the economy while balancing everything to prevent this kind of situation from
happening in the country,” she said.
Vergeire reiterated that the number of new cases isn’t the sole factor that the
government considers in imposing stricter lockdowns. The main determinant,
she said, is if a particular community’s health system is able to cope with the
increase.
“We’re not just looking at the numbers… If an area sees a rise in cases but
their health system is able to cope up, the utilization rate [of critical care
facilities] is low, testing is appropriate, and there is efficient contact tracing, a
recommendation for stricter quarantine measures may not be necessary,”
Vergeire said.
The Octa Research group earlier proposed that stricter quarantine measures
be imposed in Bauan, Batangas; Calbayog, Western Samar; and General
Trias, Cavite, due to the rising cases there in the last two weeks.
Ventilation guidelines
With regards to the “one-seat-apart” rule that will be imposed in public
vehicles, Vergeire clarified that the distancing measure “wasn’t really eased”
as this was only meant to better communicate the guideline.
But to help ensure this wouldn’t cause a spike in cases, Vergeire reminded
the Department of Transportation “to strictly enforce” the guidelines the DOH
had issued on proper ventilation in enclosed spaces, such as avoiding the use
of recirculated air in vehicles.
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On Wednesday, DOH reported 1,910 additional coronavirus cases, bringing

the national tally to 346,536.
Of the new cases, 1,639 got sick between Oct. 1 and 14, while 207 fell ill in
September. Metro Manila accounted for a third of the new infections, 624,
followed by Cavite (219), Batangas (104), Rizal (91) and Negros Occidental
(63).
In the first 14 days of the month, a total of 17,574 cases were recorded
nationwide. New infections dropped by 35 percent compared to the same 14-
day period last month, when there were 27,324 new cases.
It was also an improvement from the Aug. 1-14 period, when 31,942 cases
were recorded.
More deaths
The DOH said 579 more patients had recovered, pushing the overall number
of COVID-19 survivors to 293,860. The death toll, however, climbed to 6,449
with the deaths of 78 more patients.
Of the newly reported fatalities, 64 died this month, 10 in September, one

each in August and July, and two in June.
Thirty-five of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, 12 from Calabarzon, seven
from Central Luzon, six from Northern Mindanao, five from Western Visayas,
three from Ilocos, three from Davao, two from the Bangsamoro Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao, and one each from Bicol, Central Visayas,
Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga and Soccsksargen.
As of Wednesday noon, a total of 3,976,980 patients have been tested for the
coronavirus by the 147 accredited laboratories.
The DOH also cautioned the people who had recovered, saying they shouldn’t
be complacent and think they were already immune to COVID-19.
Reinfection
Vergeire said the health agency was documenting all possible cases of
reinfection as reports of recovered people getting sick again increased across
the globe, with the second infection reportedly more severe.
“We are now asking for data from all of our areas so that we could better
study this. These [reported cases] are all experiential. It still has to be
completed to become an official study for us to have enough evidence,”
Vergeire said.
“For now, we are providing information to those who have had COVID-19 that
there is no immunity passport. Just because you have fallen ill before doesn’t
mean you would no longer get [the virus],” she added.
Earlier, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom

Ghebreyesus said that while most patients developed an immune response to
the disease, the UN agency still did not know how long it could last.
“[W]e don’t know how strong or lasting that immune response is, or how it
differs for different people. We have some clues, but we don’t have the
complete picture,” Tedros said.
That, he said, is why it’s important for the public to continue practicing
respiratory etiquette, observing physical distancing, and avoiding crowded,
close-contact and confined spaces to avoid being infected. INQ
Infections on downtrend,
thanks to better local
gov’t handling — Galvez
Local officials have become better at managing the spread of the new
coronavirus, which explains the downward trend in infections in many parts of
the country, according to Carlito Galvez Jr., chief of the National Task Force
Against COVID-19.
Galvez said local governments deserved to be commended for their

performance, citing Cebu province, Metro Manila and Bataan.
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From 88,000 active cases on Aug. 15, the country’s peak, these now number
46,000, Galvez said.
Cooperation
He said the government’s information drive on COVID-19 safety measures
and the test, trace, isolate and treat strategy had gained traction in local
governments.
The national government’s efforts to bridge political divisions contributed to

the improvement in COVID-19 numbers as well, he said.
“What we did is to get them to reconcile, and our experience in areas with a
high number of cases is that when they became united and cooperative, the
situation in their areas became better,” Galvez told a press briefing in
Malacañang.
According to him, the government’s information drive has changed people’s

behavior, and they are now taking steps to avoid contracting the disease. This
was evident in Cebu, which the President earlier called out for the reckless
behavior of its residents.
“We’ve seen now that the performance of Cebu has been good because last
week, they went seven days without a casualty, without a death reported,” he
said during a meeting with the President on Wednesday evening. In
September, Cebu was placed under modified general community quarantine,
the least restrictive quarantine level, and it has continued to report few cases
of COVID-19, he noted.
Isolating patients
Local governments, Galvez said, had also taken steps to get some 32,000
patients out of home quarantine and bring them to isolation centers. Had the
patients not been isolated, the number of active cases would be higher, he
said.
In Metro Manila, the number of active cases has gone down to 7,830 from
20,000 in September, he said, citing figures provided by Metro Manila
Development Authority General Manager Jojo Garcia.
The majority of the cities in the metropolis also reported more than 90 percent
recoveries, which is a good sign, he said.
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In Bataan, cases have been brought down to 300 from 800. “This means our
local government[s] are able to manage [the situation],” Galvez said.
Local governments’ contact tracing efforts have also improved, he added.
Adaptation
If the COVID-19 action plan is implemented down to the barangay level, the
country could expect a further downward trend in cases, Galvez said.As the
country adapts to the virus, he said, the government will emphasize
prevention and detection of the COVID-19 agent.
This would involve intensifying the information drive and deploying health
teams to barangays with active cases. “This is to isolate those with symptoms
even without testing,” he said.
It also means the no-home-quarantine policy will be continued, he added. The

task force recommended the strengthening of quarantine measures and
minimum health standards in business establishments and the workplace,
Galvez said.
Part of the strategy, he said, was to strengthen partnerships with local

governments, the private sector, and the public.
On Thursday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,261 additional

coronavirus infections, pushing the overall number of cases to 348,698.
COVID-19 survivors to 294,161. But the death toll rose to 6,497 with the
The deaths and recoveries left the country with 48,040 active cases, including
2,402 patients in serious or critical condition. —WITH A REPORT FROM
DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN
Metro mayors want to
keep curfew at 10 p.m. to
5 a.m.
Many of Metro Manila’s mayors want the curfew in their respective

jurisdictions to remain at 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., according to Interior
Undersecretary Epimaco Densing.
“As far as I know, the local governments in the National Capital Region
maintain the position to keep [the current curfew hours],” Densing said at the
online Laging Handa briefing on Friday.
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Exemption
But he said San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora had sought an exemption to the
unified curfew in Metro Manila to have it changed and imposed from midnight
to 5 a.m. in his city.
Cabinet members had earlier recommended a shorter curfew—from midnight

to 4 a.m.—to help boost business activity as the economy is gradually
reopened.

Diseases (IATF) and even the Department of the Interior and Local
Government have also called on local governments to relax curfew hours,
especially in areas that have seen a downtrend in coronavirus infections.
The task force also asked local governments not to cover workers, authorized
persons outside of residence, and essential establishments in the application
of their curfew ordinances.
Infections down
“At the end of the day, it is up to assessment of the local chief executives or
mayors when they want to relax the curfew,” Densing said.
He said Metro Manila’s performance had been better because in the last
seven to 10 days, COVID-19 infections had gone down to 700 to 800 per day,
from the 2,000 to 3,000 per day recorded in previous weeks.
Also on Friday, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, apostolic administrator of the Roman

Archdiocese of Manila, met with Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno”
Domagoso to ask for a shorter curfew in time for Misa de Gallo, or the nine-
day dawn Mass leading to Christmas.
Domagoso in turn asked the Church to prepare its own guidelines for the
observance of the Yuletide tradition amid the pandemic.
Like other cities in Metro Manila, Manila still imposes the curfew from 10 p.m.
to 5 a.m. —LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND JODEE A. AGONCILLO
Rizal dislodges Metro

Manila as area with most
COVID-19 cases
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila was replaced by Rizal province as the

area with the most number of COVID-19 cases after the Department of Health
(DOH) revised its reporting on Saturday, breaking down areas that recorded
new infections by province or city.
Rizal accounted for 185 of the 2,673 new cases, followed by the provinces of
Cavite with 175 and Batangas with 159.
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Quezon City was the lone Metro Manila city listed in the top five with 143
cases, followed by Bulacan with 88. The national caseload now stands at
354,338.
The DOH did not immediately explain why they again revised the reporting
system, but it came as the government started to ease quarantine restrictions,
ahead of the Christmas rush that is expected to shore up the economy which
plunged into recession because of the pandemic.
The new data brought the tally of active cases to 52,423, of which 84.7
percent are mild, 11 percent asymptomatic, 1.5 percent severe and 2.9
percent critical.
There are now a total of 295,312 COVID-19 survivors with the recovery of 539
more patients. The death toll, however, rose to 6,603 as 73 patients
Of the newly reported deaths, 49 died this month, three in September, 18 in

August, two in July and one in May.
Thirty-two of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, 10 from Calabarzon, nine
from Central Luzon, five from Zamboanga, five from Caraga, four from Davao,
three from Western Visayas, two from Soccsksargen, and one each from
Ilocos, Bicol and Central Visayas.
But while the country showed signs of a slowdown, cases in the United States
continued to surge while most of Europe has resumed strict quarantine
measures.
This led the World Health Organization (WHO) to appeal to an already

anxious public to “hold on a bit longer” and continue observing the preventive
health measures.
Epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said the WHO understands the “high
sense of anxiety” and frustration across the world given that the outbreak has
been raging for 10 months.
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But the public, she said, must remember “there are things they need to do to
continue to be able to protect themselves” and their communities at this point
of the pandemic.
“The decisions that all of us make, those little decisions that we make, are
having an impact. If we can hold on a bit longer, we will get through this,” said
Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO’s health emergencies program.
Virgin coconut oil a

potential antiviral agent
vs COVID-19, research
shows
MANILA, Philippines — Experiments have shown evidence that virgin coconut

oil may defeat the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“There are still alternative solutions against COVID-19 aside from vaccines.
Although further investigation is needed before we develop a possible
prevention or treatment option, we aim to give Filipinos hope through our
ongoing local research initiatives,” Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña
said in a statement.
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After six months of experiments, results showed that compounds from

coconut oil and virgin coconut oil, or VCO, a readily available commodity in
the Philippines, decreased coronavirus count by 60 to 90 percent at low viral
load.
Researchers also discovered that the compounds were observed to improve

cell survival.
More experiments, however, are needed to determine whether higher

concentrations of these compounds will further reduce the replication rate of
the virus.
“The results are very promising, as not only does it show that VCO, by itself,
can destroy the virus, but it also has a key mechanism in regulating the
immune response against COVID-19. Indeed, we look forward to the results of
clinical trials on the various uses of VCO as an adjunct for the treatment of
COVID-19,” said Dr. Jaime Montoya, executive director of the Philippine
Council for Health Research and Development.
Funded by the Department of Science and Technology, the research led by

Dr. Fabian Dayrit of Ateneo de Manila University sought to investigate if
coconut oil compounds are effective antiviral agents to prevent or reduce
COVID-19 infections, following reports of previous research that VCO
compounds were effective at killing other viruses.
Beware of fake virus test

results
Main COVID-19 laboratory in Western Visayas raises alert over forged documents

NECESSARY DISCOMFORT A man grimaces as he undergoes nose
swabbing for a COVID-19 test in Tondo, Manila. In Western Visayas, health
officials have warned about fake documents showing negative test results as
employers start requiring workers to present health clearances before they
return to their workplaces. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines — The main COVID-19 testing laboratory in
Western Visayas has warned of a possible scheme to provide fake results to
employees seeking the document so they could return to work.
Dr. Stephanie Abello, chief pathologist of Western Visayas Medical Center

Sub-National Laboratory (WVMC-SNL), said a school in Iloilo province sent to
their laboratory a copy of a purported reverse transcription-polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) test result for verification on Friday.
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The negative RT-PCR test submitted to the school by one of its employees
returning for work turned out to be fake, she said.
“We caution residents to be wary of those offering swab tests and results
aside from the authorized hospitals and facilities, barangay, municipal and
health centers or units,” Abello told the Inquirer on Monday.
She said the signatories of the fake test result were not those of the WVMC-
SNL staff.
The letterhead, including the logos and format, was also different, she said.
She pointed out that the fake test result had logos of WVMC and the
Department of Health, while that of the WVMC-SNL only carries the WVMC
logo.
Authenticity of the test result can also be verified based on the unique test
result number, which provides the date and time when the specimen was
received.
Investigation
Abello said tests conducted by WVMC-SNL were free of charge and results
were sent to the offices of local governments and not to individuals who were
tested.
She said this was the first time that they received a copy of a fake RT-PCR
test result, and that the laboratory had referred the matter to the WVMC
management for investigation.
Unscrupulous individuals, she said, could be taking advantage of employees

and other people who require a negative RT-PCR test result before being
allowed to resume work.
“We strongly condemn such act and any person found to be liable for faking
the WVMC-SNL RT-PCR results shall be lawfully dealt with,” WVMC
management said in an advisory.
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From March 24 to Oct. 19, WVMC-SNL received 114,227 specimens for

processing and had released more than 110,000 test results.
WVMC-SNL was the first of 10 COVID-19 testing laboratories established in

the region. Five of these laboratories are operated by the government.
In Capiz province, Roxas City Diagnostic and Laboratory Center, which is

operated by the city government, will be inaugurated on Tuesday in Barangay
Milibili.
Minimizing backlog
In Iloilo, the subnational laboratories, aside from WVMC-SNL, include those at
QualiMed Health Network-¬Iloilo and Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center.
The laboratories in Negros Occidental are operating at Teresita Jalandoni

Provincial Hospital in Silay City and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial
Regional Hospital, Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital, The Doctors’ Hospital
Inc. and Philippine Red Cross-Negros Occidental Molecular Laboratory, all in
Bacolod City.
In Aklan province, the COVID-19 laboratory is operating at Dr. Rafael S.

Tumbokon Memorial Hospital in the capital town of Kalibo.
The Iloilo provincial government and the Iloilo City government are also
expected to operate separate COVID-19 laboratories within the year.
The increasing number of testing centers are expected to speed up the

release of results and minimize backlogs, compared to the earlier months of
the pandemic.
While RT-PCR tests conducted in government facilities are free of charge,

those in private hospitals and facilities cost at least P4,500.
Coronavirus spike seen

in Luzon, Mindanao
Task force sending teams to provinces to help local officials contain COVID-19 spread; Tawi-
Tawi also watched as outbreak reported in Sabah

FIGHTING VIRUS Testing has been identified by health officials as one of the
key steps to fight COVID-19. —GRIG C.MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — A spike in COVID-19 cases in several provinces in
Southern Tagalog, Northern Luzon and Mindanao has prompted the national
task force temporarily overseeing the government response to the pandemic
to send teams to these areas to help local officials contain the spread of the
disease.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force
(NTF) on COVID-19, said Ilagan City in Isabela province and Baguio City, and
several provinces in Mindanao, including Bukidnon, had reported a rise of
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During a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night, Galvez

said Tawi-Tawi province was also being watched because of an outbreak in
nearby Sabah in Malaysia.In a separate briefing, Assistant Secretary Wilben
Mayor, Galvez’s chief of staff, said a surge in cases was also recorded in
Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region. The
officials, however, did not provide numbers.
Support
The NTF would send teams to areas with rising cases to provide support for
and technical advice, guidance and assessment to local officials, Mayor said.
It would also insist on the practice of bringing infected residents to quarantine

centers to prevent the infection from spreading, he said.
“There is a stated protocol on how to respond to a spike in cases. Our chief

implementer maintains that it is important to avoid home quarantine because it
is seen as the cause of the transmission of COVID-19,” Mayor said at the
Laging Handa briefing.
The government has built quarantine centers in each region, he noted. Galvez
praised local governments for being prompt in asking for help from the
national government, unlike before “when they sometimes hide their
numbers.”
“They are working hard to manage the cases,” he said.
Despite the increase in COVID-19 cases in several provinces, the NTF

believes that the overall trend in the country would continue to go down in the
coming months as infections, in general, have been observed to be
decreasing, Mayor said.
The key is the people’s continued observance of health protocols and

adherence to the government’s guidelines to prevent the spread of the severe
respiratory disease, he said.
These measures are even more important as the government further eases
quarantine restrictions and allows more people to go out and more businesses
to operate, Mayor said.
Pasig mayor warns

public not to let guard
down
MANILA, Philippines — Pasig City has seen a big downtrend in the number of
active COVID-19 cases but Mayor Vico Sotto warned the public not let their
guard down.
Sotto said failing to practice minimum health standards could result in a

resurgence even as active cases went down to around 300 from more than
2,200 back when Metro Manila was first placed under general community
quarantine.
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—Meg Adonis
More Mindanao
frontliners get virus
By: Leah D. Agonoy, Ryan D. Rosauro - @inquirerdotnet
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Some 32 of the 73 medical frontliners at Northern

Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) infected with COVID-19 had recovered,
raising the morale of health workers in this regional capital that continues to
grapple with rising infections.
But in Zamboanga del Sur province, health officials have to cope with reduced
number of health frontliners with 23 of their medical workers now confined
after contracting the virus.
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Dr. Bernard Julius Rocha, NMMC liaison officer, said the 32 recoveries
included nurses, doctors, pharmacists, nursing attendants and a laboratory
technician.
Of the number, 19 personnel have reported back to work, Rocha added,
beefing up the staff complement of NMMC, Northern Mindanao’s main
COVID-19 referral facility. The remaining 41 virus-infected health workers are
confined in the local government-run isolation facilities.
Rocha assured their health workers have chosen to continue the fight against
the virus, and were not entertaining any thought of resigning from their jobs.
He disclosed that an in-house investigation showed that their frontliners may

have contracted the virus either at the hospital’s section catering to COVID-19
patients, or at their respective communities and neighborhoods.
Cagayan de Oro City continues to experience a double-digit increase in cases

for almost two weeks now. As of Oct. 22, the city has 400 active cases. Of the
1,348 total cases since March, 61 have died.
GOOD NEWS Northern Mindanao Medical Center announces on Thursday

the recovery of 32 of its 73 medical personnel who contracted COVID-19. The
hospital, the main referral facility for virus patients in Northern Mindanao,
remains open despite a shortage in health frontliners. —INQUIRER PHOTO
Discrimination
In Pagadian City, 20 health workers are on quarantine after contracting the
virus, bringing to 23 the total number of medical frontliners in Zamboanga del
Sur who were infected with COVID-19.
Zamboanga del Sur Medical Center (ZSMC) chief Dr. Anatalio Cagampang Jr.
lamented the discrimination suffered by health workers. Most drivers of public
utility vehicles refused to convey these health workers after learning that the
hospital they work in have reported cases, he said.
Of the 23 infected health workers, 14 are from ZSMC (four doctors and 10
nurses), and nine are medical technologists and other hospital staff in other
medical facilities.
Cagampang said they might be forced to temporarily shut down ZSMC if more
of its staff were infected.
As of Oct. 22, the province has 194 cases, almost double the count of 98 on
Oct. 10. Within the same period, eight have died, bringing to nine the total
deaths from the virus.
DOH: Vaccine trials

down to ‘3 to 4’ choices
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday said the World

Health Organization (WHO) had trimmed down to “three to four” the number of
candidate COVID-19 vaccines being considered for inclusion in the Solidarity
Trial program scheduled to begin in the country next month.
The Solidarity Trial is a global effort led by the WHO to find a vaccine for the
severe respiratory disease that has afflicted more than 300,000 people in the
country.
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Vergeire said that while the WHO had yet to provide the Department of Health
(DOH) with the list of vaccines to be used in the trial, DOH officials were told
that the number of vaccines under consideration was down to three to four.
The WHO earlier committed to the DOH that it would release the list of
vaccines included in the trials by the third or fourth week of October.
Dr. Socorro Escalante, WHO Western Pacific COVID-19 incident manager,

also said earlier there were 17 vaccines being evaluated to be included in the
global clinical trial.
Final phase
Among the considerations for a vaccine’s inclusion are its safety profile and
potential for efficacy, availability and practicality of implementation. “[It means]
the regimens are manageable considering the resource settings of countries,”
Escalante said.
At present, phase 3 clinical trials have begun or are about to begin for 11
candidate vaccines. It is the final phase where thousands of subjects are
tested; the first phase involves only dozens of volunteers, while the second
expands to trial to cover hundreds.
Trials for Johnson & Johnson’s and AstraZeneca’s candidate vaccines have
been put on hold after each had a tested participant who later fell ill.
The DOH has yet to disclose the 12 hospitals where the trials will be held, but
said these are located in Metro Manila, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna,
Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Cebu and Davao.
“For the clinical trial, only a few vaccines [will arrive] so it’s very manageable
but we are still preparing,” Vergeire said.
Avigan trial
Meanwhile, the clinical trial in the country for the Japanese antiflu drug Avigan
has been put off several times that the four hospitals designated as trial sites
are now having difficulty recruiting patients.
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“There has been a bit of a challenge in recruiting patients because of the

decreasing number of patients, and we also have other drug trials—
remdesivir, interferon, acalabrutinib—and we can’t give Avigan on top of that,”
Vergeire said.
The Avigan trial was initially scheduled to start in mid-July but was delayed as
legal arrangements were still being finalized.
Japan approval
The Japanese government delivered in early August tablets enough to be
used on 100 patients.
In late September, Avigan’s manufacturer Fujifilm Toyama Chemical Co. Ltd.

announced it would seek Japan’s regulatory approval following the results of
its clinical trial that showed the drug helped shorten the recovery time of
COVID-19 patients.
It was only in the first week of October that the DOH announced that a clinical
trial agreement with the University of the Philippines Manila had finally been
signed.
Four sites were identified for the trial—the Philippine General Hospital, Sta.
Ana Hospital, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Quirino Memorial
Medical Center.
Virus case update

Vergeire said that “what we need now is to restrategize. There were
[suggestions] to expand the number of hospitals, but if we do that we would
need to revise our clinical trial protocol, which may cause yet another delay.”
“We are not going to that option yet. We will ask help from the medical
directors [of the trial sites] to expedite the start of this trial,” she said.
On Friday, the DOH recorded an additional 1,923 cases, pushing the national
tally to 365,799.
Of the new cases, 1,745 fell ill between Oct. 10 and Oct. 23, while 69 got sick
between Oct. 1 and Oct. 9. Davao City had the most number of infections, 99,
followed by Cavite (94), Manila (94), Quezon City (92) and Negros Occidental
(89).
The total number of COVID-19 survivors climbed to 312,691 with the recovery
of 424 more patients. The death toll, however, rose to 6,915 as 132 patients
Of the newly reported deaths, 76 died in October, 30 in September, nine in
August, 14 in July, one in June and two in April.
Forty-seven of the fatalities were from Metro Manila, 33 from Central Luzon,
23 from Calabarzon, 10 from Western Visayas, eight from Central Visayas,
three from Bicol, two from Caraga, and one each from Ilocos, Davao,
Soccsksargen, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and
the Cordillera Administrative Region.
A repatriate was also listed to have died from COVID-19.
percent critical.
Drop swab test for

Boracay tourists,
business operators urge
gov’t

DESERTED A section of Boracay’s white beach remains deserted as tourists
slowly return to the resort island.—JACK JARILLA
MANILA, Philippines — The number of tourists visiting Boracay has been
slowly increasing amid strict travel requirements during the pandemic. And
business operators are still hoping that the mandatory swab tests for tourists
will be lifted as they promised to observe basic safety and health protocols.
Swab tests are believed to have discouraged more people from coming to the
resort island in Aklan province.
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On Saturday, tourist arrivals reached 205 and on Sunday, 208, the highest
daily totals since the island in Malay town began accepting visitors from
outside Western Visayas on Oct. 1.
Of those who arrived on Sunday, 194 (93 percent) were from Metro Manila,
the highest number coming from the national capital in a single day, data from
the Malay tourism office showed.
On Thursday, 194 tourists, including 169 from Metro Manila, arrived. From
Oct. 1 to Oct. 25, a total of 1,944 tourists came, including 1,113 from Metro
Manila and 737 from Aklan. The remaining 94 were from Iloilo City and other
areas in Western Visayas.
Way below average

The figures were still way below the daily average tourist arrivals of between
4,000 and 5,000 before the pandemic hit, but business operators are hopeful
of a steady increase.
Earlier, the government adjusted the validity period for the requirement of a
negative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, or RT-
PCR, for tourists following complaints of business owners.

Diseases on Oct. 15 allowed tourists to secure an RT-PCR test within 72
hours before their trip to Boracay instead of the previous 48 hours.
Business owners complained that the requirement to secure an RT-PCR test

within 48 hours had led to the cancellation of reservations. Many tourists from
Western Visayas, especially from Iloilo, had put off plans to go to the island,
they said, pointing out that the required RT-PCR test cost at least P4,000 per
person.
Tourists from Western Visayas were not required to secure a swab test before
Oct. 1.
The business operators asked the government to scrap the RT-PCR test as a
requirement for tourists and instead require the faster and cheaper antigen
test so Boracay could recover from huge economic losses that led to the
closure of establishments and job losses.
Active COVID-19 cases

fall to 35,015, lowest
since Aug. 2
By: Dona Z. Pazzibugan - Reporter / @dpazzibuganINQ
MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 active cases in the country fell to 35,015,

the lowest since Aug. 2, after the Department of Health (DOH) declared on
Sunday another mass recovery of 14,944 mild or asymptomatic patients who
had completed two weeks in quarantine.
The mass recoveries brought the overall number of COVID-19 survivors in the
country to 328, 056.
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The DOH reported 2,223 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 370,028
since January. Of the new cases, 93 percent tested positive within the last 14
days.
On the other hand, 43 more deaths were recorded, 14 of these from more
than a month ago, bringing the total number of fatalities to 6,977.
Of the 35,015 active cases, most reported mild or no symptoms while 2,310
were hospitalized in either severe or critical condition.
The regions with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks
were Metro Manila with 537 or 26 percent of the total cases, Calabarzon with
397 or 19 percent and Central Luzon with 165 or 8 percent.
Ranked by province or city, Quezon City was on top with 112 new cases
followed by Laguna, 111; Rizal, 109; Cavite, 79 and Batangas, 74.
Drop in virus cases not

due to halt in Red Cross
operations – DOH

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) said the recent drop
in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country cannot be attributed to
the decision of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) not to process samples until
Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) settled its debt of almost P1
billion.
Of the 151 accredited laboratories nationwide, only 10 are PRC laboratories,

of which three are in Metro Manila. DOH data showed that from Oct. 1 to 21,
these three laboratories reported nearly 11 percent of the new infections, or
6,677, while from Sept. 10 to 30, they accounted for 13 percent of the total
new cases, or 10,088.
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In both periods, DOH noted that 61 laboratories across the country recorded a
decline in the number of new cases.
In a statement, DOH said “With this comparison, the decrease in the number
of daily positive cases may not be attributed to the halting of operations of
PRC laboratories alone. We are currently investigating this trend and
coordinating with the laboratories to determine the factors contributing to the
decrease in positive cases.”
Since the start of October, newly reported cases have stayed below 3,000—
apart from Oct. 4, 12 and 16 when new infections rose by more than 3,000.
The average daily cases in October have declined to 2,413 from 3,083 in
September and 4,209 in August.
Early in October, the PRC said it would stop processing samples charged to
PhilHealth until the state insurer paid its P930-million debt.
After PhilHealth received the Department of Justice’s legal opinion that the
memorandum of agreement it signed with PRC is “not subject to the
procurement law,” the state insurance firm said it would pay the PRC on
Monday, “subject to completeness of billing requirements” and in compliance
with Commission on Audit rules.
“This should enable PRC to immediately resume its testing of swab

specimens of concerned sectors which PhilHealth pays for,” PhilHealth said in
a statement.
On Saturday, DOH logged an additional 2,057 cases, bringing the national
caseload to 367,819.
Of the new cases, 1,892 got sick between Oct. 11 and 24, while 83 fell ill
between Oct. 1 and 10.
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Rizal province reported the most number of new infections, 107, followed by
Caloocan (102), Quezon City (96), Benguet (92) and Davao City (91).
There are now a total 313,112 COVID-19 survivors with the recovery of 442
more patients.
The death toll, however, climbed to 6,934 as 19 patients succumbed to the

In Cebu City, virus-free

barangays to get
P100,000 reward
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Mayor Edgardo Labella is offering a

P100,000 cash reward to barangays that can “attain and sustain” zero
infection from the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from Nov. 1 until the
end of the year.
“I am optimistic (that we can achieve this). It’s a tall order, but it’s a
possibility,” he said.
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Labella said the move was in response to Environment Secretary Roy
Cimatu’s challenge for local officials to bring down the number of COVID-19
cases in the city where a surge of infection was recorded in June.
In a visit here last week, Cimatu, who oversaw the government’s response to
COVID-19 in the Visayas, said Cebu City had successfully managed the
Supplemental budget
If all 80 barangays in the city can achieve a COVID-free status by year-end,
Labella said the local government would release P8 million in unspent money
from its P100-million supplemental budget granted by the city council. “That’s
where we will get our funds for the reward,” he said.
Data from the city’s Emergency Operations Center showed that 43 of 80

barangays in the city had recorded zero active COVID-19 cases in the past 14
days.
As of Sunday, Cebu City had a total of 10,215 cases, with only 213
considered active. It also recorded 9,323 recoveries and 679 deaths.
According to Cimatu, the city will have a chance to bring its COVID-19 cases
to zero as long as there are more recoveries than new cases.
More testing and contract tracing should be done to defeat the coronavirus, he
said.
On June 16, Cebu City was placed under enhanced community quarantine,
the strictest form of lockdown, due to a surge in the number of COVID-19
cases.
It took about two months before the city’s status was downgraded to modified
general community quarantine. INQ
Metro Manila, 6 other

areas to retain
quarantine status until
Nov. 30
QUARANTINE RESTRICTIONS President Duterte presents figures showing

the COVID-19 situation in the country during a meeting with members of the
Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious
Diseases at Matina Enclaves in Davao City on Monday. He approved the
recommendation of the task force to keep Metro Manila and six other areas
under general community quarantine. —MALACAÑANG PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday approved the
recommendation of the government’s coronavirus task force to keep Metro
Manila and six other areas under general community quarantine until Nov. 30.
The cities of Bacolod, Iloilo, Tacloban and Iligan, as well as the provinces of
Batangas and Lanao del Sur will also be under the same restrictions up to the
end of November.
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In a televised address on Tuesday morning, Duterte said the retention of the

restrictions was subject to appeal from the concerned local governments.
In his daily press briefing on Tuesday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque

said Oct. 29 was the deadline for the appeal.
Earlier, the Metro Manila Council said the mayors of the metropolis favored
keeping the region under general community quarantine until year-end to
contain COVID-19, although with eased restrictions on mobility, transport and
business.
No tough restrictions
With the announcement of the extension, Malacañang said no region in the
country was subject to stricter quarantine levels in November.
Meanwhile, Duterte said he favored government-to-government transaction,

most likely with China, for the purchase of vaccines for COVID-19 to avoid
corruption.
The President said Chinese pharmaceutical companies had already

developed a vaccine for the severe respiratory disease and it would just be a
matter of how to purchase and distribute it.
“But let me tell everybody that we will not beg for it. We will pay. So it would
be good if the transaction is government to government. No corruption,
because everything is government to government. I’m offering it to China
because they already have it (vaccine),” he said.
He said Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian also told him in
a meeting that a vaccine was already available.
“He (Huang) said that the vaccine is there. It will be in a matter of … how to
distribute it, and of course what kind of transaction would it be for them and for
us,” he said.
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In his briefing, Roque said he disagreed with the OCTA Research statement
that easing restrictions on public transport would lead to a surge in
coronavirus infections in Metro Manila in the next two weeks.
Health standards
Roque said respected doctors consulted by the Inter-Agency Task Force for
the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary government
body overseeing the administration’s coronavirus response, believed
otherwise as infection could be avoided if commuters observed the minimum
health standards.
“We disagree with the research group. I think Filipinos will [do] everything they
have to do because it is important that they can go to their jobs again,” he
said.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Rolando Enrique Domingo said at
Roque’s briefing that foreign pharmaceutical companies that had completed
clinical trials overseas for their vaccines would not need to conduct trials in the
Philippines.
Domingo said the pharmaceutical companies just needed to register their

vaccines with the FDA and submit documents showing they had complied with
Philippine and Southeast Asian standards.
He said only FDA-licensed manufacturers or importers may distribute COVID-

19 vaccines in the Philippines.
The FDA, Domingo said, would also meet with the World Health Organization
to set standards for an acceptable COVID-19 vaccine.
New travel rules

In an online briefing on Tuesday, Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of
law enforcement for the government’s coronavirus response, said new travel
rules would be issued soon as local governments had been given the option
to continue requiring travel authority of people who were not allowed to go out
and who were not stranded due to lockdowns.
Eleazar said these people must first determine if the local governments in
their destinations and in the places they would pass through were enforcing
travel restrictions.
If there are no restrictions, then the travelers do not have to get authorization
to travel, he said.
Eleazar said his task force was working with the Department of Science and
Technology for the setting up of an online application system for travel
permits.
Spike in cases
preventable if public
sticks to rules – DOH
The Department of Health (DOH) reiterated on Wednesday that while COVID-

19 cases may rise as the economy slowly reopens, spikes in the number of
new infections can be prevented if the public would do its part in observing the
health measures put in place to control the spread of the new coronavirus.
After the research group OCTA warned that Metro Manila may see an
increase in cases due to the easing of restrictions on public transportation,
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire pointed out that the DOH has
always been saying that increases are to be expected with the reopening of
certain sectors of society and the economy.
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But what is important, she said, is that the country is able to manage the risk
that comes along with it.
Can’t remain on lockdown

“The virus will stay here for long. We do not see it going away soon. At the
same time, we cannot remain [on] lockdown forever. We cannot remain to be
paralyzed [by] fear that’s why we’re slowly lifting restrictions,” Vergeire said.
In doing that, the DOH, she said, expects everyone to “change their behavior
and comply with the minimum health standards,” such as wearing masks,
frequent hand-washing, practicing cough etiquette, and observing physical
distancing.
“If only the population will implement and comply with the minimum health
standards, the infection will not be as transmissible as how it was before,”
Vergeire said.
In its Oct. 26 report, the OCTA research group warned that the steady
increase in the use of public transportation in Metro Manila would “trigger an
increase in new COVID-19 cases in the [metropolis] in the next two weeks.”
Earlier, the Department of Transportation eased physical distancing measures

on trains by implementing the one-seat-apart rule to help increase passenger
capacity.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board also allowed

more jeepneys to ply their routes.
Motorcycle taxis will also soon be allowed to return to the streets to provide
commuters another transport option.
Steady decline in Metro

DOH data show that though Metro Manila still accounts for most of the new
cases each week, it has seen a steady decline in new infections over the last
three weeks.
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Between Oct. 4 and 10, Metro Manila recorded 6,218 new cases. New
infections dropped to 5,605 from Oct. 11 to 17 to 3,950 from Oct. 18 to 24.
The decline in reported cases, however, coincided with the Philippine Red
Cross’ (PRC) decision on Oct. 15 to halt testing pending Philippine Health
Insurance Corp.’s (PhilHealth) settlement of its P1.1-billion debt.
According to OCTA, the humanitarian organization accounts for a third of all

tests conducted in Metro Manila, which means that if its tests are included,
average daily new cases in Metro Manila from Oct. 11 is estimated to increase
by at least 200.
This is why the group recommended that the impasse between the PRC and
PhilHealth be immediately resolved since without the former’s input, “public
health authorities and pandemic management teams are made blind because
of less accurate information.”
“Accurate testing information and increased testing capacity are crucial to

managing the pandemic. It is against this backdrop that the government
ensures that the PRC resume testing as soon as possible,” it said.
New infections
On Wednesday, the DOH recorded 2,053 additional infections, pushing the
overall number of cases to 375,180. Caloocan City reported the most number
of infections, 108, followed by Quezon City (103), and the provinces of Negros
Occidental (97), Benguet (93) and Rizal (85).
An additional 540 patients recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total

number of recoveries to 329,111. The death toll, however, rose to 7,114 as 61
83 percent are mild, 11.1 percent asymptomatic, 2.2 percent severe, and 3.8
percent critical.
In its report on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that
though the Philippines has seen its new cases decrease, it still accounted for
around “50 percent of the total number of cases and 75 percent of the total
number of deaths reported in the [Western Pacific] region in the last seven
days.”
Of the 27,197 new cases and 438 new deaths reported last week by the 27
member states in the region, the Philippines accounted for 13,481 cases and
331 deaths.
The WHO noted though that “relative to the country’s population, new cases
(123) and new deaths (3) per 1 million population remain low compared to
other countries in the region.”
NOVEMBER-REVISED
DOH: Not enough proof
of herd immunity in
Cebu City
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:16 AM November 08, 2020
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday

disputed a Cebu City health official’s recent pronouncement that the city
population had shown signs of herd immunity against COVID-19.
“Currently, there is not enough evidence to show that those who have
recovered from COVID-19 and have developed antibodies are protected from
being infected again,” the department said when asked to clarify remarks
recently made by its Central Visayas director Jaime Bernadas.
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In an interview last month with the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the
Visayas, Bernadas cited an antibody test conducted around that time among
2,191 vendors of the city’s Carbon Market.
The test found 47.48 percent, or 1,047 of the vendors, developing the
immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody. Antibodies develop in a person’s system
following infection and recovery.
Vaccination
“This is very significant because more and more people have now responded
to the exposure of the virus, which means we are on the road to achieving
‘herd immunity,’” Bernadas said in the interview, which the government-run
Philippine News Agency (PNA) quoted in its report on Oct. 14.
The PNA report is still accessible in the website of the DOH.
The DOH stressed that herd immunity is achieved by communities through

vaccination.
Herd or population immunity is a concept in vaccination wherein enough
people in a specific area are protected against an infectious disease.
In the case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, the

department said herd immunity can be reached if around 60 percent to 70
percent of the population are immunized.
Still, the DOH said that even if a person has already recovered from COVID-
19, he is not exempted from observing the minimum health protocols, such as
wearing masks, practicing hand hygiene and cough etiquette, and keeping a
distance of at least a meter.
Earlier, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom

Ghebreyesus said a strategy of achieving herd immunity without a safe and
effective vaccine was “morally unconscionable and unfeasible.”
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“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a
strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic. It’s scientifically
and ethically problematic,” Tedros said in a briefing last month.
“Not only would it lead to millions more unnecessary deaths, it would lead to a
significant number of people facing a long road to full recovery,” he added.
The WHO chief also said it remains unknown how long a person’s immunity
against COVID-19 lasts.
There have been reports of reinfection in various countries, with some

patients experiencing a more severe illness the second time around.
Tedros pointed out that until a vaccine becomes available, governments as

well as the public “must do all that they can to suppress transmission” of the
virus.
Virus case update

“Letting the virus circulate unchecked therefore means allowing unnecessary
infections, suffering and death … Allowing a dangerous virus that we don’t
fully understand to run free is simply unethical,” he said.
On Saturday, the DOH recorded 2,157 new cases, bringing the national tally
to 393,961.
Quezon City reported the most number of new infections, 115, followed by
Davao City (107), Rizal (105), Bulacan (102) and Cavite (82).
An additional 252 patients recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total

number of survivors to 350,216.
The death toll, however, increased to 7,485 as 24 patients succumbed to the

83.7 percent are mild, 10 percent asymptomatic, 2.3 percent severe and 4
percent critical.
Olongapo village exec

tests positive for COVID-
19 days after death
By: Joanna Rose Aglibot - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 02:36 PM November 07, 2020
SAN ANTONIO, ZAMBALES – A village official of Olongapo City, who died on

Nov. 4 from an affliction related to a spinal condition, has tested positive for
the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The unnamed 69-year-old man, who is an official of Barangay (village) New

Banicain, died from a “neurogenic shock secondary to CVD bleed vs infarct,”
according to a Nov. 6 statement from Olongapo Mayor Rolen Paulino Jr.
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The man was rushed to the city hospital after complaining of abdominal pains,
as well as breathing difficulties, on October 31. He underwent a reverse
transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on Monday (Nov. 2),
but died two days after.
The latest fatality raises the number of COVID-19 related deaths in Olongapo
to 29. With 11 new infections, the city now has 854 total number of COVID-19
cases. About 758 patients have since recovered.
/MUF
Benguet’s isolation
facilities full as COVID-
19 cases surge
LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET—Isolation centers for coronavirus patients in

Benguet province have already reached full capacity, forcing local officials to
seek help from neighboring Baguio City.
Gov. Melchor Diclas on Tuesday said some patients had opted for home
quarantine due to the shortage of isolation wards in the district hospitals.
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As of Tuesday, the province had registered 1,425 coronavirus infections with

853 active cases and 14 deaths. More than 800 of the cases came from the
mining towns of Tuba and Itogon, which recorded cluster infections among
workers of three mining companies.
Benguet General Hospital will now be forced to admit only symptomatic cases
after all 40 beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients have been occupied, Diclas
said.
He asked local health officials to postpone the mass testing for COVID-19,
saying it had yielded results that were “not clinically significant.”
“We are very good at detection, but we are poor when it comes to isolation so
it (mass testing) becomes useless,” he said, adding that mass testing should
resume when more quarantine centers are made available.
The governor asked the National Task Force on COVID-19 and the
Department of Health to provide additional isolation facilities in the province.
According to him, the Baguio government was tapped to convert a dormitory

in the city to accommodate 80 patients. —KIMBERLIE QUITASOL
DOH: Signs of ‘herd

immunity’ from COVID-
19 seen in Cebu City
By: Dale G. Israel - @inquirerdotnet
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — About a month after it “flattened the curve,”
this capital city of Cebu province is showing signs that it may achieve herd
immunity from the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to the top
official of the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas.
Dr. Jaime Bernadas, the DOH regional director, cited a recent surveillance
testing that showed 1,047 (47.48 percent) of 2,191 vendors at Carbon, the
city’s biggest public market, developed IgG (immunoglobulin G), which, he
described, as “an antibody produced by an exposed individual to SARS-CoV-
2 (the virus causing COVID-19) as a means of defense against it.”
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This indicated that they were asymptomatic and had already recovered from
infection, he said.
“This is very significant because more and more people have now responded
to the exposure of the virus, which means we are on the road to achieving
herd immunity,” Bernadas said.Herd immunity, he said, could be achieved if
70 to 80 percent of the community had been exposed to the virus and
developed immunity.
Health officials earlier conducted surveillance testing on vendors at Carbon
after learning that many people who tested positive for the virus had visited
the market.
More evidence
The testing involved a combination of rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, which remains to be
the gold standard for confirmatory test of COVID-19.A total of 63 vendors
yielded positive results during the RDT test, but when they underwent the RT-
PCR test, only 33 samples turned out positive.
But Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson for the DOH in the region, stressed
that more evidence was needed to prove that the city was close to achieving
herd immunity.
“Herd immunity is more likely to occur with vaccines. So for now, let’s adhere
to the health standards that can prevent the transmission of the virus and at
the same time protect us from getting sick,” she said in a separate interview.
“Based on the surveillance we conducted at Carbon market, we can safely

say that the vendors [and] stall holders showed very low positivity rate, with
IgG present, which could signify the past exposure or recoveries
already,”Loreche added.
As of Nov. 1, Cebu City had recorded a total of 10,266 COVID-19 cases, but
only 154 had been classified as active. It also listed 678 deaths and 9,434
recoveries.
Strict lockdown
On June 16, the city was placed under an enhanced community quarantine,
the only local government outside Metro Manila covered by the strictest form
of lockdown, due to a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases and the
inability of local hospitals to effectively provide critical health-care assistance
to patients.
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This prompted the national government to send troopers of the police’s

Special Action Force and policemen from other regions to enforce security
and health protocols in the city.
President Duterte appointed Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to oversee
the government’s COVID-19 response in Cebu City, then considered the
second epicenter of the virus after Metro Manila.
It took about two months, on Sept. 1, before the city’s status was downgraded
to modified general community quarantine, the most relaxed form of
quarantine, after the number of COVID-19 cases started to drop.
DOH: Average daily

COVID-19 cases drop by
25 percent
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines saw its overall number of new cases
drop by 25 percent last month, in part driven by the continued decline in the
number of infections in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the outbreak in the
country.
Department of Health (DOH) data showed that three to four weeks ago, the
average number of daily cases nationwide stood at 2,517. But in the last two
weeks, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this dropped by 25
percent, or to 1,887.
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In Metro Manila, where the outbreak of the new coronavirus that causes
COVID-19 has been largely concentrated, the average number of daily cases
in the same period decreased from 842 to 522.
“Hopefully, we will come to that point where new cases will continuously
decline,” Vergeire said.
Health system capacity

Despite the improved numbers, Vergeire reiterated that this was not the only
metric in recommending the further easing of restrictions, particularly in the
capital region that remains under general community quarantine.
“Most important is our health system capacity is not overwhelmed and able to
accommodate even non-COVID cases. Also, the average growth rate should
be on a downward [trajectory], meaning it’s not on a positive [trend],” she said.
Currently, the average daily attack rate across the country is at 1.76 percent,
while in Metro Manila it is at 3.5 percent. Both are classified as “medium risk.”
Earlier, Vergeire said the DOH was targeting that all localities in the country
would have transitioned to the much looser modified general community
quarantine by the first quarter of next year.
Virus case update

On Monday, the DOH reported an additional 2,298 cases, bringing the
national tally to 385,400.
Benguet province recorded the highest number of new infections with 188,
followed by Davao City (166), Rizal (119), Quezon City (116) and Bulacan
(91).
The total number of COVID-19 survivors rose to 348,830 with the recovery of
87 patients. The death toll, however, rose to 7,269 as 32 more patients
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The recoveries and deaths left the country with 29,301 active cases, or 7.6
percent of the total, of which 82.5 percent are mild, 9.6 percent asymptomatic,
2.8 percent severe and 5 percent critical.
Data submitted by the accredited laboratories showed that as of Monday

noon, an additional 17,564 people had been tested for COVID-19. Of these,
1,057 tested positive for the new coronavirus, yielding a positivity rate of 6
percent.
Monday’s positivity rate is near the World Health Organization’s benchmark of

less than 5 percent.
Davao health workers

Vergeire said the DOH was already investigating what was driving new
infections among health workers in the Davao region. She noted, however,
that these health workers are not assigned in hospitals but in primary care
facilities.
“We have already given guidance [to the region] and are further investigating
what is happening. For other regions in Mindanao, [there is] a declining trend
in health-care worker infections,” she said.
President Duterte on Monday said he had appointed Secretary Carlito Galvez

Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, as the
country’s “vaccine czar.”
“The purchase of the vaccine, the negotiation [for the] manufacture,

production or distribution, I have given that to Secretary Galvez. So only
Secretary Galvez is authorized to negotiate or whatever. Only one. I don’t
want a committee, it takes long to decide. I have a great faith in Charlie to
really come up with the solutions for the problem,” Mr. Duterte said. —WITH A
REPORT FROM JEROME ANING
In Cebu City, private

hospital workers get
incentive
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — At least 2,000 health-care workers in

private hospitals here received the first tranche of cash incentive from the city
government.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said the cash assistance worth P10,000 was not just
for doctors and nurses but also for nursing aides, medical technologists and
respiratory therapists involved in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
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Labella said the city government was still processing the remaining P20,000,
which would be given to the beneficiaries in the coming months.
Joseph Stephen Descallar, president of the Philippine Nurses Association

chapter in Cebu, thanked the city government for fulfilling its promise to the
health-care workers.
“These acts of kindness will surely inspire our nurses as they continue serving
the community,” he said.
Labella earlier requested the city council to allot P54 million to be given as
cash incentive to medical personnel in private hospitals. They will receive
P10,000 a month for three months from the city government.
—Ador Vincent Mayol and Nestle Semilla
DOH eyes putting PH

under more relaxed
restrictions by 1st
quarter of 2021
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) said all local

governments in the country might be placed under the least restrictive
quarantine classification by the first quarter of 2021 if they would be able to
improve their efforts to prevent, detect and treat COVID-19 patients.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Inter-Agency Task

Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had set
safeguard conditions to determine if a local government unit was ready to be
placed under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
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They must meet the indicators for gatekeeping, Vergeire said.
“In the targets and milestones we have laid down, we’re looking at possibly by
the first quarter of 2021. Hopefully, all local governments will be able to shift to
MGCQ already because they have achieved their gatekeeping indicator,” she
added.
These include being able to sufficiently surveil and trace the contacts of a
COVID-19 patient, she said.
Local governments must also be able to implement basic requirements to

prevent, detect, isolate and treat COVID-19 patients, she said.
“Once local governments have achieved this target, then we can very well say
they can shift to MGCQ,” she said at an online briefing.
Metro Manila, Batangas, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, Iligan City and Lanao del
Sur are under general community quarantine until the end of November.
The rest of the country is under MGCQ.
The Philippines has been under some form of lockdown since March to curb
the spread of COVID-19.
The restrictions were eased in the succeeding months to help revive the
economy, although the government continues to stress the need to strictly
adhere to health measures to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases.
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1,803 new cases

On Saturday, the DOH logged an additional 1,803 cases, pushing the national
tally to 380,729.
Rizal province reported the most number of new infections at 97, followed by
Davao City (93), Quezon City (86), Cavite (66) and Pasig (65).
The total number of COVID-19 survivors increased to 331,046 with the
recovery of 606 more patients. The death toll rose to 7,221 as 36 more
patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
percent critical.
New COVID-19 cases

highest since Oct. 19 –
DOH
By: DJ Yap, Dona Z. Pazzibugan - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — A total of 2,442 new COVID-19 cases were reported

on Sunday, the highest since Oct. 19 while 54 deaths were also recorded, the
most number of fatalities since Oct. 28, according to the Department of Health
(DOH).
With the addition of the new cases, the number of people who had so far
tested positive for the new coronavirus was now 396,395. Of the total,
however, 361,638 people had recovered, leaving 27,218 active cases. This
was slightly higher than the 27,115 reported after the last mass recovery on
Nov. 1.
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Fifteen people died of COVID-19 between August to September but their

deaths were reported only on Sunday, bringing the total number of fatalities to
7,539 since the start of the outbreak in January.
In its latest time-based mass recovery reporting, the DOH declared that
11,430 patients with mild or no symptoms had gotten better after 14 days in
isolation.
On the other hand, five cases previously tagged as recoveries were

reclassified as fatalities.
Of the 27,218 active cases, the DOH said 82 percent had mild symptoms, 9.6
percent were without symptoms, 5.4 percent were in critical condition while
3.1 percent reported severe symptoms.
Rizal province had the highest number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases
with 138, followed by the City of Manila (131), Benguet (130), Batangas (113)
and Bulacan (112).
Funding for vaccines

Meanwhile, Senate leaders are looking at an additional P10 billion in standby
funding to augment the P8 billion earmarked by the House of Representatives
for the purchase of yet-to-be developed COVID-19 vaccines in 2021.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate finance panel, said the
amount would be set aside, not with the rest of the budgetary item for the
purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, but with unprogrammed funds that would
depend on the availability of excess tax revenues or foreign grants.
“The vaccine fund, I think, was given a P5-billion increase in the GAB (general
appropriations bill) and we also have a standby appropriation of maybe P10
billion. And once a vaccine becomes widely available, we can shift the
budgetary item,” he said in a radio interview on Sunday.
But in a separate statement, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon wondered

if the P10 billion would be enough, considering the “huge logistical and human
resource requirements” of a mass inoculation program.
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“The DOH said that we are short of P10 billion but I believe it is way beyond
that,” he said.
The country’s budget managers originally proposed only P2.5 billion in funding
for the COVID-19 vaccination program but the House added P5.5 billion as an
amendment before submitting the GAB to the Senate for its concurrence,
bringing the total to P8 billion.
“That is why we will be pushing for more budget for the procurement and
administration of potential coronavirus vaccines,” Drilon added without
specifying the amount.
“Congress has to appropriate money to buy the vaccine and the best time to
do it is now while we are deliberating on the spending outlay,” he said.
Drilon reiterated his serious concerns over the government’s “lack of a

coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to ensure immediate access to, and
efficient and equitable transportation, storage and distribution of eventual
COVID-19 vaccines.”
Duque on COVID-19: I
hope we won’t suffer
fate like Europe’s
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Tuesday said people should not let
their guard down just because the number of new coronavirus infections had
started to decline.
Duque said that while the Department of Health (DOH) has started to observe
a downward trend in the number of new COVID-19 cases, the threat of the
virus surging again remains as seen in Europe, which is grappling to contain a
second outbreak.
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“This downward trend is certainly a welcome development. But cases may
again rise if we are not careful. We hope that we won’t suffer the same fate
[as Europe],” Duque said.
New infections
On Tuesday, the DOH reported 1,347 additional infections, raising the
country’s overall number of COVID-19 cases to 399,749.
Cavite recorded the most number of new infections, 92, followed by Manila
(77), Quezon City (58), Baguio City (55) and Laguna (52).
In the first 10 days of the month, new cases increased by only 19,143,
compared with the same period in October when it rose by 25,707.
Duque attributed the slowdown in new cases to the government’s continued

efforts, the barangays’ local responses, as well as the public’s compliance
with the minimum health standards, such as wearing masks, hand-washing
and physical distancing.
“Let us not waste this triumph. Let us not be complacent. Let us not [let] our
guard down,” he said.
COVID-19 survivors to 361,919. The death toll, however, increased to 7,661
as 14 more patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
83 percent were mild, 9.4 percent asymptomatic, 2.7 percent severe, and 4.8
percent critical.
Visayas festivals toned

down as pandemic rages
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Nestor P. Burgos Jr. - @inquirerdotnet

TRIBAL PRIDE Performers representing Ati tribes compete in the street
dancing competition in the 2019 staging of Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City.
Next year, the celebration of Iloilo’s biggest tourist drawer will be subdued due
to health and safety precautions as the country deals with the COVID-19
pandemic. —NESTOR P. BURGOS JR.
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Three major festivals in the Visayas —
Cebu’s Sinulog, Iloilo’s Dinagyang and Aklan’s Ati-Atihan — will still push
through in January 2021 amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, but organizers
promised to tone down the annual celebrations to avoid another surge of
infections in local communities.
Sinulog dance rituals and performances by Cebu City-based contingents will

be streamed live, while out-of-town performers, including those from Cebu
province, will have to prerecord their performances, said Elmer Labella,
executive director of Sinulog Foundation Inc.
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Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who was tasked with leading the preparations for
Sinulog 2021, said the number of dancers per contingent would be limited to
only 50. The use of backdrops and rolling props during performances will also
be prohibited. There will be no floats and “higantes” (effigies).
The priests at Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño will forgo religious activities
related to the 456th Fiesta Señor, except for novena Masses, as a precaution
against the spread of COVID-19.
Both Sinulog and Ati-Atihan are held every third Sunday of January, followed
by the Dinagyang, a week later, in honor of the Sto. Niño, or Child Jesus.
Balance
As top tourist events, festivals bring in revenues and livelihood for hotels,
restaurants, transport companies, and souvenir and food vendors.
Continued travel restrictions, community quarantine measures and concerns

over the pandemic, however, were expected to limit the participation of
tourists and revelers.
In Iloilo, organizers of the Dinagyang Festival were preparing streamlined

celebrations, too, far from the usual festivities packed by thousands of
devotees.“It will be a balance of health and our economy. But safety will come
first,” lawyer Jobert Peñaflorida, president of the Iloilo Festivals Foundation
Inc. (Iffi), told the Inquirer.Iffi, a private organization of business operators and
owners, organizes and manages various festivals in the city.
HOLY CHILD Cebu’s religious festival, Sinulog, honors the Sto. Niño, the
representation of the infant Jesus Christ. —JUNJIE MENDOZA
“We are looking at a celebration that is more virtual and based on social
media platforms,” said Peñaflorida, noting that the foundation’s
recommendations on the holding of Dinagyang were firmed up during
consultations with representatives of different sectors.While Ati tribe
performances had not been ruled out, Peñaflorida said the celebration next
year would be different. In previous years, groups performed along a
carousel-type parade packed with spectators in judging areas and along the
main streets of Iloilo City.
No foot procession
“The bottom line is [this is] not [about] the dancing but honoring the Sto. Niño,”
he said.
There would be a Mass on the final day of the Kalibo Ati-Atihan on the third
week of January.But Kalibo Mayor Emerson Lachica said the foot procession,
one of the festival highlights, would be scrapped. Carriages bearing images of
saints would instead be followed by a few vehicles passing through the main
streets before ending at St. John the Baptist Cathedral.The street dancing
would most likely be called off to avoid gathering of crowds as a precaution
against the spread of COVID-19.
The Kalibo Ati-Atihan is considered the oldest among the festivals in honor of
Sto. Niño. It is known for its unique and spontaneous “sadsad” (street
dancing) to the beat of drums and the melodic tune of lyres. INQ
‘Isko’ gives P100,000

each to 72 Manila
villages with zero
COVID-19 case for 2
months
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 09:23 PM November 09, 2020
MANILA, Philippines—Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno rewarded 73 villages in

Manila P100,000 each for having zero case of COVID-19 for two months.
Domagoso said no new COVID-19 cases were reported in the 73 villages

from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31.
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The cash reward was part of the city government’s campaign to stop the
spread of SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and bring down
cases of the disease.
Given the reward were 12 villages in the first district, nine in the second
district, 20 in the third district, nine in the fourth district, 10 in the fifth district
and 13 in the sixth district.
Domagoso gave the rewards after the city’s regular flag-raising ceremony at
the Kartilya ng Katipunan monument.
The following were the villages given P100,000 in cash each:
 First district—3, 8, 30, 44, 83, 87, 124, 126, 127, 139, 143, 145
 Second district–188, 217, 239, 240, 243, 244, 252, 258, 261
 Third district—268, 270, 271, 272, 273, 295, 300, 303, 306, 307, 326,
330, 332, 344, 348, 349, 362, 363, 380, 390
 Fourth district–446, 462, 469, 490, 501, 546, 552, 573, 577
 Fifth district—661, 706, 711, 716, 742, 663-A, 749, 757, 758, 795
 Sixth district—606, 608, 610, 613, 614, 626, 635, 647, 853, 865, 886,
891, 895
Last Aug. 31, Domagoso said the objective of the reward system is to bring
down coronavirus infections for two months in the villages.
TSB
Stay cautious despite
vaccine hopes, DOH
warns as COVID cases
top 400,000
MANILA, Philippines — Although initial results of the large-scale clinical trial of

Pfizer’s candidate COVID-19 vaccine were encouraging, the Department of
Health (DOH) on Wednesday sought to temper public expectations, advising
people to continue to observe preventive health measures, especially as the
overall number of coronavirus infections went past 400,000.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that if the government

does procure Pfizer’s vaccine, storing it will prove to be a challenge as the
country’s public hospitals and health centers do not have supercold storage
units required to keep the vaccine at an extremely low temperature.
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And because President Duterte wants at least 20 percent of the population

vaccinated, Vergeire said the DOH could not plan for vaccination at hospitals
and health centers only.
“We will get to that point when we need to go to the communities to vaccinate.
[With this vaccine], we cannot do that at all because the requirement is an
ultralow freezer. So that’s one of our challenges,” she said.
Other vaccines
Vergeire said the country’s vaccine expert panel was also not considering at
this point the possibility of freeze-drying the vaccine to negate the requirement
of storage at ultralow temperature.
But Dr. Anna Ong-Lim, president of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of
the Philippines, said not all of the more than 150 vaccines under development
had the same makeup and requirements as those of Pfizer’s vaccine.
“Hopefully, there will soon be a vaccine that is friendly to our conditions, that is
as effective and will be available as soon as possible so that it will also be an
option for us,” said Lim, a member of the DOH’s technical advisory group.
Vergeire said the DOH was already in talks with the private sector for possible
partnerships, on top of studies to determine what would be the “most
acceptable, appropriate, safe and efficacious” vaccine for Filipinos.
Because of the confidentiality disclosure agreement with Pfizer, Vergeire said

the DOH could not disclose just yet how many doses of the vaccine the
government planned to buy or if an order had been placed with the American
pharmaceutical giant.
The DOH is still working with the Office of the President to find a workaround
on the stringent provision of the procurement law that prohibits the payment of
items that have yet to be delivered, Vergeire said.
“As we know many of the manufacturers, partners we are negotiating with are
requiring this advance payment. It is currently being studied if it’s possible to
have a special exemption from this specific provision of the law because of
this pandemic,” she said.
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Following Pfizer’s announcement that initial results showed that its candidate
vaccine was more than 90 percent effective, President Duterte said the virus
that has killed close to 1.3 million worldwide was “no longer scary.”
‘Remain vigilant’
Though Vergeire agreed that the public shouldn’t be cowed, she stressed the
need to “remain vigilant, cautious and aware” and to continue to observe the
health measures meant to curb the spread of the virus.
“We have to temper our expectations. It must still be grounded on the reality
that the virus is still here and we need to observe our preventive measures,”
she said.
Eight months since the first local coronavirus case was recorded, the
Philippines breached the 400,000 mark on Wednesday, logging 1,672
additional cases that brought the overall number of confirmed infections to
401,416.
Cavite reported the most number of new cases, 100, followed by Davao City
(99), Quezon City (81), Batangas (78) and Baguio City (70).
COVID-19 survivors to 362,217. The death toll, however, rose to 7,710 as 49
2 calamity-hit provinces
told to lift COVID
restrictions
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government

(DILG) ordered the Cagayan and Isabela provincial governments to lift their
community quarantine restrictions to give rescuers, relief workers and media
teams easier access to flooded communities reeling from the damage wrought
by Typhoon Ulysses (international name: Vamco).
In a statement on Saturday night, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said

“existing (local government) requirements related to the management of the
COVID-19 pandemic should not hamper or delay the entry, passage, or
operations of all government and private sector humanitarian assistance and
response personnel.”
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Año said he issued the order following reports that relief and media
organizations were being barred at Cagayan’s borders due to strict quarantine
restrictions imposed by the provincial government.
“The situation in Cagayan requires unhampered disaster response and

recovery operations by rescue and relief organizations. Therefore, all LGUs
(local government units) in Cagayan and Isabela should ease up access in
their areas to facilitate disaster operations,” he added.
Año also called on the regional arm of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the
Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to “exercise its sound
discretion in lifting the restrictions.”
But he reminded responders and journalists to observe minimum health

standards, such as the wearing of face masks and face shields while in the
area.
—Patricia Denise M. Chiu
Active COVID-19 cases

fall to 25,677
MANILA, Philippines — Active COVID-19 cases in the country fell to 25,677,

the lowest since July 31, with the latest “mass recovery” of 11,290 mild or
asymptomatic cases who have completed a two-week quarantine.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,530 new coronavirus cases on

Sunday, the sixth straight day of fewer than 2,000 daily cases, which brought
to 407,838 the overall number of confirmed infections since the start of the
outbreak.
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Under its time-based mass recovery protocol, the DOH said 374,329 or 91.8
percent have already recovered.
But total deaths rose to 7,832 or 1.89 percent of total cases, after 41 people
were confirmed to have died of COVID-19, including four people previously
tagged as recovered.
This left 25,677 people or 7.1 percent still infected with the virus, the second
lowest figure since the DOH began its weekly mass recovery on July 15.
The country had 22,327 active cases as of July 30, and 26,153 as of July 31.
Of the 25,677 active cases as of Nov. 15, 1,437 people or 5.6 percent were in
critical condition.
The DOH said 21,183 or 82.5 percent had mild symptoms, 2,156 or 8.4
percent had no symptoms, 51 or 0.2 percent had moderate symptoms or
nonsevere pneumonia, while 821 or 3.2 percent have severe symptoms.
Of the 1,530 new infections, 90 were from Cavite, 84 from Rizal, 79 from
Manila, 78 from Davao City and 73 from Taguig City.
The DOH said nine testing laboratories did not submit their data on Nov. 14.
Under the DOH’s mass recovery adjustments, patients with mild or no

symptoms are tagged as “recovered” after 14 days since the start of
symptoms or the date of testing.
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As a result, reported recoveries spike weekly.
But the DOH continues to report numerous cases of duplication and false
tagging of recoveries, which turned out to be deaths after validation.
Cebu City turns to
‘granular’ lockdowns to
fight COVID-19
By: Ador Vincent Mayol, Nestle Semilla - @inquirerdotnet

Roy Cimatu
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Area-specific or granular lockdowns
coupled with strict border monitoring will be implemented in this city as local
officials noted a resurgence of cases of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-
19).
“When you speak of granular lockdowns, it could only be a lockdown

[involving a] street, it could only be a lockdown of a family [or] it could only be
a lockdown of a sitio. So that depends on the situation,” said Mayor Edgardo
Labella.
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He said he found it more prudent to implement granular or neighborhood-level

lockdowns to revive the local economy while ensuring the safety of the
people.
Labella, however, had yet to release the total number of areas that would be
placed under granular lockdown.
Checkpoints
Police on Monday implemented strict border controls around Cebu City to limit
the number of people going to the city.
The borders will be closed for those traveling for leisure and nonofficial
businesses, while workers and front-liners can enter the city if they present
proper documents.
On Monday, checkpoints set up in the city borders caused heavy traffic,

according to Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, Central Visayas regional
police director.
“Unlike in the past weeks, our police officers now have to really inspect every
vehicle, whether private or public, going to the city,” he said.
In October, the number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in the city daily did
not exceed nine, but health officials saw the figures rise starting last week,
bringing the number of active cases to 292 as of Sunday, the Department of
Health (DOH) said.
The city recorded 59 new infections on Saturday alone, followed by another

30 on Sunday.
Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the city’s Emergency
Operations Center (EOC), said an average of 12.35 cases was recorded daily
between Nov. 1 and Nov. 14.
He said the EOC noted more cases being logged daily than recoveries.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson for the regional DOH, said it was too
early to say that a second wave was happening in Cebu City.
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The rise in cases, she said, indicated that COVID-19 is “still very much here
with us and we need to fight it together.”
“We have a very active and proactive EOC. Our health-care facilities are
better equipped and we have the testing capabilities with all the laboratories
that are in place,” Loreche said.
Avoiding complacency
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, who has been directed to oversee the
government response to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Cebu, met with
city officials on Monday to discuss measures to slow down the spread of the
virus.
Cimatu stressed the need to strictly enforce and follow the health protocols.
“Some people in the city may have been too complacent already. I believe
there is a need to remind them that the virus is still here. If the city
government will continue implementing the health measures, I believe we can
stop the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases,” he said.
On June 16, Cebu City was placed under enhanced community quarantine,
the strictest form of lockdown, due to a surge in the number of COVID-19
cases, as well as its problem of providing critical health-care assistance to
patients.
It took about two months before the city was downgraded to modified general
community quarantine, the most relaxed form of quarantine.
SURGE IN
COVID-19
CASES
OVERWHELM
S CONTACT
TRACERS
BY: NESTOR CORRALES- PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER NOVEMBER 16, 2020
Applicants for the job of the contract tracer undergo interview at the Universidad de Manila.
RICHARD REYES
(First of two parts)
MANILA, Philippines — On Sept. 30, Ela Elesterio of Pasay City was told that she
had tested positive for COVID-19. Three days later, a team from the local
government was at her house for contact tracing.
No such speed marked the experience of “Angelica” and her family back in July. She
said her mother had been found positive for the coronavirus in a swab test that was a
requirement for admission at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon
City. But it was only after 11 days that a team from their local government visited
their house to swab her mother’s close contacts.
Angelica’s experience was not unique, according to Baguio City Mayor and “contact
tracing czar” Benjamin Magalong. To illustrate his point, he cited a report stating that
no contact tracing was administered to two families with 15 members in a Metro
Manila city who had been in close quarters with a COVID-19 patient.
All these incidents validate the observation of the World Health Organization (WHO)
representative in the Philippines, Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, that the country’s
contact-tracing efforts are “a little weak.”
The WHO specifies one contact tracer per every 800 persons. On that ratio, the
Philippines needs at least 135,000 contact tracers for its population of 110 million.
Shortage
Magalong said the shortage of contact tracers had been a problem for many local
government units (LGUs) since the Department of Health (DOH) passed the
responsibility of contact tracing to them in April.
“They are just overwhelmed by the number of cases. Our contact tracers are already
tired,” he told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
In Metro Manila, “the national contact tracing efficiency ratio” is only five or six close
contacts of COVID-19 patients, Magalong said. “We have designed 1:37 as a
benchmark figure for urban areas and 1:30 for rural areas.”
The number of unaccounted contacts is a factor in the rise in COVID-19 cases in the
country, the mayor said. “Can you imagine if you only trace five contacts for every
positive patient every day? And if you have three cases a day, you only identified 15
close contacts?” he said.
Magalong continued with his computations: Applying this to the 1:25 benchmark for
patient-close contacts ratio, 75 contacts need to be traced. “Now, you minus 15 from
75, you are looking at 60 unidentified or unaccounted close contacts.”
Assuming a 10 percent positive rate among close contacts, “that’s six people
potentially infected, unidentified, unaccounted, and roaming the streets potentially
infecting other people.”
“If that trend continues for 10 days, then you are looking at 60 people, unidentified,
unaccounted, potentially infecting other people. That is how important contact tracing
is.”
In August, more than five months since the DOH confirmed the first local
transmission of COVID-19 in the country, the government had only 91,000 contact
tracers (or 44,000 short of the recommended 135,000), said Interior Undersecretary
Bernardo Florece Jr., who is in charge of the contact-tracing efforts of the
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Under the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act (or Bayanihan 2), the DILG was given a
P5-billion budget to hire and train 50,000 contact tracers.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said 26,000 of the target number had been hired and
deployed to various provinces as of Oct. 10.
A contact tracing team from the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) of the Quezon
City government conducts house to house tracing of possible CoVid19 patients in Brgy. Baesa on
Wednesday, July 15, 2020.The team is accompanied by a plainclothes police officer. INQUIRER
PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
Game changer
Magalong said the additional 50,000 contact tracers would “enhance the
performance of LGUs” in containing the spread of the coronavirus.
“The 50,000 will be a … huge game changer,” he said. “But they should be properly
trained, properly capacitated.”
Among the LGUs, Valenzuela City has “very good contact tracing,” Magalong said.
Since the start of the lockdown on March 12, Valenzuela’s Epidemiology and
Surveillance Unit has grown from 10 members to a 100-strong team.
In August, the city opened a mega contact tracing center operating 24/7 and staffed
by at least 100 personnel, including data encoders, schedulers, contact tracers and
surveillance officers.
“Basically, it’s a call center where people would call in,” said Valenzuela Mayor Rex
Gatchalian. “Then the agents will walk you through it, they will do triage … Then if
they determine that you have it, or you have high-risk exposure, and if the symptoms
match, they will schedule you for the swab testing.”
Gatchalian said all testing, including of close contacts of COVID-19 patients, were
being administered for free, courtesy of the local government.
How they do it
When a call is made, “we can swab you in as fast as 48 hours,” Gatchalian told the
Inquirer.
This is how they do it, according to the mayor: “We do home swabbing. We … don’t
make people come to a center where they are swabbed because we firmly believe
that people with high-risk exposure or any type of exposure are suspects that should
stay at home.
“So we send a team that will swab them at home. We put the house on lockdown…
and when in lockdown, they will be guarded.
“The police will come in, the barangay will come in. Nobody is allowed to leave the
house until the results are back.
“Once the results come in, the call center agents will call and tell [them] the results.
“Then we also leave a box of food that’s good for at least a week and a half, so that
[they] would have food to eat just in case the results [are] delayed.”
But with the opening of the new molecular laboratory in the city, Gatchalian said, “we
can do it as fast as 24 hours because our laboratory will be fully automated.”
If the swab results turn out positive, “we deploy an extraction team that will pull you
out and put you in an isolation unit because we [have not allowed] home quarantine
in Valenzuela ever since Day 1,” the mayor said.
Valenzuela has 12 isolation units with close to 1,100 beds.
“At any given time, nobody is allowed to do home quarantine in Valenzuela, no

matter who you are,” Gatchalian said.
He said further contact tracing would be conducted by phone. Once this is done, the
data gathered will be passed to the surveillance officers “to do validation on the
ground.”
Twofold process
Gatchalian described it as “a twofold process: First, it’s self-assessment. You tell me
who your contacts are, then we revalidate it using our surveillance officers.”
Valenzuela has 330 surveillance officers, including barangay health workers, doctors
and nurses, on the ground and at least 160 call center agents at the mega contact
tracing center. In October, another 226 contact tracers were deployed as part of the
first batch hired by the DILG for the city.
Año said the contact tracers hired by the DILG would earn a minimum P18,784 a
month in a service contract. But even before then, the city-hired contact tracers were
earning between P12,000 and P15,000 a month, Gatchalian said.
Monitor flood evacuees

for COVID-19 symptoms,
local governments told
MANILA, Philippines — At the start of November, the Department of Health

(DOH) said that because it might not be possible to test all evacuees for the
new coronavirus before they were sent home, local governments should
ensure that preventive measures were in place in the shelters to prevent a
surge in infections.
In its latest recommendation to the government, the OCTA Research Group

suggested that local governments provide “adequate and accessible testing,
effective contact tracing and supportive isolation facilities” to families in
evacuation centers as more storms may hit the country.
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During a briefing on Nov. 4, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire

said that while it might be ideal to test the evacuees, it was “not really
recommended at this point.”
Screening will suffice

“Ideally, if we have the resources and it can be done, we can do that. But
whenever we evacuate our countrymen during these times of calamities, this
is one of the emergency measures that we do,” Vergeire said.
Instead, the DOH recommended that safety officers regularly monitor

evacuees, especially those most vulnerable to COVID-19 such as the elderly
and those with underlying conditions. This way, anyone who would develop
symptoms may immediately be isolated to prevent transmission of the new
coronavirus.
The evacuees should also observe the minimum health standards, such as
wearing masks, frequent hand-washing, and physical distancing, the DOH
said.
When asked if testing could be done before evacuees were sent back home,
Vergeire said symptom screening would suffice.
“We really need to have our barangay health response teams mobilized and
that they monitor [the evacuees] once they return to their communities.
Symptom screening is our recommended way for now before residents are
sent back to their communities,” she said.
On Tuesday, the DOH recorded 1,148 additional coronavirus infections,

bringing the overall number of cases to 410,718.
Cavite reported the most number of cases, 88, followed by Quezon City (52),
Rizal (46), Baguio City (44) and Manila (44).
The DOH said 186 more patients had recovered, pushing the total number of
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Positivity rate 5.1%

Of the 17,880 patients tested for COVID-19 Monday noon, 920 tested
positive, or a positivity rate of 5.1 percent.
The World Health Organization’s benchmark is less than 5 percent.
In Metro Manila, OCTA noted that the positivity rate continued to decline and
was now 4 percent.
83.6 percent were mild, 8.2 percent asymptomatic, 0.22 percent moderate,
2.9 percent severe, and 5.1 percent critical.
Baguio tightens border

control anew as COVID-
19 cases rise in nearby
towns
BAGUIO’S NEIGHBOR Traffic along the main road of La Trinidad, the
provincial capital of Benguet and a major vegetable trading hub in the
Cordillera, is unusually light in this photo taken last month. Many La
Trinidad residents regularly travel to nearby Baguio City for work, business,
education and leisure but city officials say they will impose tighter border
checks to contain the spread of COVID-19. —EV ESPIRITU
BAGUIO CITY—The city has again restricted entry of people coming from
neighboring towns beginning Nov. 21 due to reports of Benguet province’s
inadequate testing for the coronavirus.
But Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Wednesday said the city government would
continue helping Benguet with test kits and manpower for contact tracing to
contain the spread of the virus.
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Health workers have yet to determine the full scope of transmission in

Benguet, partly because of a reluctance to conduct expanded testing,
according to Magalong.
“More Benguet residents travel regularly to Baguio so controlling our borders

would cut down the risk,” he said. Those who could not prove that they were
not infected with the virus will be denied entry, he added.
Arrangements were being made regarding workers who live in Benguet,

including Itogon and Tuba towns where the virus spread in mining
communities last month.
Benguet recorded 15 new cases on Nov. 16, which raised its total number to
1,767. Among the new cases were eight people who were exposed to carriers
in Itogon.
Free movement
Baguio used to allow free movement for residents of five Benguet towns that
are part of an economic collaboration called BLISTT (acronym for Baguio and
nearby La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay).
“So they came in and out without the necessity of submitting to triage [until
this week],” Magalong said. But new tests conducted from Nov. 5 to Nov. 6
raised concerns about the strategy used in Benguet, he said.
According to him, 100 of 915 Itogon residents tested positive for the virus with
a positivity rate of 10 percent. “This means out of 100, 10 were infected,” he
said.
La Trinidad, the capital of Benguet, tested 1,112 residents during that period
and 91 were proven carriers, or a 2.8 percent positive rate. In Itogon, 37 of
752 residents tested were found infected, or a positivity rate of over 4 percent.
Data analyses project a slow reduction of Baguio cases in the near future,
provided those in Benguet also begin to slow down, Magalong said. —
VINCENT CABREZA
As Baguio cases soar,

frontliners seek ‘timeout’
Many medical workers falling ill to coronavirus

FIGHTING VIRUS The Baguio City government is again stepping up efforts to
contain the spread of COVID-19 in the summer capital. —EV ESPIRITU
BAGUIO CITY—The city’s medical community on Thursday called for a
“timeout” on all public activities as mounting severe cases of the coronavirus
were beginning to tax local health resources.
More health workers treating patients have also fallen to the virus, with many
contracting the disease in October, according to Dr. Thea Pamela Cajulao,
head of infection prevention and control department of Baguio General
Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC).
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BGHMC, which serves as the primary COVID-19 facility here, has been
recording a spike in severe and critical cases, Cajulao said.
Alarming numberIn September, the hospital treated four patients with severe
cases and six patients who were in critical condition. The number rose to 30 in
October, with 20 of them considered severe cases while 10 were critical.
Since the middle of November, BGHMC has been treating 20 patients,
including six in critical condition.
“To us in the medical community, these numbers are alarming … Last Nov.
15, we met with Mayor [Benjamin] Magalong and voiced our concern
regarding increasing cases. We were asking for a timeout, but it [could be] a
difficult balancing act with the economy and what could be another lockdown,”
Cajulao said.
In June, the city started easing restrictions on people’s movement and allowed
shops and manufacturers to resume operations. It opened the city’s borders to
Luzon tourists provided they passed health screening.
Cajulao said most patients who were treated in September were between 61
and 76 years old. In November, ages of patients were from 43 to 83. October
was notable for a century-old patient who survived the disease.
She said the big number of elderly patients could overwhelm critical care
facilities. “Hospitals get filled up because elderly patients are confined longer
for their other medical conditions. They take a longer time to recover,” she
said.
On Thursday, Saint Louis University Hospital of the Sacred Heart here

announced that it could no longer accept new COVID-19 cases.
The city still has more than 300 beds available for new patients and has
tapped accommodation facilities to house mild cases.
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Business momentum
But doctors here acknowledged the difficulty of stopping the momentum of
businesses that are trying to recover from a wider lockdown, Cajulao said.
Medical workers, mostly nurses and interns, were also exposed to the
disease, although they had recovered and returned to work since, said Dr.
Bernard Demot, BGHMC adult infectious disease specialist.
Eighteen members of the BGHMC team were infected in October and 34 so

far in November.
Baguio tourism industry
objects to OCTA ‘high
risk’ tag
Baguio entrepreneurs like this woman suffered during the lockdown and the
prevailing quarantine, but have picked themselves up, brushed themselves
off, and resumed their trade despite the coronavirus pandemic. PHOTO BY
EV ESPIRITU INQ
BAGUIO CITY — Saying lives and the economy are at stake, tourism industry
leaders on Tuesday turned against what they claimed are “sensationalized
news reports” about the summer capital’s classification as a “high risk” area
for the coronavirus has “misled” travelers into thinking that Baguio is unsafe.
Baguio was ranked high alongside Davao City among nine local governments
flagged in the latest OCTA Research as “hot spots” due to high rates of
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmissions.
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The OCTA report, which is regularly distributed to the media, is generated

periodically by an independent research team composed of scholars from the
University of the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas and United
States-based Providence College.
The research lists LGUs of concern or high-risk areas based on high cases
per day, high positivity rate, high attack rate, and/or high hospital occupancy.
“Reporting this has threatened to undermine the efforts of tourism

stakeholders to revitalize an industry (that has been) so badly shaken by the
coronavirus for that past 8 months now,” said the Hotel and Restaurant
Association of Baguio (HRAB) and the Baguio Tourism Council in a joint
statement.
“We have suffered deeply and will suffer more if domestic travelers and
tourists are misled into believing that Baguio is unsafe, as reported out in both
national and local media,” according to the statement signed by tourism
council chair Gladys Vergara-de Vera and Anthony de Leon, HRAB vice chair
and general manager of the Baguio Country Club.
Baguio tourism officer Aloysius Mapalo said almost 10,000 tourists and
business travelers have visited Baguio from Oct. 22 to Nov. 22 after Mayor
Benjamin Magalong reopened the city borders to leisure travelers from Luzon.
But hotels have recently complained about room cancellations for the
December holidays, alarming the industry which absorbed a P1.6 billion loss
due to the hard lockdown and the prevailing quarantine.
The progression of infections in the summer capital should now be moving at

“a downtrend, where cases will most likely decrease for the coming days,”
according to a Nov. 21 data analysis from the Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science at the University of the Philippines Baguio, the city health
services office and the information office.
UP Baguio has been collaborating with city epidemiologists to track local
COVID-19 behavior including daily attack rates or the proportion of the
population that contracts the disease in an ‘at-risk’ population at a given
moment.
It says the trend of infections from March to November 20 does indicate that
“the number of daily confirmed cases has been increasing in the latter days,”
following two outbreaks in September.
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But the UP Baguio study attributes the subsequent increases of infection to

Baguio’s aggressive testing and contact tracing.
As of Nov. 24, Baguio hospitals have been treating 208 patients, who count
among the city’s total infection cases that has reached 2,915 since March.
City health officials said 2,667 of them recovered, but fatalities in Baguio have
risen to 40, many composed of the elderly and people weakened by
underlying medical conditions.
The tourism industry leaders said Baguio cases have dropped by 17.26
percent as of Nov. 18, citing a city health report which highlights the efficiency
of expanded tests that allow health workers to identify, isolate and treat
COVID-19 carriers so as not to expose more people to the disease.
The HRAB and tourism council statement stresses that the heightened
infection rate documented by OCTA occurred during active test and trace
operations to determine the actual rate of community transmissions.
“In any language, in any real-time situation, Baguio’s nunber of positive cases
hardly (depict) a city gripped (by) a ‘high risk’ situation,” they said. VINCENT
CABREZA INQ
Price cap for COVID-19
swab test pegged at
P5,000
SAY AHHH! The health and trade departments have set the price of a swab
test in private laboratories at P4,500 to P5,000. In public labs, a test will set
back a patient by P3,500. At St. Luke’s Medical Center, a test costs P4,300.
At Philippine Red Cross, it’s P4,000. —RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — The health and trade departments have issued an
order limiting the price accredited laboratories can charge their patients for
COVID-19 swab tests to help ensure equitable access. Ironically, the floor
price arrived at by the government is much higher than existing rates in a
number of laboratories.
Under the joint administrative order of the Department of Health (DOH) and
the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), private laboratories can only
charge patients between P4,500 and P5,000, while the limit for public
laboratories is P3,800.
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Just, equitable, sensitive

The order, signed on Tuesday, immediately takes effect upon publication in
newspapers.
“With this joint administrative order, the government seeks to strike a balance
of equity, access and consumers’ choice. In determining the price range, we
strived to ensure that they are just, equitable and sensitive to all,” Health
Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
Noticeably, the floor price set for private laboratories is higher than the current
rate some laboratories charge for the standard RT-PCR (reverse transcription
polymerase chain reaction) test. For example, St. Luke’s Medical Center
charges P4,300 for each test, while the Philippine Red Cross rate is at
P4,000.
In its existing package, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) can pay
government laboratories up to P3,409 if all the services for testing were
procured and provided by the laboratory.
Duque noted that the price range was arrived at following a market study and
survey that took into account all testing inputs that included kits, transport
medium and overhead costs. The floor price, he said, was based on the
“median price” while the ceiling was based on the “75th percentile.”
While the joint administrative order has set a price floor for swab tests, Duque
said this did not mean that laboratories currently charging much lower should
increase their fees.
“They will have to keep their current pricing level. It’s not good that just
because we have this price range they would suddenly increase their fees to
the allowable ceiling. Whatever is the level of their testing fees, that should be
maintained,” he said.
Though laboratories could still offer expedited processing of samples, Duque
said the cost of this premium service shouldn’t exceed P5,000.
To ensure that the price range remains fair, Duque said the mechanism would
be subjected to monthly monitoring.
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Penalties
The health chief warned that laboratories that fail to comply with the order will
have their license to operate suspended for 15 days for the first violation and
30 days for the second. They will also be fined P20,000 and P30,000,
respectively. A third violation would merit revocation of their license.
The order putting a limit on the price of swab tests comes two months after
the DOH asked President Duterte to issue a directive regulating the market as
it observed “the differential pricing across the different laboratories in the
country.” PCR tests in public and private laboratories currently range from
P1,500 to as much as P19,000.
On Wednesday, the DOH reported 1,202 additional coronavirus infections,

raising the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 422,915.
Davao City had the most number of new infections, 137, followed by Quezon
City (68), Batangas (59), Laguna (54) and Cavite (47).
Mayors of Baguio,
Benguet end row on
border control
BAGUIO CITY—The implementation of border restrictions on Benguet

residents entering this city went smoothly on Thursday, after the mayors of
Baguio and five Benguet towns settled their differences.
The border control was enforced from Nov. 26 to Dec. 4 in the towns of La
Trinidad, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay, while Benguet officials set up more
isolation facilities and expanded tests to contain an outbreak of the
coronavirus, particularly in mining communities in the province.
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Workers, traders and residents sent to buy goods here were allowed entry
after displaying their identification cards and medical clearances at border
checkpoints.
Many workers in Baguio come from neighboring towns, but the lack of data on
their number has prompted city officials to seek Benguet’s help in identifying,
tagging and monitoring cross-border activities.
But Baguio’s decision triggered a social media feud last week among
residents and government employees about its necessity, with some accusing
Mayor Benjamin Magalong of being against the Igorot.
“Throughout my life and my career [as a police officer), I have never been
against Cordillerans,” said the Baguio-born Magalong.
On Thursday, he met with Mayors Armando Lauro of Tublay, Clarita Sal-

ongan of Tuba, Romeo Salda of La Trinidad, Manuel Munar Jr. of Sablan and
Victorio Palangdan of Itogon behind closed doors to thresh out differences on
the border restrictions.
Baguio and the five towns are part of an economic collaboration called
BLISTT (Baguio, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay).
Itogon residents were subjected to the same border rules earlier this month
due to an outbreak of coronavirus there, but these regulations were lifted on
Nov. 23.
SCRUTINY The lockdown imposed in Luzon early this year led to checks on
every vehicle entering Baguio City. The restrictions have been eased, with
residents from nearby Benguet towns given easy access to Baguio until an
increase in COVID-19 cases required restrictions to be reimposed in the city
for nine days. —VINCENT CABREZA
COVID-19 concentration
On Thursday, the Cordillera disaster risk reduction and management council
(CDRRMC) examined the health situation of BLISTT after the Department of
Health pointed out that 80 percent of cases recorded in the region were
concentrated there.
Albert Mogol, council chair, was asked earlier by the mayors to oversee the
virus containment process of Benguet while Baguio’s border measures were
in effect.
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The DOH said BLISTT and the rest of the Cordillera were still considered
“low-risk,” based on the attack rate and the two-week growth rate that had
been computed by analysts.
As of Nov. 22, the number of cases in Cordillera had totaled 5,381, with 410
classified as active. The regional disaster response management body said
86 percent (4,602 cases) were recorded in BLISTT while 80 percent of active
cases (327) were undergoing treatment in hospitals.
The towns experienced surges in cases in October and November when

occupants of mining bunkers and residents in outlying communities in Tuba,
Mankayan and Itogon were stricken with the virus.
Baguio has registered the most cases with 2,913 since March, but the DOH
said this was tied to aggressive testing that allowed the early detection and
isolation of virus carriers.
The city had tested more than 64,000 of its residents, and quarantined and
had treated 2,913 who were found positive for the disease as of Nov. 22. —
VINCENT CABREZA
‘Red Wednesday’
marked in PH also for
COVID, typhoon victims
TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK “They may be persecuting us [but] we will not
retaliate,” says Fr. Kali Llamado, vice rector of Manila Cathedral, one of the
Philippine churches that observed “Red Wednesday,” an annual Catholic
tradition expressing solidarity with Christians suffering or losing their lives for
their faith around the world. —RICHARD A. REYES
Catholic churches across the country were illuminated in red on Wednesday,
a practice introduced in 2016 as a sign of solidarity with Christians suffering
from modern-day persecution around the world.
For this year’s observance, the Filipino faithful were also urged to offer
prayers for the victims of the recent typhoons and the coronavirus pandemic,
as well as for medical front-liners, especially those who have experienced
discrimination in their communities.
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“Red is the color of suffering … the color of courage, and it is also the color of
love,” said Fr. Kali Llamado, vice rector of Manila Cathedral, explaining the
symbolism behind “Red Wednesday.” “With this, you become aware of the
suffering of the people. Red is the color of blood. Front-liners give their blood,
their lives.”
“We pray for those who are persecuted [and] who persecute them. For those
oppressed and their oppressors. Because Jesus said love your enemies, pray
for your persecutors as well,” Llamado said. “That’s our expression of love …
They may be persecuting us [but] we will not retaliate.”
The occasion should also be a time of reflection in the wake of the recent
calamities, Llamado said, referring to the massive flooding in Luzon that has
left scores dead and thousands displaced. “Even the mountains are bleeding
because of what we have done to them. In a way, this is a wake-up call.”
Marked in the last week of November, Red Wednesday is a global campaign

started by the group Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). It has been adopted by
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and now practiced in
about 1,600 churches nationwide.
ACN Philippines is currently headed by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop

Socrates Villegas as president.
According to ACN in the United States, around 300 million Christians around
the world are suffering persecution today. About 4,000 Christians were
murdered for their faith in 2018, and at least 11 are killed every day in the 50
worst-offending countries, the group added.
The Pew Research Center said there were 143 countries where Christians
suffered persecution in 2017. —Jodee A. Agoncillo
Mental issues possible

after COVID recovery
People who have recovered from COVID-19 are still at risk of suffering from
the disease’s impact on their mental health, a leading neurologist said on
Thursday.
Dr. Epifania Collantes, stroke services chief at Philippine General Hospital,
said COVID-19’s effect on brain functions could be seen long after the patient
had recovered from the severe respiratory disease.
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“Patients who recover from COVID have higher risk of neuropsychiatric and
neurocognitive conditions,” Collantes said in a press briefing.
These conditions may include depression, obsessive compulsive disorder

(OCD) or psychosis, Collantes said.
Two years after recovery

Neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease may
manifest perhaps two years after the COVID-19 patient’s recovery, she
added.
Collantes urged COVID-19 survivors who have follow-up checkups regularly

to also get examined for signs of serious impairment of their mental faculties.
Doctors have noticed that some COVID-19 patients who have recovered have
shown behavioral changes.
“They can’t sleep at night, they are afraid, there is fear of having another
infection and dying,” Collantes said.
Some who have recovered cannot think clearly, which affects their
relationships and work, she said.
“Some have hallucinations and they need to be treated,” she added.
“In a few years we will see the effect,” she added, referring to Alzheimer’s
disease and Parkinson’s disease.
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Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys

memory and thinking skills.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that leads to shaking,

stiffness, and difficulty with walking, balance and coordination.
Collantes said doctors were still gathering data on how many COVID-19
patients had been affected neurologically.
“Soon we will have the data,” she said.
A COVID-19 patient may fully recover physically after about six months, “but
for cognitive conditions, they should be screened beyond six months,”
Collantes said.
Screening
“There are certain tools we have to screen for cognitive impairment. Even if
the family has not noticed any signs, [COVID patients] should consult so the
doctor can pick up signs of initial memory decline early,” she said.
The Department of Health (DOH) has recorded fewer than 2,000 COVID-19
cases daily for 17 straight days, but deaths due to the coronavirus disease
continued to increase in double digits.
On Thursday, the DOH reported 1,392 additional infections, bringing the total
confirmed cases to 424,297.
Eight out of the past 17 days saw fewer than 1,500 new cases.
The DOH said 27 more patients had died of COVID-19, including nine people
who were previously tagged as recovered, which brought total deaths to
8,242.
It said 328 more patients had recovered, raising the overall number of COVID-
19 survivors to 387,266.
84 percent, or 24,182, were mild; 8.3 percent, or 2,389, showed no symptoms;
0.26 percent, or 74, moderate; 2.6 percent, or 748, severe, and 4.9 percent, or
1,410, critical.
The DOH said 1,367 tested positive for the virus out of 24,558 tests
conducted, for a positivity rate of 5.6 percent.
But nine laboratories were unable to submit their data.

Among cities and provinces, Caloocan City had the most new cases, 77,
followed by Cavite and Laguna (73 each), Davao City (62) and Quezon
province (60).
‘Not without hope’ vs

pandemic, Senate
passes P4.5-T budget
By: Melvin Gascon - Correspondent / @melvingasconINQ
The Senate on Thursday approved its version of the P4.5-trillion 2021 general
appropriations bill (GAB), which Sen. Sonny Angara said would bring hope to
Filipinos and create the path for the country’s recovery from the bludgeoning it
took from the pandemic and recent natural calamities.
Voting 22-0, the spending bill was approved on second and third readings
during Thursday’s session.
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Angara, Senate finance committee chair, said the GAB would pour funds “into
programs, activities and projects that deserve it most.”
“The amendments we propose demonstrate that we are doubling down on our

commitment to respond more effectively to the pandemic, on our motivation to
help more of our people struck by calamity, and our single-minded focus on
restarting the economy,” he said.
“Hopefully, inside the line items of this budget, our people see that indeed
there is a path out of this pandemic and recession. That we are not without
hope. That we still can emerge a stronger, safer, more inclusive and more
prosperous country,” he said.
COVID-19 response
Angara did not cite figures, but he said “much of the increases” that the
committee had made pertain to the health sector and the government’s
COVID-19 response.
He did not say which items in the original version of the GAB submitted by the
House of Representatives were slashed to allow for additional funding for
other expenditures.
He said the Senate had set aside a “huge amount in unprogrammed

appropriations” to purchase vaccines, including the the cost of their storage,
transportation and distribution.
Angara said the Senate made “significant additions” to the budgets of regional
hospitals and health facilities run by the Department of Health, mainly to
increase their capacity and upgrade their equipment.
The Senate also increased the funding for the government’s Medical
Assistance for Indigent Patients Program to allow private hospitals to cater to
more poor patients, Angara said.
More allocations
It has raised the funding for the government’s response to disasters, mainly
through the inclusion of a Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Assistance Program for local governments.
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The “quick response fund” of the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Philippine
National Police meant for relief and rescue operations has also been
increased, Angara said.
The 2021 budget includes a special provision that mandates the Philippine
Statistics Authority to fully establish and implement the Philippine Identification
System, or PhilSys, not later than Dec. 31, 2023.
Angara said funds have also been allotted for infrastructure projects, including
the upgrading of airports, seaports and for building roads, bridges and slope
protection to prevent landslides.
The Department of Education will get increased funding to purchase school

supplies, equipment and printing requirements for the distance learning
modules.
Congressional districts
At the House, former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano accused the
congressmen who pushed for his ouster of receiving as much as P1 billion for
their congressional districts under the GAB they passed on Oct. 16.
“I haven’t seen the bicam but definitely many [congressmen] received an

increase in their budgets from the NEP (National Expenditure Program) to
GAB,” he told reporters in Taguig City on Wednesday.
“So those who are against me, they have been increased between P300
million [and] P1 billion from the House to the Senate. That is why they are
very eager to take over even before Oct. 14 because there is a budget
involved,” he added.
He did not name any congressman.
Cayetano’s allegations came after Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that the P4.5-
trillion spending bill passed by the House contained a “noticeable” increase in
the allocations for the districts of congressmen allied with Speaker Lord Allan
Velasco.
Velasco and House appropriations chair Rep. Eric Yap did not immediately
respond to the Inquirer’s request for comment on Cayetano’s allegations.
Cayetano ally and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte said there were cuts
in the infrastructure budgets in his province.
The former deputy speaker cited, among others, the P386 million removed
from the House-approved allocations in the Department of Public Works and
Highways for three of President Duterte’s flagship projects in Bicol. —WITH A
REPORT FROM NESTOR CORRALES
DBM says it has

released funds for PGH
frontliners
UNDERPAID The UP Manila labor union stages a protest in behalf of

Philippine General Hospital health workers. —JOSELLE EBESATE
MANILA, Philippines — Contrary to the claim by health workers of the
Philippine General Hospital (PGH), the national government had already
released funds to pay for their allowances and had even augmented the state-
run hospital’s fund, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.
In a statement, the DBM said it issued on May 26 a special allotment release

order worth P400 million to PGH to augment its operational budget under the
Bayanihan to Heal as One Act or Bayanihan 1.
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The Bayanihan 1 funds were released at the height of the longest and most
stringent COVID-19 lockdown while the government struggled to contain the
disease.
The DBM said that as of Nov. 17, just P176.98 million out of the funding
released to PGH in May were obligated, which meant that this amount was
ready to be spent after the specific projects it intended to finance have been
successfully bid out to contractors.
As such, the DBM said PGH still has P223.02 million in unspent funds.
“With regard to the payment of the special risk allowance for front-line health
workers as authorized under Bayanihan 1, it is clarified that the letter dated
Nov. 11 addressed to the UP (University of the Philippines) president was not
a disapproval letter. Instead, the letter affirmed that 1,918 front-line health
workers of UP-PGH are entitled to the special risk allowance under Bayanihan
1 with a total funding requirement of P16.48 million,” the DBM said, referring
to UP President Danilo Concepcion, whose UP system also oversees PGH.
“In the same letter, it was emphasized that the payment of the special risk
allowance may be accommodated within available [employee] services
allotments of UP system, which stands at P667.55 million based on its June
30 report and net of estimated requirements until the end of the year,” the
DBM added.
The DBM said that under Administrative Order (AO) No. 28, which authorized
the grant of the special risk allowance, the amount required for employees
occupying regular, contractual, casual or part-time positions in national
government agencies shall be charged against their available released
employee services allotments, while the amount required for job order workers
shall be charged against their available released maintenance and other
operating expense allotments, without need for prior approval from the DBM.
“Since UP-PGH is under the UP system, it has more than enough [employee]
services allotments to cover its special risk allowance requirements. Should
there be any deficiency in allotments to cover the payment of the special risk
allowance under Bayanihan 1, the DBM is committed to release the necessary
funds in accordance with AO 28 and subject to the submission of usual
documents establishing such [employee] services deficiency,” it said.
As for the special risk allowance and hazard pay provided under Bayanihan to
Recover as One Act, or Bayanihan 2, the DBM and the Department of Health
on Nov. 25 issued two separate joint circulars, signed by both Budget
Secretary Wendel Avisado and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III,
containing the guidelines on their releases.
On Nov. 16, President Rodrigo Duterte issued AO 35 granting the P3,000
monthly hazard pay and AO 36 for the P5,000 per month in special risk
allowance to medical front-liners.
Iloilo City’s QR code

system overwhelmed
ILOILO CITY—Iloilo City’s registration for the contact-tracing system of the

coronavirus disease was suspended after two days of its implementation due
to an overwhelming number of residents attempting to register.
Registration on the Uswag Tracer website (uswagtracer.com) remains

suspended as of Friday with a notice that the verification is being conducted
for those who have registered.
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Francis Cruz, chief of the city government’s Information Technology Services

Division, said they received more than 38,000 applications in just two days.
“We are in the process of verifying the applications based on the government-
issued identification card submitted by email,” he told the Inquirer.
Residents, workers and visitors of the city age 6 years old and above will be
required to present digital or printed unique quick-response (QR) codes for
scanning before entering offices and business establishments in the city.
The QR codes are intended to systematize and hasten contract-tracing efforts

on persons infected with COVID-19.
Easy to trace
Through the system, health authorities can easily trace an infected person
and those he or she may have gotten in contact with or been in close
proximity to at a particular time and location.
The system is also intended to do away with or minimize manual and time-
consuming registration per establishment or office.
The QR codes, along with a manual, will be emailed to those who have
successfully registered at the website.
The system was earlier implemented at the Iloilo City Hall covering all city
government employees.
The citywide implementation of the QR code is supposed to be mandatory

starting next month but Cruz said this would most likely be moved pending the
completion of the registration and for the passing of a city ordinance
mandating the QR code requirement.
He said they will first accept and process the registration of employees of
businesses next week, followed by offices. Individual registration will resume
in seven to 10 days.
New virus infections in

Davao City surge by
183%
DAVAO CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown, Davao City, reverted

to a general community quarantine for 11 days starting Nov. 20 as COVID-19
infections surged by 183 percent in 50 days.
Local cardiologist Bernard Chiew said the city was effective in controlling the
spread of the coronavirus from March to September this year.
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“By design, SPMC (Southern Philippines Medical Center) was the only
designated COVID hospital, supported by many isolation centers around the
city. And we were OK … until now,” Chiew said, adding that cases began to
spiral starting October.
From Sept. 30 to Nov. 19, the number of confirmed cases in the city ballooned
from 1,953 to 5,520, or an increase of 183 percent.
The mortality rate likewise soared to 214 percent, from 78 deaths to 245
deaths.
Health workers, who asked for anonymity, told the Inquirer that the situation
on the ground was far worse because SPMC was nearing full capacity.
Patients have to wait for about two to three days in temporary isolation units
outside the hospital, before SPMC can admit them.
Mayor Sara Duterte rejected calls for a two-week lockdown but heightened
restrictions on the city’s borders and launched a QR code system to improve
contact tracing.
On Friday, the Department of Health reported 1,639 new cases, bringing the
national caseload to 415,067.
Davao City reported the most number of new infections at 113, followed by
Laguna (76), Quezon City (75), Rizal (75) and Cavite (63).
Another 305 patients have recovered from COVID-19, pushing the total
survivors to 375,237. The death toll, however, breached the 8,000 mark to hit
8,025 after 27 patients died.
The recoveries and deaths left the country with 31,805 active cases. —WITH
A REPORT FROM JOVIC YEE
DOH warns of virus
surge as jeepneys return
to Cebu
INSPECTION Authorities inspect jeepneys to find out if these comply with

health protocols as these will ply the streets of Cebu City again. —CEBU
CITY JEEPNEY TASK FORCE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — As public utility jeepneys are allowed back
into the streets of this city, local health officials have warned of another rise in
the number of coronavirus infections.
“Because of the ease of transport, people’s movement becomes less

hampered, which, in turn, increases activities,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche,
spokesperson of the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas. She
urged jeepney drivers and passengers to observe health protocols to avert the
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On Friday, 19 jeepneys were given the green light to ply their routes for the
first time since March 28, or two weeks after the pandemic broke out in the
country.
Loreche said the drivers must be tested regularly for COVID-19 while public
health measures must be strictly implemented to ensure the safety of riders.
No second wave
The DOH recently reported a fresh surge in COVID-19 cases in the cities of
Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, barely three months after “flattening the
curve.”
But Loreche quickly dismissed the possibility of a second wave of infections.

“This is not alarming yet. I don’t think we’re on the way toward that,” she said.
Loreche said the region’s health care, treatment and monitoring facilities were
equipped to handle a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Officials said the increasing number of new cases could be attributed to

intensive contact tracing activities, more people moving around outside their
homes, and the tendency of some people to be lax in following health
protocols.
People nonetheless should prepare for the “new normal,” a new way of living
while the world has not yet found a cure or a vaccine for COVID-19, said Dr.
Jaime Bernadas, DOH regional director.
“We should start looking forward to facing and living with the virus. We cannot
always rely on the subsidy of the government because it’s already been
months,” he said.
Loreche appealed to the people to continue observing all health protocols, like
the wearing of face masks and face shields, practicing physical distancing,
and staying indoors when there is nothing important to do outside.
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“COVID-19 is still very much with us. As the Christmas season draws near,
there will be more movement of people. That is why we should be more
mindful of what we are doing,” she said.
— Ador Vincent Mayol

DECEMBER-REVISED
Duque: Deal with

AstraZeneca may be
voided if firm fails to
meet standards
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:50 AM December 01, 2020
MANILA, Philippines – Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Tuesday said

an agreement between the government and private sector with AstraZeneca
may be voided should the pharmaceutical giant fail to pass the evaluation of
the country’s regulatory bodies.
Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will provide the country 2.6 million doses
of its vaccine for COVID-19. Sold at cost, the vaccine is worth $10 (P500) for
two doses, with the bill to be footed by the private sector.
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But before that, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company would need to

undergo “stringent evaluation and analysis” by the Philippine vaccine expert
panel and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Part of the agreement is that they would follow all of the Department of
Health’s rules and standards because it is the government’s mandate to
ensure that the vaccine to be used is safe, of quality, effective and practical to
implement,” Duque said.
Should AstraZeneca fail to meet these standards, it’s “possible” for the
agreement to be voided because, according to Duque, “there’s a violation of
the agreement … There are obligations under the agreement and it is clear
what each party’s mandates are.”
Meanwhile, the clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by
Chinese firms Sinovac Biotech and Clover Pharmaceuticals can begin this
month or early next year provided they can immediately reply to the questions
posed by the country’s ethics review committee and the FDA.
“If they are able to answer quickly the questions of the ethics review board
and the FDA, they will most likely be the first to be approved to conduct a
clinical trial. If the plans are followed and there will be no problems along the
way, it could start this December or early January,” Jaime Montoya of the
Philippine Council for Health Research and Development said at an online
briefing on Monday.
Premature to allow
minors in shopping
malls, says Metro Manila
police chief
By: Dexter Cabalza, Jovic Yee - @inquirerdotnet

Vicente Danao Jr.
MANILA, Philippines — If the chief of the Metro Manila police could have his
way, minors would remain barred from shopping malls, despite the decision of
the mayors in the metropolis to allow children to go out if they are
accompanied by adults.
For Brig. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr., chief of the National Capital Region Police
Office (NCRPO), the local authorities’ decision is premature.
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Vulnerable to COVID-19
“We are still under [general community quarantine, where minors] are barred
from [shopping] malls. But the authorities have decided to allow them, as long
as they will be accompanied by a responsible adult. Take note—responsible
adult,” Danao said after a program at Manila Police District headquarters on
Tuesday.
“But if it were [up] to me, I would suggest not to allow them yet. Because until
the children and the older ones who [are vulnerable to] COVID-19 [are
cleared], I would suggest that they avoid going to the malls,” Danao said.
In a radio interview earlier on Tuesday, the metropolitan police chief said only
people authorized to leave their homes and essential workers were allowed to
go to shopping malls. He said police officials would meet with mall operators
to discuss plans for enforcing public health standards in commercial
establishments during the holiday season.
Coronavirus measures at the start of the lockdown in March barred people

under 21 and over 65 from going out, but the rules were relaxed in October
after senior citizens protested, urging respect for their freedom of movement.
Police Lt. Gen. Cesar Binag, chief of law enforcement for the government’s
coronavirus response, said on Tuesday that each of the 17 local governments
in Metro Manila should pass an ordinance approving the mayors’
recommendation to allow accompanied minors to go to shopping malls.
“The recommendation of the mayors should be affirmed by a local ordinance.

In our meeting, we are already preparing for the mayor’s recommendations
and we have already coordinated with the NCRPO director to implement this,”
Binag said.
Forgo reunions
On Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) appealed to the public to forgo
visiting family and friends during the Christmas season to prevent a rise in
coronavirus infections. The Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-
19 also urged people to avoid indoor gatherings to prevent transmission of the
virus.
On Tuesday, the alliance called on local governments to open up parks and

streets to businesses so that people who couldn’t avoid going out would have
the option of an open venue.
Dr. Antonio Dans of the alliance said local officials should provide open-air
venues to help lower the risk of infection, as most restaurants and shops were
located in shopping malls, where air is recirculated.
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“If you would do something, it would be better to have it outdoors. Instead of
eating in an indoor restaurant, let us support outdoor restaurants. Let us call
on our mayors to open the sidewalks and allow restaurants [to use them] so
that we have an option,” Dans said.
More infections
“Parks are open spaces where transmission is 94 percent less. We need
ordinances so that these could be opened up and provide people a place
where they can go,” he added.
Dans said the alliance had talked to a number of mayors about the initiative,
but some of them were hesitant.
“It takes some political will to pedestrianize the streets. So write to your
mayors as well as ask restaurants with porches to open these up,” he said.
On Tuesday, the DOH logged 1,298 additional coronavirus infections, raising

the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 432,925.
Ilocos Norte reported the highest number of new infections, 84, followed by
Manila (61), Quezon province (55), Laguna (50) and Negros Occidental (47).
COVID-19 survivors to 398,782. But the death toll climbed to 8,418 with the
84 percent were mild, 7.4 percent asymptomatic, 0.3 percent moderate, 2.9
percent severe, and 5.4 percent critical. INQ
DOST study: Meals with

VCO can reduce
symptoms for probable,
suspect COVID-19
patients
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:35 PM December 03, 2020
MANILA, Philippines — Virgin coconut oil (VCO) taken as a food supplement

can reduce symptoms among probable and suspect novel coronaviruses
disease (COVID-19) cases, according to a study by the Department of
Science and Technology.
Symptoms — such as cough, colds, body ache, headache, loss of taste and
smell, and fever — in the group where patients were given VCO doses
“significantly declined” at the second day, and no symptoms were observed
from them at Day 18, Science Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said in a virtual
briefing on the results of the study on Thursday.
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The study led by the DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI)
involved 57 patients at two isolation facilities in Santa Rosa, Laguna province,
who underwent a 28-day intervention period starting in August.
Of the volunteer participants, 29 patients were assigned to be given

standardized meals mixed with VCO, while the other 28 became the control
group and received no VCO doses.
Meals were served free of charge and delivered in the quarantine facilities
during the participants’ confinement and later at their respective homes after
being discharged.
An initial dose of 0.6 milliliters of VCO per kilogram of body weight was mixed
with the standard breakfast meals of the VCO group on the first three days of
the trial.
The dose was increased to 1.2 mL of VCO per kg of body weight mixed with
the standard breakfast and lunch of the VCO group from Day 4 to 28.
Faster recovery
According to Dela Peña, immediate effects of the VCO were observed among
five of the 29 patients in the VCO group, who experienced decreasing signs
and symptoms of COVID-19 as early as Day 2, compared with only one
patient from the control group who showed similar improvement.
By Day 18, all of the patients at the VCO group experienced no more
symptoms. No symptoms were observed among patients at the control group
only at Day 23.
The diminishing signs and symptoms of COVID-19 in the VCO group was
supported by the decreasing levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) among the
patients, according to Dr. Imelda Angeles-Agdeppa, chief science research
specialist at FNRI and the leader of the VCO study.
CRP is a quantitative marker used in monitoring inflammation or infections.

CRP levels of less than 5 milligrams per liter of blood indicate no infection or
inflammation.
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Average CRP levels of the VCO group normalized to 5 mg/L or less as early
as Day 14, and continuously decreased until Day 18. On the other hand,
normalization of CRP levels in the control group was evident from the first 14
days, “but this remained at the borderline of 5 mg/L from Day 14 until the end
of the intervention.”
“We consider the results of the study significant, meaning to say that the VCO
group has better results compared with the controlled group in diminishing
signs and symptoms of COVID-19,” Agdeppa said.
“We tested this statistically, and if you can ask us if we can recommend this,
yes, the results speak so loud that… The VCO has significantly declined the
CRP level among patients. It means to say that our VCO has really improved
our patients in terms of [absence] of infection,” she noted.
Not a cure
Agdeppa, however, cautioned the public that VCO is not a cure for COVID-19.
“It is an adjunct supplement to reduce the symptoms among probable and

suspect COVID-19 cases, so they would not develop into severe cases. This
is not a treatment [for COVID-19],” she said.
The Department of Health has yet to give a recommendation to use VCO as a
supplement for probable and suspect COVID-19 cases in government
isolation facilities.
The VCO used in the study were strictly analyzed by the Laboratory Services
Division of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to ensure product quality
and compliance to Philippine National Standards.
PCA administrator Benjamin Madrigal Jr. urged the public who would use
VCO as a food supplement to look for commercially available products
approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Madrigal requested VCO producers to have their VCO samples analyzed by

the PCA prior to promotion and marketing.
PCA is planning to develop the protocol in establishing the seal of quality for
VCO, together with other international quality standard institutions.
The team recommended more studies, especially in other places here and
abroad, to determine the effectiveness of VCO as a support therapy for
COVID-19 patients and patients with other comorbidities.
The clinical study was based on a previous research by coconut oil expert Dr.
Fabian Antonio Dayrit, professor emeritus at the Ateneo de Manila University
(ADMU) on the potential use of coconut oil as a safe antiviral agent.
In a research published in January by Ateneo, Dayrit and Dr. Mary Newport of

Newport of Spring Hill Neonatology in Florida, proposed the conduct of clinical
studies, citing papers that confirmed the potential of coconut oil, particularly its
active compounds lauric acid and monolaurin, as effective and safe agents
against viruses, such as the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.
Besides Agdeppa and Dayrit, other members of the VCO research team were
Dr. Jaime Montoya, executive director of the DOST – Philippine Council for
Health Research and Development (PCHRD); and FNRI scientists Mario
Capanzana, Jacus Nacis and Carl Vincent Cabanilla.
The VCO clinical trial is a joint study of the FNRI, PCHRD, Philippine Coconut
Authority, DOST – Calabarzon Region, the local government of the City of
Santa Rosa, Laguna, and ADMU.
A parallel clinical trial on the use of VCO as adjuvant treatment for COVID-19
is also being conducted at the Philippine General Hospital.
According to the DOST, the VCO study is a promising initiative in exploring

locally-available and easily-accessible food supplements that might help in the
management of COVID-19.
Currently, the DOST is also conducting clinical trials for local medicinal plants
lagundi and tawa-tawa, as well as high-dose melatonin, as possible
supplement treatments for COVID-19.
Speed of COVID-19
vaccine development an
extraordinary feat
MANILA, Philippines — In less than a year, scientists were able to develop

candidate vaccines against COVID-19, raising hopes that the end may be
near for the pandemic, even as health experts still urge caution.
This extraordinary feat, however, is being undermined by a flood of

falsehoods that even social media giant Facebook took note of, as it
committed to “remove false claims” about the coronavirus vaccines on its
platform.
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Normally, it takes the scientific community years, even decades, to develop a

vaccine against an infectious disease.
Tests, trials
Take the case of measles, which has plagued mankind for centuries. It was
only in 1963 that the first measles vaccine was licensed in the United States.
In contrast, the development of at least three candidate vaccines against
COVID-19 only took 11 months since the World Health Organization (WHO)
first learned on Dec. 31 last year of a clustering of pneumonia cases of
unknown cause in Wuhan, China.
These vaccines were developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna/US National

Institutes of Health (NIH) and Oxford/AstraZeneca.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan explained that just because these
vaccines came out on record time doesn’t mean that there were steps in the
scientific process of developing a vaccine that were skipped.
She noted that all of these vaccines underwent the preclinical tests as well as
the three-phase human clinical trials.
‘Safety data’
“Timelines were accelerated by overlapping Phase 1 and 2 by regulatory
agencies willing to be flexible, looking at submissions, so even before Phase 1
is complete they are already ready, if everything goes well, to approve Phase
2,” Swaminathan said.
She pointed out “That doesn’t normally happen with vaccine or drug
development.”
In the first two phases of the clinical trials, the candidate vaccine’s safety,
efficacy and proper dosage are tested on up to a thousand patients.
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Swaminathan said it also helped that substantial investments have been

made in developing the vaccines, along with the recent advances in science
and technology.
“So it’s building on scientific progress over the last few years. It’s accelerating
clinical trials by overlapping and it’s also by investing in manufacturing,” she
said.
Emergency use
Filipino infectious disease expert Dr. Edsel Salvana said another reason for
the speed of the vaccines’ development is because quite a number of them
were based on “known technology and repurposed SARS and MERS
vaccines which were in advanced stages of development.”
“Despite the urgency of the matter, the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) still required at least two months of safety data from tens of thousands
of patients before even considering a vaccine for review. These patients will
continue to be followed for longer term side effects even after the vaccine is
approved to have some insight into longer term issues, if any emerge,”
Salvana said in a Facebook post.
This week, President Duterte gave the FDA the power to grant an emergency
use authorization (EUA) to candidate COVID-19 vaccines. An EUA is issued
to manufacturers particularly in times of health emergencies, and when the
benefits of using a candidate vaccine or drug outweigh its risks.
FDA Director General Eric Domingo noted that an EUA doesn’t exempt a
manufacturer from fully completing the development of its vaccine.
Once an EUA is issued and the vaccine is rolled out in the country, Domingo
said both the FDA and the Department of Health (DOH) will conduct
postauthorization monitoring of side effects, if any.
He said this mechanism also ensures that when there are “unusual or
suspicious adverse events,” these can immediately be investigated and they
can decide on whether to continue further vaccination.
“It’s really important to have a very strong monitoring and surveillance

mechanism, both passive and active,” Domingo said.
Based on the results of their clinical trials, the vaccines developed by the
three leading manufacturers were found to have varying degrees of efficacy.
Pfizer/BioNTech reported their vaccine to have an efficacy rate of 95 percent,

while Moderna/US NIH’s vaccine was at 94.1 percent. Oxford/Zeneca’s
vaccine has an average efficacy rate of 70 percent.
According to Domingo, the effectiveness of a vaccine may differ from the

published efficacy rates since their data was based on trials conducted in a
well-controlled environment.
Factors that may affect a vaccine’s efficacy in the real world setting are
uncertainties in the cold chain and patients not being able to strictly follow
their immunization schedule, among others.
“Effectivity is the real-life application of a vaccine’s efficacy. [The efficacy rate]
is the result we can expect if we use the vaccine in the right and prescribed
way,” he said.
Virus case update

On Saturday, the DOH logged an additional 1,733 COVID-19 cases, raising
the national tally to 438,069.
Davao City reported the most number of new infections, 162, followed by
Quezon City (92), Benguet (80), Rizal (70) and Laguna (66).
Another 133 patients have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total
number of survivors to 399,582. The death toll, however, increased to 8,526
as 17 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
86 percent are mild, 6.7 percent asymptomatic, 0.27 percent moderate, 2.4
percent severe and 4.6 percent critical.
Seminars, confabs at
30% capacity OK in GCQ
areas
MANILA, Philippines — The government panel handling the country’s COVID-

19 response has allowed the holding of workshops, training, seminars,
conventions, conferences, consumer trade shows, board meetings, symposia,
and the like in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ).
But the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious
Diseases (IATF) said these events must only fill up 30 percent of the venue
capacity.
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In its latest resolution, the IATF said the meetings, conventions, incentives,
and exhibition events could be held in restaurants, ballrooms, and function
halls within hotel premises and mall atria.
It directed the Department of Tourism (DOT) and Department of Trade and

Industry (DTI) to jointly issue guidelines for these events.
But this is without prejudice to stricter protocols that local government units
may impose in areas where the venue is located.
The latest IATF decision would allow more gatherings to be held in public
places.
According to the most recent guidelines of the IATF, all establishments,

whether public or private, need to use the StaySafe.ph application in order to
obtain the government-required Safety Seal.
In its latest resolution, the IATF adopted the recommendations of the Office of
the Cabinet Secretariat, which pushed for the implementation of the Safety
Seal Certification Program.
The IATF requires all establishments, including government offices, private

companies, hotels, and business establishments, to adopt the Safety Seal.
One of the requirements to get the seal is to use the StaySafe.ph application
and to generate its QR code that would be displayed in all entrances.
The other requirements to get the Safety Seal would be contained in a joint
memorandum circular to be issued by the DTI, Department of Health,
Department of Labor and Employment, Department of the Interior and Local
Government, DOT, and Department of Transportation.
Earlier, the IATF made the use of the StaySafe.ph app for national
government agencies and local governments mandatory.
DOT to subsidize COVID-
19 tests for Boracay-
bound tourists
FAMED SUNSET Boracay Island’s famed sunsets continue to draw tourists

who will soon enjoy government subsidy for the required COVID-19 swab test.
—JACK JARILLA
ILOILO CITY –– The government will subsidize the cost of coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) swab tests for Boracay Island visitors amid complaints of
the high cost of going to the island.
The Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force agreed during a meeting on Boracay

Island on Wednesday to provide low-cost or free Reverse Transcription-
Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests for Boracay-bound non-Aklanon
tourists.
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The Department of Tourism (DOT) will lead the implementation of the program
in partnership with the University of the Philippines-Philippine General
Hospital (UP-PGH).
The government subsidy will be provided through the Tourism Promotion

Board (TPB), the DOT’s marketing arm.
“We cannot stress fully enough the importance of showing our seriousness in
carrying out our protocols and guidelines. Our local leadership is key in
bringing forward our improved image. Furthermore, it is our wish to make
more affordable RT-PCR tests to encourage more visits,” Tourism Secretary
Bernadette Romulo Puyat in a statement.
The present UP-PGH test kit costs P1,800 per kit, much lower than standard
charges for tests starting at P3,500.
Tourists bound for Boracay, except Aklanons, are required to secure a

negative RT-PCT test result within 72 hours before traveling to the island.
Business operators have repeatedly complained that the requirement

discouraged more tourists from going to the island, even those from Iloilo and
other Western Visayas areas.
The business owners have been pushing for the lifting of the RT-PCR test and
requiring rapid antigen tests.
The BIATF agreed to allow the transition to rapid antigen test for Boracay, but
still subject to the task force’s “favorable evaluation of the island’s contact-
tracing capability and implementation of health and safety protocols.”
The DOT will also lead in the training of personnel of the local governments of
Aklan and Malay towns on case investigation, contact-tracing, referral, and
other COVID-19 related operations.
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The training will be supervised by Baguio City Mayor and Contact-Tracing
Czar Benjamin Magalong. Testing will also be ramped up on the island with
the DOT providing 1,500 RT-PCR test kits for Boracay.
In preparation for more tourists, the DOT Western Visayas office has
continued its inspection and accreditation of establishments.
From Oct. 1 to 29, at least 2,337 tourists, including 1,421 from Metro Manila,
visited the island. This increased by 56 percent to 4,154 from Nov. 1 to 30.
including 2,863 from Metro Manila.
The figures were far from the average daily tourist arrivals from 3,000 to 5,000
before the pandemic.
As of Nov. 30, DOT-6 has issued a Certificate of Authority to Operate to 258

accommodation establishments with a combined capacity of 5,846 rooms.
It has also accredited 24 restaurants, 14 tourist/specialty shops, 12 travel and

tour agencies, seven tourism recreational facilities/centers, 12 community
guides, and six regional guides.
LZB
Public confidence in
COVID-19 vaccines
needs boost

IN STEP A member of the Light Rail Transit’s security boards a coach now
sporting colorful images of medical front-liners wearing masks and face
shields as part of the metro’s Christ Mask campaign. —MARIANNE
BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — Can the government expect the public to fully trust
that the vaccine against the new coronavirus is safe to be used if officials
themselves are challenging each other to take it once this has been rolled out
in the country?
Although Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and his agency have
expressed willingness to be given the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, a
recent Social Weather Stations survey showed only 32 percent of Filipinos
would “definitely” get the COVID-19 vaccine, while another 34 percent would
“probably” have themselves vaccinated.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that for herd immunity
against the virus to kick in, 60 to 70 percent of the population should be
immunized.
Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, who chairs the Senate’s committee on health,
earlier challenged Duque and vaccine “czar” Carlito Galvez Jr. to get
vaccinated to show to the public that the COVID-19 vaccine was safe. In
August, Sen. Francis Tolentino made a similar dare to Duque.
On Monday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said President Duterte

wanted to get vaccinated to show the public that the vaccine was safe.
“I think the President is the best communication tool. So if the FDA (Food and
Drug Administration) would allow it, I think the President would be first and he
has volunteered. In fact, he really wants to do it,” Roque said.
On Sunday, Vice President Leni Robredo said on her radio show that she
supported proposals that public officials be the first to get vaccinated, citing
the offer of former US presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill
Clinton to be vaccinated to help increase public trust in vaccines.
But that must be done “for the right reasons,” she said.
“If the purpose of having them go first is to boost public confidence in

vaccination, that’s OK,” Robredo said. “But it’s not right to [push for this
proposal] if your goal is to be the first to be protected against the disease.”
She reiterated her proposal that health workers—the ones most vulnerable to
COVID-19—be the first to be vaccinated.
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In his regular media briefing, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom

Ghebreyesus said that while he was open to being vaccinated against
COVID-19, he wanted to make sure it was already his turn “because I don’t
want to take anybody’s vaccine.”
Given that available doses are expected to be limited next year, medical front-
liners are the top priority for vaccination.
Approved by regulators
Amid the dares to take the vaccine as well as the barrage of falsehoods from
antivaccine groups, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on
Monday stressed that once a COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out in the country,
the public can rest assured that this has been properly scrutinized by experts
and regulators.
“Once these vaccines enter the country, these will be evaluated by the
vaccine expert panel and the Food and Drug Administration. So there is
nothing to worry about these vaccines because they have been tested to be
safe and have met their target efficacy,” Vergeire said.
“The secretary of health and the entire DOH, if I may say, are open and if it is
needed that we be the first to be vaccinated, we will have ourselves
vaccinated,” she added.
To help ensure that the public is provided with the right information on the
COVID-19 vaccine, Vergeire said the DOH had prepared a communication
plan where local officials will help explain to their constituents the advantages
as well as the expected side effects that are inherent to the vaccine.
To have an effective pandemic response, Dr. Anthony Leachon cited the

“Swiss cheese model,” which points out that “no single intervention is perfect
at preventing [COVID-19’s] spread.”
“Government message and funding are key factors to vaccine rollout

success,” said Leachon, a former adviser to the government’s COVID-19
response.
Local clinical trials

Vergeire said that of the five manufacturers eyeing to hold clinical trials in the
country, only China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals has obtained clearance from
both the vaccine expert panel and the ethics review board.
So far, AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson have been cleared only by the

ethics review board, while Sinovac has secured the approval of the vaccine
expert panel.
Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute has yet to pass both evaluations, which
are done in parallel and precede the FDA’s approval.
Vergeire, however, said the FDA was already “gathering initial information” on
all five so that it could already start the documentary evaluation of their
applications.
On Monday, the DOH recorded 1,574 additional coronavirus infections, raising
the national tally to 441,399 cases. Davao City reported the most number of
new infections, 187, followed by Rizal (96), Pampanga (80), Quezon City (69)
and Pasig (59).
The DOH said 80 more patients had recovered from COVID-19, bringing the
total number of survivors to 408,702. The death toll, however, increased to
8,572 as 18 more patients died.
—With reports from Leila B. Salaverria and Krixia Subingsubing
Kalinga town on
lockdown as COVID-19
cases surge
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — Tinglayan town in Kalinga province

was placed on lockdown for 15 days starting Monday after a surge in
coronavirus cases in at least five villages there, officials said.
Tinglayan Mayor Sacrament Gumilab issued an executive order on Sunday

imposing stricter community quarantine from Dec. 7 to 21 to allow extensive
contact tracing.
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Eighteen new cases have brought the total to 98 since September. Most of
the new infections were traced to the villages of Bangad, Lower Bangad,
Centro Bangad, Upper Bangad and Poblacion.
The new cases involved local officials, forcing the suspension of some
transactions at the town hall.
Construction, BPO workers

The town also stopped accepting stranded people or returning residents,
Gumilab said, noting that its isolation centers were already full.
In his order, Gumilab said he would not allow anyone to enter or leave town,
except those in transit along the national highway. Movement of residents
would be restricted on their villages and only those seeking medical attention
would be allowed to leave.
In Zambales province, 18 construction workers tested positive for the virus

after they went home from Antipolo City in Rizal province, on Nov. 27. Most of
them were residents of Barangay Taugtog in Botolan town.
In Subic Bay Freeport, 26 workers at a call center were infected with COVID-
19 after some of them attended two parties outside the free port.
But Kevin Charles, chief operating officer of Buwelo Business Processing

Outsourcing (BPO) Solutions, said the company had been implementing
additional stringent measures to keep their workplaces safe.
—Kimberlie Quitasol and Joanna Rose Aglibot
Only P2.5B out of P72.5B

for COVID-19 vaccines
has immediate funding
MANILA, Philippines — While Senate and House leaders on Wednesday

agreed to earmark P72.5 billion for the purchase of coronavirus vaccines in
the 2021 budget, only P2.5 billion could be immediately funded as the bulk
was lodged in standby funds heavily reliant on foreign borrowings.
The allocation may also not be enough to inoculate even half of the 70 million
Filipinos needed for “herd immunity,” Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph
Recto said, referring to the level of protection from disease enjoyed by a
population once enough people had been vaccinated.
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60 million doses
The P72.5-billion appropriation can buy more than 60 million doses of the
COVID-19 vaccine based on the Department of Finance’s (DOF) cost
estimate of $25, or P1,200, per complete dose.
Last month, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III gave a lower threshold
of 60 million Filipinos who should receive the shots to achieve herd immunity
using the planned COVID-19 vaccine fund of P73.2 billion, or a bit higher than
what Congress ended up approving.
But Recto noted that each citizen would need at least two doses to be fully
vaccinated, as recent successful trials by a number of pharmaceutical
companies had shown.
“Unfortunately, the amount may not be enough to inoculate at least 70 percent

of our population,” he told the Inquirer.
Besides, he said, there were other costs.
Logistic strategy
The government “will need to pay in advance and to line up for delivery,” as
well as to “start investing in a logistic strategy to deliver vaccines nationwide
to at least 70 million Filipinos,” requiring even more money, Recto said.
As they wrapped up bicameral talks on the 2021 general appropriations bill,

the Senate and House leaders agreed to place P70 billion of the COVID-19
vaccine budget under unprogrammed appropriations, according to Sen. Juan
Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate finance panel.
Unlike regular budgetary items with definite funding, unprogrammed

appropriations can only be financed depending on the availability of excess
tax collections or new revenue sources, or by borrowing from other countries
or multilateral agencies.
Angara said a separate P2.5-billion item was put in the regular budget of the
Department of Health (DOH) for its program on the still largely unavailable
vaccine, bringing the total to P72.5 billion.
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The allocation is lower by P10.5 billion than the Senate version, which earlier
proposed P83 billion for the same purpose, consisting of P8 billion in
programmed appropriations under the DOH’s vaccine program, P54 billion for
the purchase of the drug, and P21 billion for storage, transportation and
distribution.
Bayanihan extension
But Angara said another P10 billion should be available for COVID-19
vaccines under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2,
assuming Congress was able to pass a law extending its validity until June
2021.
Enacted in September, Bayanihan 2 set aside P140 billion in regular funding

for various programs to stimulate the distressed economy, plus P25.5 billion
as standby fund, including P10 billion for both COVID-19 tests and vaccines.
That, according to Angara, leaves a total of P82.5 billion for the COVID-19
vaccine program once the GAB is passed into law.
The Senate and the House of Representatives were expected to ratify the
P4.5-trillion budget measure on Wednesday, giving the President plenty of
time to sign it into law before the end of 2020 and avoiding a reenacted
budget.
‘Unprogrammed’
Facing reporters after the bicameral budget conference, Angara expressed
optimism that the entire P72.5-billion budget for COVID-19 vaccines would be
“fully utilized” in 2021 despite much of it being unprogrammed.
“Others may think that just because it’s unprogrammed, it will no longer be
funded, but that’s not true,” he said. “The probability of it being funded is large.
We were assured by the [DOF] that it will really be funded.”
Pressed to explain, the senator only said the economic managers were
banking on “nontax revenues.”
“That’s the reason why there’s a big probability of being funded,” Angara said.
Asked how Congress could ensure availability of funds for the unprogrammed
allocation, he replied: “If you’re talking about availability of cash, that’s not for
the legislative [to answer]. That’s for the executive to answer. We do not
collect money.”
Recto also found “nothing wrong” with using unprogrammed funds “knowing
we will borrow the money.”
3 likely fund sources

Dominguez had identified three likely sources for the government’s planned
COVID-19 vaccine fund amounting to P73.2 billion.
The first is P40 billion in “low-cost, long-term loans” from multilateral

institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
Some P20 billion may be tapped from domestic government financial

institutions, such as Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the
Philippines, and government-owned and -controlled corporations.
The last is P13.2 billion to be sourced from “bilateral negotiations” with

countries from where the vaccines would originate, such as the United States
and the United Kingdom.
“Most of it is already fixed,” Dominguez said. But he acknowledged that the

P13.2 billion “is not yet completely negotiated.”
DOH monitors rising

number of COVID-19
cases in Baguio
Surge noticed when screening eased at borders
HEALTH ALERT Baguio’s health and security protocols in containing the

spread of COVID-19 have been lauded by other local governments but the
summer capital has seen a surge in infections lately with the easing of
restrictions in people’s movement. —EV ESPIRITU
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines —The Department of Health (DOH) is
monitoring the surging coronavirus cases here that could be a result of
aggressive testing and contact tracing in the last two weeks, according to
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
In a virtual briefing on Monday, Vergeire said the positivity rate in the city
during the period was 13.5 percent, which, she noted, was “high” compared to
the World Health Organization benchmark of 5 percent or less.
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A positivity rate reflects the number of confirmed infections in a group of
people tested for the virus.
Coordination
Vergeire said the rise was noticeable when screening of people at the city’s
borders was relaxed.
Baguio has allowed tourists from Luzon to revive its economy, but it restricted
its borders with Benguet province when cases spiked in the neighboring
towns.
On Dec. 1, the city government reopened its tourist-drawing night market but
had to shut it again due to “lapses in crowd control.” The market reopening
coincided with the ceremonial lighting of a giant Christmas tree on upper
Session Road here that attracted a crowd of 1,500 people.
The crowd at both events had ignored the physical distancing protocol for
which Mayor Benjamin Magalong had apologized.
Vergeire said the DOH had coordinated with city officials to determine the
implications of surging cases and to help curb virus transmission.
BUSY In this photo taken in November, Session Road in Baguio City is busy
as residents, wearing masks and face shields, go out for work and errands. —
EV ESPIRITU
The city posted 41 new cases, including three deaths, on Dec. 5, and 59
cases, including one death, on Dec. 6, according to the city information office.
A team from the University of the Philippines Baguio has been helping in data
analysis to track down the behavior of the virus in the city. It has compiled
maps and graphs detailing where infections have been concentrated.
The team reported that 2,102 (66.4 percent) of the 3,220 cases since March
had no travel history, suggesting that most of them were spread in the
community. It also said 2,071 cases (64.3 percent) were detected through
contact tracing as of Dec. 6.Baguio experienced an increase in cases in
September and October due to outbreaks at its slaughterhouse and a housing
facility for police trainees that accounted for the 3,220 cases.
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Isabela market lockdown

In Santiago City, Isabela province, the new public market was placed on
lockdown after 32 vendors were tested positive for the virus. Most of them did
not show symptoms of the disease, according to Mayor Joseph Tan.A
“calibrated” lockdown was also imposed on some sections of the city to
contain the spread of the virus. The city epidemiology and surveillance unit
has started contact tracing and swab testing. As of Tuesday, the province had
posted 313 active cases.
—With a report fromVillamor Visaya Jr.
Batanes town readies

fund for COVID-19
vaccine
STRICT COMPLIANCE The northernmost province of Batanes has only
recorded three COVID-19 cases due to the residents’ strict compliance with
health protocols, such as wearing face masks. —ARNEL
COMAYA/CONTRIBUTOR
ITBAYAT, BATANES—While COVID-19 vaccines have been undergoing
clinical trials worldwide, this northernmost town will realign its resources to
have an access to the safest shot that will be available locally, according to its
mayor, Raul de Sagon.
De Sagon said the local officials were preparing to fend for themselves as
they monitored developments on the vaccines at the national level.
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“We have to be ready in case our town won’t be included in the priorities of
our government, which has to deal with so many things at this time,” he said.
But he said there was still “no solid base to act on or to plan for [the vaccine]
but it is imminent and will soon be coming. By all indications, we will have the
vaccine by the first quarter of 2021.”
Batanes has yet to record a local transmission of COVID-19 although it has
logged three cases since the pandemic. The most recent case was an 82-
year-old man who came here from Cavite province.
De Sagon said the province and other places might be protected from the
virus if high-risk areas like Metro Manila, Cagayan and the cities of Baguio,
Cebu and Davao would develop herd immunity as priority areas for mass
vaccination.
Manufacturers welcomed
In Bataan province, the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (Afab) said it
was willing to accommodate any company that would relocate in the economic
zone to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine.
Emmanuel Pineda, Afab administrator, said the agency had learned that some
sectors were looking for a site for this venture while waiting for clearance from
the Food and Drug Administration.
Manufacturers would enjoy the same protection and privileges given to other
free ports and economic zones, he said. —NATHAN ALCANTARA AND
GREG REFRACCION INQ
Reviving tourism from

the clutches of the
COVID-19 pandemic

BEACH AND SURF Locals enjoy a sunny day at Kawhagan sandbar on
Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte province as residents start exploring
tourist destinations in their backyard after quarantine restrictions are eased.
Siargao is a world-class surfing spot that attracts professional and amateur
surfers. —ERWIN MASCARIÑAS
Aggressive tests and a sophisticated data analytics system for tracing and
isolating carriers of the coronavirus were Baguio City’s priorities even before
Luzon was locked down in March.
In September, the local government was confident enough to begin the

gradual opening of the city’s borders to tourists from the Ilocos region who
passed health screening for the “Ridge and Reef” travel corridor connecting
Baguio to the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan and La Union.
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To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the city suspended or scrapped high-

impact tourism programs like the annual Panagbenga (Baguio Flower
Festival) in February and summer activities in March and April, which forced
the local tourism industry to absorb P1.6 billion in losses.
Hotels were shut down, tourist-oriented shops like souvenir stores were
closed and 4,000 workers were displaced.
The industry’s rehabilitation was mapped out in April, hoping to stimulate

tourism as early as possible so businesses could bounce back by December,
the start of peak tourist season.
On Oct. 22, Mayor Benjamin Magalong widened the travel bubble to include
tourists from Luzon. The city had taken in almost 10,000 leisure and business
travelers by Nov. 22, executing Phase 2 of the recovery plan that would open
Baguio to the rest of the country, possibly by 2021.
Tourists by then would still be required to register because of the pandemic.
Even back in April, the city tourism office anticipated resistance from residents
who feared the spread of the disease. At present, Baguio’s primary concern is
assuring the public that its health system and virus surveillance protocols
make the city safe.
HEROES’ BIRTHPLACE The Luna museum and shrine honors the most
famous sons of Badoc town in Ilocos Norte province, brothers Juan and
Antonio Luna. —WILLIE LOMIBAO
Luzon tourism
In Bulacan, at least 300 water parks and resorts were forced to shut down
during the community quarantine in the province. The local tourism sector
suffered about P2 billion in losses.
But when Bulacan shifted to modified general community quarantine on Oct.

1, Donya Remedios Trinidad town was the first to revive its tourism industry.
Its mayor, Marie Flores, began easing restrictions, allowing tourists to visit the
town’s resorts.
“Bulacan will revive its tourism industry with small steps,” Gov. Daniel
Fernando said, adding that “as we gradually accept tourists, we will ensure
that our efforts to curb the COVID-19 transmission will not go to waste.”
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Ilocos Norte also opened its doors to tourists from Luzon, but it had to close
Laoag City, the capital, on Nov. 27 when coronavirus cases spiked.
Laoag, the province’s political, commercial and industrial center, was again
placed under stricter modified enhanced community quarantine on Nov. 27.
Other destinations in the province remained open to tourists who would still be
subjected to strict health protocols.
In Pangasinan, tourists from the Ilocos region were allowed to visit

establishments that were authorized by the Department of Tourism (DOT) to
operate.
Ilocos Sur opened its doors to tourists from Luzon on Nov. 15, but it required
coordination with DOT-accredited agents and compliance with health
protocols.
TOP TOURIST DRAWER Boracay Island’s picturesque beaches and clear
waters continue to draw an increasing number of tourists despite the COVID-
19 pandemic. —JACK JARILLA
Visayas destinations
Despite the coronavirus threat, three prominent destinations in the Visayas
have reopened their doors to tourists in a bid to revive their ailing economy.
Cebu province brought back its tourism activities in August, while Bohol
province did it in November to provide jobs for residents whose livelihoods
depended on the multibillion-peso industry.
No walk-in guests, however, were allowed in all travel destinations in both

Cebu and Bohol to contain the transmission of the virus.
Those who want to visit the tourist destinations in Cebu should register
through discover.cebu.gov.ph., an online portal managed by the provincial
tourism task force.
Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap reopened the island-province to domestic tourists but
limited only to those attending meetings, conferences, exhibitions, weddings
and other similar events.
Visitors were required to submit a negative reverse transcription polymerase
chain reaction test result issued 72 hours or three days before their trips to
Bohol.
Boracay Island in Aklan province began accepting tourists from Western

Visayas in June and from other areas in October. From Oct. 1 to Oct. 29,
tourist arrivals reached 2,337 or a daily average of 80. Sixty-one percent or
1,421 were from Metro Manila.
The number increased to 2,631 from Nov. 1 to Nov. 24 with 1,845 (70
percent) from Metro Manila.
A group of 20 top hotels and resorts under “One Boracay” has pushed the
“Boracay Better Than Ever” marketing campaign to encourage more tourists
to visit the island.
UNDERSEA BEAUTY Medina town in Misamis Oriental province is a diver’s

playground. —PHOTO COURTESY OF DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM
REGION 10
Dive sites in Mindanao
The DOT in Northern Mindanao is positioning Misamis Oriental province as
among the prime dive sites in the country, given its rich marine ecosystem.
At least eight must-visit sites in the province for divers have been identified:
the Japanese Garden and Paradise Aquarium in Medina town, Pontoon
Wreck and Sipaka Point in Talisayan town, Mantangale House Reef and
Lapinig in Balingoan town, and Gingoog Marine Protected Area and Gingoog
port in Gingoog City.
The DOT is generating a dive map for the province which will be promoted
alongside dive destinations in the region in related national and international
events, such as the Philippine International Dive Expo.
Misamis Oriental is the third province in Northern Mindanao that the DOT
hopes to become a major destination for dive tourism. The two others are
Camiguin and Misamis Occidental.
In Surigao del Norte province, Siargao Island’s Sayak airport started limited
operation last week as the country’s top surfing destination reopened.
Gov. Francisco Matugas cited a single flight a day in December, fewer than
the four to five daily flights before the pandemic struck.
In 2019, the island welcomed 200,000 tourists, 60 percent of whom were

foreigners.
Josefina Nuñez, Sayak airport manager, assured passengers that health

protocols would be strictly observed in the airport as Siargao’s tourism-driven
economy prepared to rebound.
—Vincent Cabreza, Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Yolanda Sotelo, Nestor

Burgos Jr., Ador Vincent Mayl, Leo Udtohan, Jigger Jerusalem, Erwin
Mascariñas and Inquirer Research
Davao, Iligan ready to
buy COVID vaccines
Two cities will not rely on national gov’t funding to inoculate their population
By: Germelina Lacorte, Richel Umel - @inquirerdotnet
DAVAO CITY — As pharmaceutical firms abroad race to develop the vaccines

against the novel coronavirus disease, some local government units (LGUs) in
Mindanao are already setting aside funds for its procurement.
Among the early birds, the Davao City government has been reaching out to
vaccine makers abroad. Iligan City, a highly urbanized independent city in
Lanao del Norte province, has set aside P100 million to buy COVID-19
vaccines next year.
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Davao Mayor Sara Duterte said the city government would be spending its
own funds to buy the COVID-19 vaccines abroad if the city could get direct
supply access from one of the credible vaccine makers and once such
procurement gets the approval of the national government.
“It’s a long process but because the pandemic is also long, (it might drag on)
for another two years, I’m sure we can come up with something for Davao
City,” the mayor said.
Direct access
She said the national government had yet to consider allowing LGUs to
directly access the vaccines from their sources but doing so would benefit
everyone.
“In my opinion, if they allow LGUs to move on their own to access vaccines
approved by the national government, then, the LGUs may be able to help the
national government move the vaccines to a large segment of the population,”
Duterte said.
Duterte said she had already communicated with vaccine makers abroad long
before the first vaccine, developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, was rolled out in the
United Kingdom.
She said an official of one of the drug companies she approached told her to
write to their company to arrange for early access to the vaccines but when
she did, the company wrote back that the vaccines they were making were not
for profit and that they would only sell to the Department of Health (DOH).
Another company she had sought out recently said that because there was no
approved eligible vaccine for release yet, all current inoculations were only for
emergency use.
The company, however, encouraged the city government to participate in

Phase 3 clinical trials to have access to the vaccines for emergency cases.
Duterte said they were willing to participate in the clinical trials if permitted by
the national government.
Investment
In Iligan City, Mayor Celso Regencia said the procurement would proceed
once there was a go signal from health authorities.
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Regencia said the city allocated funds for vaccine procurement in its 2021
budget as the local government did not want to depend on the national
government for the COVID-19 vaccination of its residents.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may
reach the country around the second half of next year. Other candidate
vaccines are in the advanced stage of development and could be available
also in 2021.
“We have to invest in the health of our people to ensure a solid foundation for
our economic recovery,” Regencia said.
Iligan city is under general community quarantine until the end of the year.
The pandemic has wrought a heavy toll on the local economy.
The local business community estimated more than 12,000 workers in the
formal and informal sectors had lost their jobs, especially due to the crippling
lockdowns during the summer.
In Lanao del Norte, Gov. Imelda Quibranza Dimaporo said they had not
allocated funds for the COVID-19 vaccines but the province might realign
funds once vaccines would be available in the country.
In Lanao del Sur, Sheila Devnani Ganda of the provincial COVID-19 task
force said Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. would wait for the national government’s
guidelines on vaccine procurement before the province would allocate funds
for it.
WHO wants stricter

Baguio border controls
during holidays
ORDINARY DAY Downtown Baguio City has more people and cars these
days as the government attempts to normalize work and business life despite
the pandemic. —EV ESPIRITU
BAGUIO CITY — A World Health Organization (WHO) official has
recommended the restoration of stricter border controls here during the
Christmas holidays when the risk of coronavirus infection was expected to be
higher.
“This [surge] is expected to continue due to the high mobility [of people] during
the holidays,” said Dr. Rowena Galpo, city health officer.
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She echoed the concern of Dr. Socorro Escalante, COVID-19 incident

manager for WHO in the Western Pacific, who cautioned local health officials
on Monday against the increasing rate of transmissions in the city and
Benguet province due to cross-border movement of people.
Galpo said movement control was needed to curb the infection, particularly
among people age 20 to 39 who have been described as “the most mobile,
and almost active, who are healthier, do not show symptoms and may
contribute to undetected transmissions.”
Since the pandemic, COVID-19 cases in the Cordillera had totaled 6,499 as of
Dec. 8. At least 871 were active cases or patients undergoing treatment,
mostly in Baguio and Benguet.
Low testing rates

Mayors in Baguio and the Benguet towns of La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan,
Tuba, and Tublay agreed on Monday to establish border controls due to
concerns over the low testing rates in their areas and neighboring
communities.
Abra province, for instance, has a testing rate of 2.9 percent, while other
Cordillera provinces have rates of 4 to 6 percent.
“While we instituted our own border controls, it wasn’t enough. It must be

mutual,” said Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
Data analysts confirmed that the rate of mobility in Baguio increased on Nov.
24, and health workers expected that the positivity rate would go up in the
next two weeks. Positivity rate is the number of people in a population tested
for COVID-19 and yielded positive results. —VINCENT CABREZA INQ
New cases below 2K

anew, but don’t ease
guard–DOH
Although the daily number of new infections went down to less than 1,500 on
Saturday, this shouldn’t lull the public into complacency as the threat of a
postholiday spike in the number of COVID-19 cases remains, officials said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier urged the public to

strictly observe minimum health protocols (wearing of masks and face shields,
observing physical distancing and frequent handwashing) as health authorities
were already seeing indications of a potential surge.
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Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, however, said that even if the

number of daily COVID-19 cases in the country rose to more than 2,000, this
would not immediately result in a more strict quarantine.
There are other factors that would have to be first taken into consideration,
including both the daily and the two-week average attack rate, Roque said.
Attack rate refers to the proportion of people who fall ill with a specific disease
in a given population.
The critical care capacity, which refers to the number of available hospital
beds and facilities for COVID-19 patients, is also another matter that would
determine if quarantine rules would be tightened, Roque said.
At a recent briefing, he said 60 percent of intensive care unit beds were
available and 71 percent for beds in wards. For ventilators, 80 percent were
available.But Roque stressed that the available capacity should not make
people complacent.
Vergeire said the Department of Health (DOH) was strictly monitoring

compliance by hospitals with the directive to set aside a portion of their beds
for COVID-19 patients in case of a spike in cases.
National caseload
Public hospitals must dedicate 30 percent of the beds to COVID-19 patients,
and this would be increased to 50 percent if there is a surge, she said. For
private hospitals, it is 20 percent, and this would be increased to 30 percent in
case of a surge.
The national COVID-19 case load stood at 458,044 on Saturday with 1,491
new cases reported.
Quezon City accounted for the most number of infections (129), followed by
Rizal (102), Benguet (81), Davao City (75) and Laguna (54).The DOH had
explained that during weekends, COVID-19 figures tend to be lower than the
rest of the week as some laboratories slow down or shut operations for
disinfection.
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Growth rate ‘worsened’

And because COVID-19 has an incubation period of two to 14 days, the
reported cases only reflects the situation two weeks earlier.
Nationally, the two-week case growth rate “worsened” from -16 percent to -4
percent, the DOH said. Metro Manila, Ilocos, the Cordillera Administrative
Region (CAR) and Cagayan Valley have also seen a trend reversal in their
cases from “negative to positive growth.”
The number of new cases was highest in Metro Manila, CAR, Calabarzon and
Davao.
Upward projections
Based on projections, Vergeire said that cases in Metro Manila “may reach
upward of 4,000 per day which may overwhelm our health system capacity to
upward of 80-percent utilization by end-January if we do not act aggressively
to halt transmission now.”
The DOH recorded an additional 436 patients who recovered from COVID-19,
bringing the total number of survivors to 421,086. The death toll rose to 8,911
after 36 more patients died.
83.4 percent are mild, 8.8 percent asymptomatic, 0.3 percent moderate, 2.5
percent severe and 4.9 percent critical. —WITH A REPORT FROM LEILA B.
SALAVERRIA
New infections back to

more than 2K
MANILA, Philippines — For the first time this month and exactly a week
before Christmas, the number of new coronavirus infections rose to over
2,000.
The Department of Health (DOH) recorded 2,122 new cases on Friday,

pushing the national caseload to 456,562.
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This is the first time since Nov. 29 that new infections breached the 2,000-
mark.
Both the government and the medical community had warned of a post-
holiday surge in cases.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reiterated their appeal to the

public to strictly adhere to health protocols, such as the wearing of masks and
face shield, observing physical distancing, and frequent handwashing, in view
of signs of the potential surge.
“This coming Christmas, let us be extra vigilant. Avoid crowded places, talking
loudly, singing. Let us remember that our health and safety should be our
priority,” Vergeire said.
Reminder to parishes
She said health authorities would be reminding Catholic Church leaders to
follow the measures that prevent the spread of the coronavirus following
reports that there were some localities where choir members did not follow the
health protocols.
“Whenever we sing, more viral particles are expelled. Choir members are not
exempt from [following the guidelines],” she said.
“We will strengthen our coordination with the Catholic Church to enforce the
minimum health standards inside churches, especially now that more people
go to churches because of the dawn Masses,” she said.
The DOH reported on Friday that 778 patients had recovered, raising the
number of survivors of the severe respiratory disease to 420,666. It said 25
patients had died, bringing the death toll to 8,875.
84 percent are mild, 8 percent asymptomatic, 0.31 percent moderate, 2.5
DOH sees COVID case

surge after Christmas
MANILA, Philippines — Health officials on Thursday warned of a rise in

COVID-19 cases in the country following Christmas family reunions and
merrymaking, but they said this could still be tempered by strict adherence to
health measures.
“It is not a question anymore if a surge will happen, but when and by how
much. We have the power to influence how big or small the surge may be,”
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
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Vergeire cited the increase in the number of infections in Canada and the
United States after their Thanksgiving celebration in November when people
traveled to spend the holiday with their loved ones.
As a result, she said, Canada’s seven-day average of new infections is now

growing to about 5,000 new cases per day and the US average is 200,000.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said hospitals, especially those that are
privately run, should brace themselves for a possible postholiday rise in the
number of cases and dedicate more beds and mechanical ventilators for
patients with the severe respiratory disease.
Speaking at a meeting of Cabinet officials on Wednesday night, Duque called

on local government officials to ensure that isolation beds at the treatment and
monitoring centers were enough.
The Department of Health (DOH) is also making sure that laboratories would
continue processing coronavirus tests during the holidays, he said.
Duque said the public should continue to observe basic health measures to
prevent the spread of the virus.
Aside from wearing masks and face shields, observing physical distancing,
frequent handwashing, and avoiding crowded and enclosed areas, people
should avoid activities that make them eject respiratory droplets into the air,
he said. These include singing and eating directly in front of others, Duque
said.
He said using trumpets for noise-making “would be akin to blowing the

COVID-19 virus into the air.”
‘Weaker’ health system

Vergeire appealed to the public to follow the government’s advice to observe
health measures, especially since the health system would be “weaker” in
January after the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
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She explained that many training hospitals “are in the transition phase where
the senior residents are replaced by the newer ones” early in the year.
“We must also take note that the staff can be on an end-of-contract break …
Also, there are usually more consults or admissions during this time for non-
communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes,” Vergeire said.
Authorities also fear a spike in cases during the holidays when large numbers
of people go out to buy gifts.
According to Vergeire, health authorities are already seeing telling signs of a

rise in the number of new infections. Nationally, they have seen the two-week
case growth rate “worsen” from -16 percent to -4 percent.
Metro Manila, Ilocos, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and

Cagayan Valley have also seen a trend reversal in cases, from “negative to
positive growth.” The number of new cases was highest in the National
Capital Region (NCR), CAR, Calabarzon, and Davao.
Reproductive rate
The reproductive rate across the country has also increased from 0.8 to more
than 1, she said.
“For NCR, more than half of cities have been showing increase in cases while
the remaining half have shown slowing of improvement. Increased vigilance is
necessary across all NCR local government units given [that their] proximity to
each other increases transmission risk,” she said.
Vergeire said cases in Metro Manila “may reach upward of 4,000 per day
which may overwhelm our health system capacity to upward of 80-percent
utilization by end-January if we do not act aggressively to halt transmission
now.”
On Thursday, the DOH logged 1,470 new cases, pushing the national
caseload to 454,447. Quezon City reported the highest number of new
infections (74), followed by Rizal (64), Makati (58), Davao (55), and Quezon
province (46). The number of survivors rose to 419,902 with the recovery of
633 patients. The death toll increased to 8,850 after 17 patients died.
Decision to allow
advance payment to
Pfizer took 2 months
MANILA, Philippines — If President Rodrigo Duterte really wanted to secure

Pfizer’s vaccine early, why did it take him two months to allow advance
payment to be made to the American pharmaceutical giant?
On Sept. 4, a multiagency meeting, including the Office of the President, was

held with Pfizer officials to discuss what the Philippines’ arrangements would
be once the candidate vaccine became available.
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In that “first meeting,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said “no
commitments were made,” and that Philippine officials only explained to Pfizer
the regulatory processes it needed to undergo and named an official it could
contact.
Confidentiality agreement
“Most of the discussions centered [on] the confidentiality disclosure
agreement (CDA), which they were able to provide the Department of Health
and we already have our comments to that,” Vergeire said at a briefing on
Sept. 7. She added that the Department of Science and Technology, which
was also present in the meeting, gave as well its comments on the
agreement.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed out that the CDA
was usually entered into by parties “to ensure that a party receiving
proprietary information (for example, unpublished data or know-how) will keep
the information confidential for a certain period of time.” Apart from Pfizer, the
Philippines also signed a CDA with Moderna.
According to Vergeire, when Pfizer asked if the government could provide an

estimate of how many vaccine doses it would preorder, Health Secretary
Francisco Duque III said the agencies involved would have to discuss it first
“since we have a limitation when it comes to preordering without the products
yet because of Republic Act No. 9184,” or the procurement law.
In his televised address on Sept. 14, the President slammed pharmaceutical

companies that asked the government to make advance payments to be able
to procure their vaccines. He did not mention any company but incidentally, he
spoke a week after the Pfizer meeting.
Reservation fee
“That’s one thing wrong about the Western countries—it’s profit, profit, profit.
There’s a pandemic and you say that, ‘OK, we have something for sale or
something to sell to you.’ Then you’ll be happy, only to collapse when the next
sentence is said, ‘but you have to make a cash advance before we send it,”
Mr. Duterte said.
“Now they are asking for, like, a reservation fee,” he said of the company that
was “really on the advanced stage of the clinical trials.”
“[Y]ou want us to make a reservation by depositing money, you must be

crazy. Why would I buy in that [manner]? Because the procurement law of the
Philippines, this country, does not allow you to buy something which is
nonexistent or to be produced as yet,” Mr. Duterte said.
By early November, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech released the interim
results on its candidate vaccine, which was later found to have an efficacy
rate of 95 percent. In the months in between, advanced economies like New
Zealand, Canada, and the European Union secured deals with Pfizer.
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In the European Union’s case, it was even able to jack up to 300 million the
number of doses it expected from Pfizer in 2021.
In July, Pfizer said it could manufacture 100 million doses by year-end. But
the company revised its projection last month, saying it expected to produce
just up to 50 million doses this year and up to 1.3 billion doses by end-2021.
100M doses for US
“[It] begs the question, ‘how can we have the 10 million for the Philippines by
January when Pfizer even falls short [of its] originally announced volume of
doses of 100 million by 2020?’ Not to mention the originating country has first
dibs,” Duque told the Inquirer.
Three of Pfizer’s four facilities that are manufacturing the vaccine are based in
the United States, to which it has an agreement to supply 100 million doses.
Duque said he signed the CDA with Pfizer in October. It was not until late
November, however, that Duterte approved advance payment to Pfizer.
At a press briefing last month, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said

Duterte allowed making advance payments to manufacturers out of fear that
the country may lose out in the race to secure the vaccine.
“At first the President disapproved of advance payments, but when he saw a
list of countries that were paying in advance, he decided that we should not be
left behind as long as we had funds,” Roque said.
Industry data showed that of the more than 12 billion vaccine doses expected
to be produced by various manufacturers next year, close to 9 billion doses
will come from five countries—the United States, India, China, France, and
the United Kingdom. The Philippines, through a private initiative, has secured
only 2.6 million doses from British-Swedish pharmaceutical company
AstraZeneca.
Though Duterte had shown preference in the past for Russia’s vaccine,
Sputnik V, it is still unclear if the Philippines will get supplies or if it has
secured a deal for the initial distribution scheduled in the first quarter of 2021.
Duque said vaccine program chief Carlito Galvez Jr. may be able to give
updates on the Russian vaccine in the scheduled media briefing on Friday.
ADB: Full resumption of

face-to-face classes
could hike COVID-19
deaths by 8 percent
MANILA, Philippines—Full resumption of face-to-face classes in Philippine

schools in the first half of 2021 could raise the number of COVID-19 fatalities
by 8 percent, according to Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The fatality rate increase is compared to existing levels when all students are
made to study off campus.
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ADB, however, also estimated that keeping students physically out of school
in school year 2020-2021 would cost P1.9 trillion in forgone economic
opportunities.
The country’s chief economist on Wednesday (Dec. 16) said he supported a

gradual and safe resumption of school activities on site.
Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua told a forum

that the planned two-week pilot run of in-person classes in January in areas
with low COVID-19 infections was a “good indication” of the strides made in
fighting the disease.
Chua, who heads the state planning agency National Economic and
Development Authority (Neda), cited experts’ claim that it would be
manageable to resume face-to-face classes in low-risk areas.
The Neda chief said it was more difficult and less productive to attend classes
online, which would later on also have an impact on the quality of education
that students get and their future productivity when they join the workforce.
The pilot face-to-face classes would also be a test case which will determine if
the government can allow younger children to leave home, Chua said.
He said the Philippines population is relatively young, with about half or 53
million aged 25 and below.
Restricting the young from joining adults outside would also weaken
consumer spending, Chua said.
Chua nonetheless pushed for a gradual resumption of face-to-face classes

done as safely as possible.
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An ADB brief titled “Cost–Benefit Analysis of Face-to-Face Closure of Schools

to Control COVID-19 in the Philippines” published last Tuesday (Dec. 15) said
that “analysis of the policy choices involved with an epidemiological model
applied to the case of the Philippines finds that fully reopening schools at all
levels during January to June 2021 affects total COVID-19 deaths by about 8
percent.”
In an analysis, economists David A. Raitzer, Rouselle F. Lavado, Jomar

Rabajante, Xylee Javier, Ludigil Garces, and Glenita Amorantoa found that
“when the new normal is maintained, overall mortality from COVID-19 from
school opening is about 1,500 lives nationally, or around an 8-percent
increase from the cumulative value simulated if schools were to remain
closed.”
“The average age at which these deaths occur is 63, and this figure
represents 0.3 percent of 2019 mortality in the Philippines,” said the ADB
report.
“Closing face-to-face schooling only for those over 15 averts 60 percent of

those deaths, and reduces mortality to about 600 lives, while allowing 78
percent of learners to attend face-to-face classes,” it said.
In terms of localities, fully resuming face-to-face classes in Metro Manila,

Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, and Calabarzon would be
most risky, the report said.
“These regions usually have schools making up a larger share of contacts,

more children in the population, more elderly in contact with children in
households, and/or weaker medical capacity compared with possible
treatment needs,” it added.
But the ADB report also pointed out that “protracted school closure does not
appear to be especially effective in controlling COVID-19.”
It said “the pandemic risk to children is limited, as a very small share of

diagnosed COVID-19 cases globally and in the Philippines is among those
under 20 years of age, and severe medical outcomes, including mortality, are
rare among children and adolescents.”
“Although children have high contact rates with each other in schools, they
also appear to have lower susceptibility, are infectious for shorter periods, and
on average have lower infectivity than adults,” ADB said.
“A number of studies find that children are unlikely to be the drivers of the
epidemic and few contact tracing studies have identified major outbreak
clusters traced to student-to-student transmission within schools from COVID-
19 where schools have remained open,” it said.
Citing government data as of Nov. 26, the ADB report said the average
mortality age of COVID-19 patients in the country was 62 years old, while
those aged 20 or lower accounted for less than 10 percent of diagnosed
cases as well as only 2 percent of deaths.
“Evidence on effects on transmission to older segments of the population is

less clear, but suggests limited effectiveness of school closure,” according to
the ADB report.
The report said “there is ample scope to use targeted measures to minimize
the COVID-19 risks of face-to-face classes while benefiting overall health,”
especially as “health behavior beyond COVID-19 is strongly conditioned by
education.”
“Analysis shows that long-term mortality increases due to less effective

education from face-to-face closure are many times higher than the number of
lives saved from COVID-19 in the short run,” it said.
The economic impact would also be huge, as ADB estimates showed that the
current ongoing closure of face-to-face classes would cost the economy P1.93
trillion or more than 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for one year.
“In a cost-benefit framework that generously values morbidity and mortality,

costs are about 70 times higher than COVID-19 control benefits,” the report
said.
“There is also growing appreciation of the costs of school closure to the
economy in the short and long run,” it said.
“In the short run, costs are borne by parents, who need to limit labor force
participation to care for children at home and those employed in education,
who may lose jobs. These effects are substantial,” it added.
“For example, the effects of each day of school closure on near-term GDP
growth may be nearly as large as each day of workplace closure. Even more
profound is the long-term effect on productivity,” ADB said.
“School closure that occurred through mid-2020 already may be sufficient to

reduce lifetime earnings of current students by 3 percent, equivalent to a long-
term reduction in GDP of 1.5 percent that remains in place for many decades.
This is many times larger than the short-run economic effect,” it added.
TSB
DOH pressed to publish

costs of COVID swab
tests
MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker on Sunday urged the Department of

Health (DOH) to publish on its website the official prices of the reverse
transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for coronavirus
infection being offered by public and private laboratories in the country.
Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said he had received reports that
several private hospitals were collecting specimens from patients, sending
these to public laboratories for testing for the COVID-19 virus, then charging
the patients at exorbitant prices.
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“We cannot understand why up to now the DOH’s Health Facilities and
Services Regulatory Bureau has not bothered to publish the cost of every
COVID-19 PCR test in every licensed laboratory, for all to see. They should
stop hiding the cost,” Pimentel said in a statement.
He demanded “absolute pricing transparency” to protect the public and help

patients choose the test price they could afford.
“[T]he DOH’s failure to promote pricing transparency from the start is the
single biggest reason why costs remain elevated at the expense of
consumers,” he said.
“Pricing transparency is important because consumers may have to rely on

COVID-19 testing for a very long time, considering that it may take the
government three years to vaccinate 60 percent of the national population
against the virus,” he added.
Pimentel also urged the DOH to require all laboratories to display prominently
on their premises and publish on their websites only one price for the virus
test to discourage hidden charges, including sudden extra charges for so-
called express results.
New infections
He said private hospitals should not charge their patients excessively if they
were piggybacking on public laboratories.
On Sunday, the DOH reported that 1,085 more people had tested positive for
the new coronavirus, bringing the overall number of confirmed COVID-19
cases in the country to 449,400.
Quezon City recorded the highest number of new infections, 103, followed by
Rizal province (46), Makati City (44), Manila (43) and Pasig City (39).
The DOH also reported 9,269 new recoveries, bringing the total number of
COVID-19 survivors in the country to 418,687. But the death toll rose to 8,733
as three more patients had died of the severe respiratory disease.
84.4 percent were mild, 5.8 percent is asymptomatic, 0.33 percent moderate,
3.2 percent severe, and 6.3 percent critical. —REPORTS FROM NESTOR
CORRALES AND DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN INQ
More cash aid urged for
workers with COVID

Silvestre Bello III
MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has called out a
government corporation overseen by the Department of Labor and
Employment (DOLE) for giving cash assistance of only P10,000 to workers
afflicted with the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) despite the agency’s
funds reaching as much as P90 billion.
The Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) has decided to peg money
assistance for the workers, including front-line workers, at only P10,000, Bello
disclosed during an online press briefing last week.
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“Ten thousand, susmaryosep, not enough to buy pain relievers. We need to

increase the benefits of our workers,” he said. He recommended that the cash
assistance for workers who fall ill from COVID-19 should not be less than
P50,000.
The ECC is mandated to provide compensation to government and private-

sector workers in case of work-related illness, injury, or death. It has eight
board members, six of them ex officio and two appointees of the President for
a fixed term of office.
Bello serves as ex-officio board chair, while the presidents of the Social
Security System and the Government Service Insurance System,
chairpersons of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the Civil Service
Commission chairperson, executive director of the ECC secretariat, and
representatives of employees and employers are members.
The ECC has “P90 billion in funds just sleeping in the bank. It’s earning a lot
but the workers are deprived of getting enough benefits,” Bello said.
‘Ang kunat!’
“Do you know why the ECC’s funds have ballooned? Ang kunat! (So stingy!).
Imagine we’re talking of employees compensation,” he added.
He chided the commission’s executive director and presidential appointee,

Stella Zipagan-Banawis, for likewise being “makunat (stingy).”
The ECC has so far released this year P827 million in compensation benefits
to some 80,000 employees, and provided P20.7 million in assistance to more
than 2,000 front-line workers who tested positive for the coronavirus.
Front-line workers include health-care workers, government workers,

protective service workers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the
Philippine National Police, cashiers and crew in grocery stores, production
and food processing workers, janitors and maintenance workers, and truck
drivers.
The DOLE is rushing to disburse before Christmas the P16.4 billion allocated
for financial assistance to workers displaced by the pandemic under the
Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2).
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Since the law’s implementation was extended to June next year, Bello said
the department’s field offices would have more time to give the aid to qualified
applicants.
The DOLE provides P5,000 cash assistance for displaced formal sector
workers, with special allocation for workers in the tourism and education
sectors; cash-for-work program for informal sector workers; and $200 or
P10,000 cash aid for displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Around P4.1 billion was earmarked for the formal sector workers, including
P300 million for teaching and non-teaching personnel, under the COVID-19
Adjustment Measures Program.
Another P3.1 billion was allocated for tourism workers; P6.2 billion for informal
sector workers under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating
Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers program; and P3 billion for OFWs under
the Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong program. INQ
DOH to monitor
coronavirus variants
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said it

would ramp up surveillance of circulating strains of the new coronavirus after
the United Kingdom reported a more infectious variant of COVID-19 agent.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that although the
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine had not detected any new circulating
variant, it would “further [its] monitoring” to better prepare the country.
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“We need to strengthen [surveillance] so that we can identify it if it’s present

here,” Vergeire said.
Earlier, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced stricter restrictions in

his country after scientists found a more infectious variant of coronavirus,
which, he said, “may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the earlier
strain.”
Almost immediately, several countries imposed a travel ban on the United

Kingdom, including Canada, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, and Germany.
‘No impact on vaccines’

But according to Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, European Union
experts believe existing vaccines against the coronavirus are effective against
the new fast-spreading variant identified in Britain.
Spahn told public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday that “according to everything

we know so far, [the new strain] has no impact on the vaccines.”
He was referring especially to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is already

being administered in countries, including the United Kingdom and the United
States, and which is on the brink of receiving approval from the European
Medicines Agency.
Dr. Mike Ryan, health emergencies chief of the World Health Organization
(WHO), said “the question is whether there’s significance in public health
terms and certainly looking at this particular variant, it seems to have become
more prevalent in the UK.”
“We’ll obviously need to work with our international lab network to see if that
variant is becoming more prevalent on an international basis,” he added.
Vergeire said “we are strengthening our measures to prevent the entry of the
infection here. That’s why we are on guard at our ports, coupled with the
testing and quarantining of all those coming in.”
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Vaccine rollout
The DOH also appealed to the public to be patient as the government was
trying to firm up deals to secure the country’s vaccine doses.
Vergeire said that while the department understood the anticipation over the
rollout of vaccines against COVID-19, people must also take into account the
government processes in securing the deals.
“The government is trying to do its best so we could have the vaccines as

early as next year. But we also need to abide by the processes of the
government so that it will be in order, it’s going to be transparent and
according to guidelines,” she said.
Early this month, President Rodrigo Duterte gave the Food and Drug
Administration the power to grant an emergency use authorization to
manufacturers, but Vergeire said the DOH had yet to receive any application.
She said that even if the government had not yet firmed up deals with any
manufacturer, these drug makers could already apply for authorization “as
long as they can complete the documentary requirements being asked from
them to process their applications.”
Virus case update

On Monday, the DOH logged 1,721 new COVID-19 cases, raising the overall
tally to 461,505. Davao City reported the most number of new infections, 151,
followed by Quezon City (142), Rizal (85), Laguna (81), and Manila (77).
Another 82 patients have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number
of survivors to 429,207.
The death toll, however, rose to 8,957 as 10 more succumbed to the severe
respiratory disease.
82.2 percent were mild, 8.5 percent asymptomatic, 0.34 percent moderate, 3
percent severe and 5.9 percent critical. —WITH A REPORT FROM AFP INQ
WHO: No evidence yet
COVID-19 variant in UK
more virulent
Pedestrians walk past the window display of a Debenhams shop on Oxford

Street in central London on December 22, 2020. – UK government borrowing
continued to soar in November on emergency action to support the virus-hit
economy which nevertheless rebounded stronger than expected in the third
quarter, official data showed Tuesday. Government borrowing last month hit
£31.6 billion ($41.8 billion, 34.2 billion euros), a record for November — taking
public sector net debt to £2.1 trillion, the Office for National Statistics said in a
statement. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP)
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said there was still no
evidence that the new coronavirus variant detected in the United Kingdom
made the disease more severe or rendered the vaccines being rolled out
ineffective.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier announced the implementation of

tighter restrictions in his country ahead of the holidays after scientists found a
more infectious variant of the virus that he said “may be up to 70 percent more
transmissible than the earlier strain.” (See related story on page B4)
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This prompted a host of countries to impose a travel ban on the United

Kingdom. These include Germany, Italy, Canada, Turkey, and Switzerland.
Based on the United Kingdom’s report to the WHO, an increase in

transmission was detected in southeast England in late November to early
December despite existing interventions.
Studies underway
Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme chief, said during
an online briefing that studies were underway, but there was “zero evidence at
this point that there’s any increase in severity associated with this disease.”
“We’ve seen many variants emerge over the last number of months. Some
had been successful, some had not been as successful in establishing
themselves as part of the driving force of COVID-19,” Ryan said.
“What no variant has done yet is establish itself as having any higher level of
severity or evading our diagnostics or hiding from vaccines or the
effectiveness of the vaccines. It remains to be seen with any new variant.
That’s why it’s important that we continue the work,” he added.
Reproduction number
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s health emergencies technical lead, said
this increase was being associated with what British authorities called the
B117 lineage of the SARS-CoV-2, which includes the N501Y mutation in the
spike gene of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
“What they have told us is they are looking at an increase in the reproduction
number of about 0.4, moving from 1.1 to 1.5. They are trying to determine how
much is associated with the variant itself, as well as behavioral differences in
individuals that this variant has infected,” Kerkhove said.
She said that apart from the ongoing investigation on how this variant affected
the severity of the disease, there were also studies on whether it had an
impact on the response of antibodies. Results of these studies were expected
in the coming weeks, she added.
Dangerous in any form

Regardless of the variant, however, Kerkhove stressed that “SARS-CoV-2, in
any form, is a dangerous virus.”
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She urged everyone to do their part in ensuring they minimize their risk of
being infected, especially as the holidays are just days away.
“We say know your risk, lower your risk. There are things that you can do at
an individual level,” she said.
She cited physical distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, practicing

respiratory etiquette, avoiding crowded spaces, and avoiding enclosed areas
with poor ventilation.
“The activities that we take ourselves to minimize our own exposure are
applicable for any SARS-CoV-2 virus that’s circulating, including the new
variant that has been identified in the UK,” she added. INQ
City mayors to meet on

own vaccine
procurement plans

ILOILO CITY — A committee of the 145-member League of Cities of the
Philippines (LCP) will meet next week to tackle plans for direct procurement of
COVID-19 vaccines by local authorities around the country, a former leader of
the group said on Wednesday.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, who had served as LCP president and chair,
said the LCP president, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, would call the
meeting of the committee composed of city mayors to discuss the
procurement of vaccines for cities in the country.
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“We need to discuss plans especially for cities who can afford to buy their own
vaccines because the sooner we can administer these, the sooner we can
return to normal,” Treñas told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
He said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who is chair of the National

Task Force Against COVID-19, had given approval for the cities to procure
vaccines.
Treñas said he had also appealed to business organizations and employers to

also procure vaccines for their employees.
Iloilo allotment
The Florete Group of Companies, which includes radio network Bombo Radyo
and a hotel chain in Iloilo City, has already announced its plan to procure
vaccines, according to the mayor.
The Iloilo City government has allocated P109 million of a planned P200
million allotment for vaccine purchases.
Aside from hastening the procurement of vaccines and inoculation of their

constituents, the proposed move would also ease the burden on the national
government’s vaccination plans, Treñas said.
No guidelines yet
The national government has not released guidelines for the procurement and
administration of vaccines, which are already rolling out in highly developed
countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
“The national government can probably focus on employees of national

government agencies and offices, beneficiaries of the (Pantawid Pamilyang
Pilipino Program) while the cities that can afford to procure vaccines can cater
to city government employees, barangay officials, senior citizens and other
residents,” Treñas said.
Win: Prioritize teachers

In Manila, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the government must include public
school teachers and personnel among the first people to be vaccinated as
they could be considered front-liners.
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He said inoculating teachers would be a “crucial step” in ensuring the safety of

schools and build confidence in the gradual resumption of in-person classes.
According to the senator, the country’s more than 900,000 teachers and
nonteaching staff have been serving as front-liners to ensure the continued
education of more than 22 million students during the pandemic.
The teachers risked their health and safety as they distributed learning
materials to about 87 percent of public school students.
Gatchalian said that reopening the schools should be a priority to prevent a

worsening of what he termed as a “learning crisis” hounding the country.
He cited the poor performance of Filipino students in recent global educational

assessments, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment
(Pisa) 2018, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS) 2019, and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM)
2019.
A policy brief from the United Nations had identified the suppression of the
virus transmission as the “most significant step” to hasten the reopening of
schools.
Case tally
On Wednesday, the Department of Health logged 1,196 new COVID-19
cases, raising the national tally to 464,004. Quezon City had the most number
of new infections (123), followed by Rizal (84), Manila (74), Davao (54), and
Batangas (49).
Another 564 patients have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total
number of survivors to 429,972.
The death toll, however, rose to 9,048 after 27 patients succumbed to the
2.9 percent severe and 5.5 percent critical. —WITH REPORTS FROM
MELVIN GASCON AND JOVIC YEE INQ
Pampanga checkpoints,
Isabela city liquor ban to
curb COVID surges
High attack rate prompts local officials to reimpose restrictions
STOP At the height of the community quarantine, checkpoints were installed
in borders of provinces in Luzon as a measure to prevent the spread of the
coronavirus disease. In Pampanga, these checkpoints are reactivated due to
surging COVID-19 cases. —WILLIE LOMIBAO
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Checkpoints and surveillance operations in
505 villages in Pampanga province have been activated for three days
starting Christmas Day to control the spread of the coronavirus disease,
officials said.
In an executive order, Gov. Dennis Pineda also required visitors, including

those staying with their relatives in the province, to first present negative
results from rapid antigen tests or RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase
chain reaction) tests taken four days before entry.
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Pineda also prohibited caroling and house-to-house family reunions during the
holidays. Children aged 15 or younger and senior citizens who are 65 or older
were still barred from leaving their homes except when buying essential items
or during health emergencies. Wearing face masks and face shields, already
mandatory in Pampanga, was also reiterated in the order.
28 new infecions
In Santiago City in Isabela province, Mayor Joseph Tan imposed a liquor ban
on Dec. 24 and 25 and on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, 2021, to prevent the spread of
COVID-19 infections.
Listed as among the areas with the highest COVID-19 attack rate at 14.4
percent, the city ranks behind the mining town of Mankayan, Benguet
province, which has a 59-percent attack rate. Also on that list are Baguio City,
La Trinidad in Benguet, and Makati City.
This week, Santiago City recorded 28 new infections, raising the number of
active cases to 156. A 3-year-old boy was the youngest patient while the
eldest was a 71-year-old man.Tan said he would impose a zonal containment
of neighborhoods where the patients live while the city remained under
general community quarantine. —TONETTE OREJAS AND VILLAMOR
VISAYA JR. INQ
DILG: Local govt’s can

buy own vaccines vs
COVID
By: Dexter Cabalza, Leila B. Salaverria - @inquirerdotnet
MANILA, Philippines — Local government units will be allowed to procure

COVID-19 vaccines for their constituents who are not on the government’s
priority list of people who will receive the inoculation, according to Jonathan
Malaya, undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local
Government (DILG).
Malaya said the national government was committed to procure vaccines for
majority of Filipinos, but local governments are not prohibited from doing so as
well.
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Local governments that had allocated funds in their budgets for vaccines
could purchase those already approved by the Food and Drug Administration,
Malaya said.
“If they want to include their constituents who are not considered priority, they
could buy [vaccines] and vaccinate their constituents, provided that the
vaccine they will procure is approved by the Food and Drug Administration,”
he said.
Muntinlupa City has prepared an initial budget of P170 million to procure

vaccines versus COVID-19.
Mayor Jaime Fresnedi said the city government would allocate funds for the
vaccination program to ensure that all Muntinlupa residents would receive the
vaccine.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the mass vaccination drive would initially
focus on epicenters of the pandemic, including Metro Manila, Calabarzon and
Central Luzon regions, as well as the key cities of Davao, Cebu, Cagayan de
Oro, Baguio, Bacolod, Iloilo, Zamboanga, Tacloban, and General Santos.
After assessing which areas where the vaccine will need to be deployed,
eligible populations in these areas will be prioritized for inoculation.
On the priority list are front-line health workers, workers of select government
offices, senior citizens, indigents, and uniformed employees.
The government has allocated P72.5 billion for the purchase, storage,
shipment, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the proposed P4.5-trillion
budget for 2021.
The Philippine government is requesting a $325-million (about P15.6 billion)

loan from the Asian Development Bank to procure the COVID-19 vaccines.
The government aims to vaccinate at least 60 million Filipinos against the

severe respiratory disease that has caused a global pandemic and killed 1.75
million people. INQ
PH braces for threat of
new virus variant
AFP photo
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has called infectious
disease experts and the managers of the country’s COVID-19 response to a
special meeting on Saturday to discuss possible changes in policies to deal
with the new coronavirus variant that emerged in the United Kingdom,
according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
Duterte will cut short his visit to Davao City, where he spent Christmas with
his family, to return to Malacañang for the 6 p.m. meeting with members of the
Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious
Diseases, Roque said.
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In a Viber message to reporters, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, a longtime aide

of the President, said Duterte was “very much worried” about the new variant
of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the severe respiratory disease.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who announced more stringent

lockdown measures over the Christmas holiday in the United Kingdom, said
the new variant “may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original
version of the disease.”
56% more contagious

Scientists said in a new study that the mutated coronavirus was on average
56 percent more contagious than the original version.
Roque said the officials would determine whether there was a need “to
change some policies in the fight against COVID-19” like the possible
extension of the one-week ban on people traveling from the United Kingdom,
which started on Dec. 24, or to impose the same ban on travelers from places
that have reported cases of the new variant like Singapore, Nigeria, and Hong
Kong.
If the new variant is proven to spread more easily, there would be a need for
stricter implementation of health and safety protocols to prevent the spread of
the disease, he said.
But when asked whether a more infectious variant would mean stricter
quarantine, Roque said, “Maybe not because we are really making sure our
people have a means of living.”
“And I think this Christmas, despite doubts, Filipinos have shown that they can
follow minimum health standards,” he added.
In the new study, scientists warned that the more contagious mutated
coronavirus may need a faster vaccine rollout to help prevent more deaths.
According to the study published on Wednesday by the Centre for the

Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, researchers were still uncertain whether the
new variant was more or less deadly than its predecessor.
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“Nevertheless, the increase in transmissibility is likely to lead to a large
increase in incidence, with COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths projected to
reach higher levels in 2021 than were observed in 2020, even if regional
tiered restrictions implemented before 19 December are maintained,” they
said.
Speed up rollout
The authors of the study said the national lockdown imposed in England in
November was unlikely to prevent an increase of infections “unless primary
schools, secondary schools, and universities are also closed.”
Any easing of control measures would likely prompt “a large resurgence of the
virus,” they said.
This means that “it may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine rollout to
have an appreciable impact in suppressing the resulting disease burden.”
The discovery of the new variant set off alarm bells worldwide just as more
countries began vaccination campaigns to halt a pandemic that has claimed
more than 1.7 million lives since it emerged a year ago in China.
Many countries quickly imposed bans on travel from Britain, but EU

governments have relaxed the restrictions.
The co-founder of BioNTech—Pfizer’s partner in producing the vaccine that is

being rolled out worldwide this week—has said its drug is “highly likely” to
work against the mutated virus and otherwise can be adapted in six weeks.
Postholiday surge
In Cebu City, health authorities in Central Visayas appealed to privately
owned and government-run hospitals in the region to maintain their 30-
percent allocated coronavirus beds in wards and intensive care units to
prepare for a possible post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases.
“Should there be another spike in COVID-19 cases, God forbid, we should be

ready to address the needs of patients,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche,
spokesperson of the Region 7 office of the Department of Health (DOH).
Loreche told the Inquirer that the region’s testing capacity could go as high as
4,000 to 5,000 in 24 hours.
She said Cebu City, once tagged as the second epicenter of COVID-19 in the
country after Metro Manila, has a “very active and efficient” Emergency
Operations Center. Critical care utilization rate in hospitals is also down from
more than 80 percent to 19 percent, Loreche said.
Although Central Visayas already flattened the curve last September, she said
people should not be complacent and should continue observing health
protocols like wearing face masks and face shields, practicing physical
distancing, frequent hand-washing, and staying indoors as much as possible.
Central Visayas, which includes Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor,
has recorded a total of 24,776 cases with 22,748 recoveries, and 1,424
deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the DOH 7.
As of Thursday, only 604 cases remained active.
Most new cases in QC

The DOH reported 1,885 new infections on Christmas Day, raising the
national total to 467,601.
Quezon City had the most number of new cases (130), followed by Bulacan
(122), Davao City (99), Rizal (78), and Leyte (63).
Another 307 patients have recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19
survivors to 430,791.
The death toll increased to 9,062 after seven patients died.
From Dec. 1 to Dec. 25, a total of 36,229 new cases were recorded, a 14-
percent drop from 42,427 during the same period last month, the DOH said.
While the national government has yet to seal a deal to acquire a vaccine,
some local authorities have started looking for funds to purchase vaccines for
their constituents.
Cebu vaccine budget

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said the city had set aside at least P500
million to procure and distribute a vaccine.
He said Carlito Galvez Jr., who was in charge of the national vaccination
program, told him that Cebu City would be among the areas that would be
prioritized.
Loreche said at least 60 percent of the population must be vaccinated to

achieve herd immunity.
“It would be a waste of funds, time and efforts if we would fall short of that and
find it difficult to attain. This is why it will definitely require partnerships and
collaborations to become successful,” she added. —WITH REPORTS FROM
MELVIN GASCON, ADOR VINCENT MAYOL, JOVIC YEE AND AFP INQ
Newly signed P4.5-

trillion budget will help
economy heal from
COVID – Duterte
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday signed into law the P4.5-trillion General
Appropriations Act for 2021, which, he said, would enable the economy to
heal from the debilitating effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
In his speech during the signing ceremony at Malacañang, Mr. Duterte said
one of the most important items in the national budget was the P72.5 billion
for the purchase, storage, transportation and distribution of COVID-19
vaccines.
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The President did not say if he vetoed any item in the budget.
He said he was “pleased” that through the budget, his administration would be
able to continue to pursue its flagship infrastructure program, revitalize
industries and the services sector, and support social services projects.
Efficient use of resources

“As we look forward with hope for the coming year, let me assure the public
that this administration will ensure efficient use of resources through sound
fiscal policy that will enable us to overcome the debilitating effects of the
pandemic on public health and our economy,” Mr. Duterte said.
“I cannot stress this enough: Every centavo of this budget must be spent to
ensure our nation’s recovery, resilience and sustainability. Let me therefore
[give] assurance to the Filipino people [that] this coming year we intend to
recover as one nation,” he said.
The President said he was “happy and proud” to sign the budget bill, the
passage of which, according to him, attested to the importance of an “active
and fruitful” collaboration between the executive and legislative branches of
government, especially during the pandemic.
“The prompt ratification of the 2021 national budget is a testament to our

commitment to set aside divisive partisan politics. Indeed at this crucial
junction in our history, we can no longer afford to engage in the politics of
division, hate and finger-pointing,” he said.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco,
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, other lawmakers and government officials
attended the signing ceremony.
Key to economic recovery

Velasco said the 2021 budget reflected the government’s “serious
commitment and strong resolve to defeat the virus and bring the economy
back on track.”
Besides the P72.5 billion for COVID-19 vaccines, he said P2 billion had been
allocated for the purchase of personal protective equipment “to ensure that
our health workers are safe as they carry out their duty of saving every patient
from the virus.”
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Velasco thanked his colleagues in the House of Representatives and the
Senate for working hard to enact the budget bill on time.
In a statement, Rep. Joey Salceda, head of the House ways and means
committee, said “the key to economic recovery in 2021 will be quick and
effective government spending to support economic activity.”
“The items appropriated in the budget will have to be completed as fast as

possible. So the House will continue to be on the lookout to ensure that there
are no unfinished programs or low-disbursement social services,” Salceda
said.
—With a report from Nestor Corrales
DOH: Metro Manila

hospitals can handle up
to 50% postholiday
COVID surge
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila hospitals can handle a surge in COVID-

19 cases that may occur after the holiday season, Health Undersecretary
Leopoldo Vega said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a news briefing, Vega said the Department of Health (DOH) was
building up hospital capacity to meet a possible postholiday surge in COVID-
19 cases.
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“We are doing the expansion of hospitals for [a possible] surge . . . in the first
quarter of next year,” Vega said.
He said hospitals in the metropolis could handle a surge of up to 50 percent,

beyond which the situation would be “really difficult” because hospital staffs
would be overwhelmed.
Vega said hospital workers could handle only a 30 to 50 percent increase in

cases.
He said the DOH had increased capacity for severe and critical COVID-19
cases in public and private hospitals throughout the country.
Vega said the DOH boosted severe and critical capacity in public hospitals in
Metro Manila and across the country by 50 to 100 percent with funding from
the Department of Budget and Management.
With assistance from the Department of Public Works and Highways, he said,
the DOH is also building field hospitals for severe and critical cases in Quezon
City and Batangas.
Currently, he said, use of space in private hospitals in Metro Manila was

nearly 18 percent, while in public hospitals the use rate was 30 to 33 percent.
Avoid firecrackers
Vega said he hoped the authorities would strictly enforce public health
measures during the New Year celebrations so that the expected surge in
COVID-19 cases would not be too high.
He also called on the public to avoid using firecrackers to welcome the new
year to avoid injuries that could cause overcrowding in emergency rooms.
“We really need to avoid firecrackers so that we won’t overstrain hospital

capacities,” Vega said.
Authorities on lookout
for ‘Goodbye COVID’
By: Carmela Reyes-Estrope - Correspondent / @inquirerdotnet
BOCAUE, BULACAN—The pandemic has made it a year like no other, and

New Year revelers looking for a powerful firecracker to bid 2020 goodbye
won’t be disappointed.
In Bocaue, the so-called firecracker capital of the Philippines, they may find
exactly what they want: a blaster packed with more than 2 grams of explosive
ingredients—and therefore illegal. Its manufacturers call it “Goodbye COVID.”
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It may cost buyers an arm and a leg—literally and figuratively—as it sells from
P600 to P1,000 apiece.
Police and local authorities have intensified the crackdown on banned

firecrackers to prevent injuries and deaths during the New Year merrymaking.
On Sunday, policemen arrested a seller of illegal firecrackers during an

entrapment operation in this town.
Rhendel Siongco, 20, was caught selling “Goodbye Philippines,” “Plapla,”

“Kabasi” and “Atomic” that were manufactured from an unlicensed factory at
Sitio Bihunan in Barangay Binang II.
These firecrackers are among the 26 types categorized as “very hazardous”

by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, according to Police
Col. Lawrence Cajipe, Bulacan police director.
As they reeled from the crippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their
business, manufacturers are pondering their future.
President Duterte had warned of a firecracker ban across the country by

December next year for public health and safety reasons. Once enacted, the
policy would kill the local firecracker and fireworks industry, particularly that of
Bocaue’s.
The President had said he was aware of the concerns of manufacturers who
had appealed to him to reconsider his decision as it would put people out of
their jobs.
“I really understand you. I might even sympathize with you. Loss of earnings
and you are driven out of business. But the problem is the higher duty of
government to protect public interest, public health,” he said.
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Metro ban
Mayors of Metro Manila have also agreed to ban firecrackers in the metropolis
to reduce the risks of injuries and prevent mass gatherings.
But Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando said all other fireworks and pyrotechnic
devices that were not covered by the ban could still be bought and
manufactured in the province.
In a recent inspection of stores selling fireworks here, Fernando ordered the

Bulacan police to ensure that these shops complied with all safety measures.
He conceded that some manufacturers still tried to sell illegal firecrackers with
unusual branding, including the “Goodbye COVID.’’
According to him, they were supporting the government’s drive to minimize

fireworks-related injuries but were also trying to help thousands of people
keep their jobs especially in this town.
Joven Ong, Philippine Fireworks Association president, said the group

believed that the ban would “only serve to reward the acts of those who
operate illegally to the detriment of the whole industry.”
“Instead of a ban, the government should try to help us instead by catching

these illegal manufacturers and smugglers,” Ong said.
Mandaluyong order
On Tuesday, Mandaluyong City announced a total ban on the manufacture,
distribution, sale and use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices to
ensure public safety and health.
Mayor Carmelita Abalos signed Executive Order No. 39 series of 2020, which
prohibits the sale and use of any kind of firecrackers during the revelry on
Thursday and Friday.
Similar local ordinances and executive orders have been passed in the cities
of Marikina, Valenzuela, Parañaque, Muntinlupa, Quezon City, Navotas and
San Juan.
Instead of fireworks displays, health officials have recommended safer

alternatives, such as virtual celebrations or small gatherings with family
members and the use of alternative “merrymaking noise tools.” —With a
report from Meg Adonis

March

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MARCH- REVISED

DOH confirms 2 local

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:15 AM March 07, 2020

URGENT REMINDERS Tips on how to prevent the spread of the new

Also on Thursday, a 48-year-old lawyer who had traveled to Japan tested

“As to when it will be opened, I informed the Greenhills Muslim Traders

The Greenhills Center management said it was “enacting precautionary

“There is no transmission so to speak as of yet because we only have one. It’s

But Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the World Health Organization (WHO)

“Local transmission means transmission in a local geographic setting,” he

Not yet sure

At New Clark City, 25 of the repatriates have shown symptoms, 19 of whom

DOT postpones mall fest

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:30 AM March 01, 2020

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Saturday

The Philippine Shopping Festival was supposed to be part of DOT’s efforts to

Malls free to operate

The festival will continue in selected tourism establishments such as hotels,

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:03 AM March 10, 2020

He argued that the cost of mass community transmission far outweighed

President Duterte on Monday declared a public health emergency as the

“The zero-casualty doctrine should extend to all emergencies, especially

Elaborating on his proposal, he explained that classes should be suspended

The Manila lawmaker expressed openness to other strong measures, such as

“Government and private offices should also study work-from-home

New Metro Manila cases

Another confirmed case, a 32-year-old Filipino, was admitted at St. Luke’s

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:57 AM March 09, 2020

In a radio interview on Sunday, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo

“We are ready for any eventuality,” Panelo said.

On Saturday, the Duterte approved the recommendation of the Department of

Some local governments called off classes in schools following news of

She expressed disappointment over the delayed action of the Duterte

‘Massaging the data’

Zarate said the government’s declaration of a state of public health

“[The] DOH should have earlier asserted the budgetary requirement to

Commenting on Duque’s decision to withhold some information on the latest

“Information is the most essential element in addressing the situation and

POGOs to stay; taxes to

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:54 AM March 09, 2020

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte will neither stop nor

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:05 AM March 09, 2020

Guio Martinez, a representative for the Greenhills Shopping Center

Jericho, a barista at a popular Chinese restaurant, said that although there

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:16 AM March 11, 2020

Classes in all levels in Bulacan province were suspended on Tuesday after

“There is no confirmation yet of whether it is a positive case or just a person

In Zambales province, Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. canceled the annual

In Pangasinan province, Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil said he was tested

The NQC announced on its Facebook page on Monday that it postponed

In Davao City, Councilor Joselle Villafuerte, a doctor, sought the reactivation

New schedules of commencement exercises will be decided after the public

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:12 AM March 12, 2020

Though healthy, he was wearing a surgical mask—something health officials

Will’s sentiment reflected the general concerns of Metro Manila’s commuters,

INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

To remedy this, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board

COVID-19 patient stirs

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:14 AM March 13, 2020