By Jennifer P. Rendon and Emme Rose Santiagudo
Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque and Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas have known each other since the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
But this friendship did not dissuade Treñas from calling for Duque’s resignation.
“Abyan ko man na tuod si Secretary Francisco Duque kay halin pa na sang tiyempo ni Pres. Arroyo nga kilala ko na ina sya (Secretary Francisco Duque is my friend. I’ve known him since the time of Pres. Arroyo) but I think it’s really about time for him to accept responsibility and voluntarily resign for the sake of the country,” he said.
During Monday’s flag-raising ceremony at the Iloilo City Hall, Treñas hit the DOH over its decision to send rural health doctors under the Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) Program to Covid-hit Cebu City.
“Para sa akon ‘ya, daw libagon gid ang tanan nga naubra nila. Indi ko kabalo kung insakto na nga ipadala nila ang aton nga mga doctor didto sa Cebu (I think what they’re doing is out of tune. I don’t know if it’s right to send our doctors to Cebu). I don’t know if that’s the correct decision. I don’t know if that is the correct thing to be done. I hope that our authorities especially DOH are thinking correctly,” he said.
While these medical workers are not assigned in Iloilo City, it might affect the health response of the city.
In its June 28, 2020 health bulletin, the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD6) confirmed that six of the 26 persons who tested positive were health practitioners affiliated with Saint Paul’s Hospital-Iloilo.
The regional Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for COVID-19 subsequently placed the hospital on lockdown.
Located in Gen. Luna St., City Proper, Iloilo City, Saint Paul’s is a tertiary level training general hospital with a capacity of 265 beds.
On Monday, Treñas confirmed that two more doctors from the same hospital were also infected with COVID-19.
Atty. Roy Villa, spokesperson of the IATF-Western Visayas, announced that admission to the hospital was suspended while all its personnel inside are under strict quarantine.
Treñas said it would give out rapid test kits to all doctors assigned in hospitals in Iloilo City.
“We have to make sure that all our medical personnel are safe considering that DOH is going to send 40 of our doctors to the barrios in Cebu,” he said.
Since Iloilo City only has one sub-national laboratory processing reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) tests, it will take some time for results to be released.
“That’s why we have to do it in the meantime,” he said.
As rural doctors would be pulled out, “we have also to make sure that the doctors here are safe. We can’t do anything about it. We’ll have a bigger problem if we send doctors to Cebu but we don’t know the situation of our own doctors here,” he said.
Treñas said he heard that in Cebu, the situation there is “not that good” that some doctors and nurses on private hospitals refuse to go on duty anymore.
“That’s the doctors that they will be getting here will be made to render duty in private hospitals in Cebu. I don’t know here if that’s the correct thing that should be done. I hope that our authorities, especially at the DOH are thinking correctly,” he said.
While he does not want to put blame on anyone, Treñas stressed that Duque should accept his responsibility and voluntarily resign for the sake of the country.
“I am not putting blame on anyone but there are decision-makers. Secretary Francisco Duque is a friend because I have known him since the time of the late President Corazon Aquino. But I think it is really about time for him to accept responsibility and voluntarily resign for the sake of the country,” he emphasized.
By doing a voluntary act of resignation, new blood can take the seat of DOH and resolve the rising cases in the country, Treñas added.
“If President Rodrigo Duterte finds it difficult to fire him, para sa akon iya na lang gid ya, he should do a voluntary act para may ara new blood sa DOH and hopefully we will solve this.”
Even with the imposition of long lockdowns, he noted that Covid-19 cases in the country continue to rise.
“DOH has not done correct decisions since the start of this pandemic in the Philippines. That is why we are the country with the longest lockdown and yet the (COVID-19) cases continue to go up,” Treñas said.
Recently, a number of Senators echoed calls for Duque to resign for his alleged “failure of leadership” and in managing COVID-19 cases in the country.
The health secretary was also severely criticized for the delay on the distribution of financial assistance to frontliners who died due to Covid-19
But the President resisted calls to sack Duque.
“I serve at the pleasure of the President,” Duque said in previous media interviews.
MEETING WITH DOCTORS
Investigation is being done to ascertain how the health workers from Saint Paul’s contracted the virus. But it was initially learned that some of them attended to a victim of a vehicular incident in Capiz that was brought to the hospital for surgery.
The patient underwent a rapid test and it yielded a positive result. But the RT-PCR test later yielded negative results.
The doctors also underwent rapid tests and two were found positive and later isolated.
But when the RT-PCR test was released, more doctors turned out to be infected.
On Monday afternoon, Treñas met with administrators of all Iloilo City hospitals.
“I want also to listen to them what they’re doing in their hospital. What happens in Saint Paul’s, I couldn’t say that they were infected in their community because there’s several of them. I believed that they could have been infected in their hospital,” he said
Treñas said there might be certain protocols that were not followed.
“I’m concerned because Saint Paul’s is a big hospital and a good number of patients with medical issues go there. And we don’t want that to also happen in other big hospitals,” he said.
He also called on the public to follow minimum health standards when going out of their houses.
“We must always think that the person in front of us is asymptomatic. If that’s what our thinking, we would be observing health protocols like physical distancing, use of face mask, frequent hand washing, and use of alcohol,” he said.
While the census on population revealed that Iloilo has around 480,000 to 490,000 inhabitants, Treñas believed that the city has a population of more than 600,000.
And if there are no adequate preparations and medical protocols are violated, it is probable that Iloilo City’s health facilities will be overwhelmed just like in Cebu.
“That is the reason why we need to ensure that, first, our medical personnel are safe; second, the DOH will rethink its idea,” he said.
Treñas also revealed that he talked to Secretaries Delfin Lorenzana, Carlito Galvez, and Harry Roque about the rising cases of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who turned out to be COVID positive.
Iloilo City is now attending to around 200 LSIs.
“If they would be sending more LSIs, we might be accepting more asymptomatic persons here. I don’t think that’s the correct decision that they have been doing,” he said.
Treñas said he was saddened by the fact that some presented negative COVID results but others were positive after being tested in Iloilo City.
“I don’t know if they got their PCR results from Recto,” he said.
Recto Street in Manila City is famed to be the hub of fake or doctored documents.
Treñas said he wanted to ensure that Iloilo City is safe.
He also talked about mental health in the time of the pandemic. While COVID only claimed one life in Iloilo City, two died by suicide so far this year.
Treñas said Iloilo City is also acting on suicide problems.
