By Joseph B.A. Marzan
Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. on Thursday said he wants to continue using public school classrooms in the province as quarantine facilities amid the continuing threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the region.
Defensor said that he already asked National Task Force on COVID-19 (NTF) Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez on Wednesday to intercede for the province in seeking approval from its mother group, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
In a press conference, the governor said that schools are ideal quarantine facilities for residents believed to be infected with COVID-19 or are waiting for their test results due to its proximity to their homes.
“We have been allowed by the [DepEd-6] to use classrooms as quarantine facilities because it cannot be denied that they are ideal because they have comfort rooms inside, and they are in the patient’s hometown itself. So, you address the psychosocial problem, that the facility is near where they live, and it makes a lot of difference,” Defensor said.
The governor said the extension of the use of schools is also in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s pronouncements of prohibiting physical forms of classes.
He added that the Department of Education-Region 6 (DepEd-6) had given the province and the municipalities permission to use the rooms only until August 15, 2020.
“We asked the office of Secretary Charlie Galvez to intervene for us to formalize our use of the classrooms in the municipalities, as President Duterte said that there shouldn’t be face-to-face classes. In any event, [DepEd-6 Division of Iloilo Superintendent] Dr. Roel Bermejo contacted me through the regional office and said that they have allowed us at least to use the classrooms until August 15. That is good enough and we will take it from there,” the governor said.
