By Joseph B.A. Marzan
Both Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas and Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. clarified on Monday that they are receiving returning Locally Stranded Individuals (LSI) after the suspension of repatriation trips was lifted on July 16, 2020.
This, despite the appeal of the governor and municipal mayors in the province to prolong the suspension to prepare for a probable surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
In a press conference, Treñas said that they will continue to receive LSIs as long as facilities are capable to receive them.
123 LSIs arrived in Iloilo City yesterday via sweeper flight carrying 72 city residents and a sea vessel carrying 51 others.
The repatriation trips were arranged by the Presidential Management Staff.
Treñas added that some of the LSIs who arrived were tested at the private QualiMed Hospital, which had been accredited by the Department of Health in early July.
“For me, as I have said, we continue to receive LSIs as long as we have the facilities. Some of our LSIs pay at QualiMed to get faster test results. Some of the LSIs stay at hotels for their comfort, at their own expense,” the mayor said.
The mayor said that he is aware that isolation and treatment facilities might be overwhelmed as the LSI repatriations continue.
He said that with a new accredited testing facility, he hopes the results would come out faster.
“Well, if it continues, then we will be overwhelmed. We only have 500 [beds]. For me, I am hoping that test results would come out faster. As soon as the results come out [and they are negative], they are sent home,” he said.
MOOT
In a phone interview, Defensor told Daily Guardian that Iloilo province is currently receiving returning LSIs.
Defensor issued the clarification amid social media messages circulating that the province was barring the entry of LSIs.
More than 200 LSIs from the province have returned to their hometowns according to Defensor.
The governor believed that his appeal letter to the national government “had already been moot” as the province has started to receive LSIs once again.
“We have started to receive them. In fact, we have received them [in the past three days]. That’s already moot and academic because they’ve started to come in again. For us, starting on June 28, we were hoping for better protocols to be issued, that if we were to resume [LSI repatriations], we would have new guidelines, which would’ve made it better for LSIs to travel back,” the governor said.
He said that the province is actively monitoring the capacity of the towns to receive LSIs.
“I’ve met with the municipal mayors and we are monitoring our capacities. We don’t want to overwhelm our municipalities. If our frontliners become exhausted, it affects their work. We don’t want them to operate at maximum capacity because it taxes [the frontliners] a lot,” he said.
Quarantine facilities still have the capacity to receive LSIs, but the governor said that circumstances may be different for each municipality.
“There are still spaces to receive [LSIs], but circumstances may be different [for each municipality]. There may be towns with quarantine facilities, like Bingawan, which went on a lockdown because the Rural Health Units were compromised. We do have fallback options if our quarantine facilities become exhausted, but we shouldn’t push them to the limits so that our handling and containment [of COVID-19] will not be affected,” the governor said.
Defensor said he does not see the need to seek the suspension of LSI repatriation again, but he hoped that the protocols they asked for in their previous appeal would be operationalized.
These protocols include confirmatory testing of LSIs in their port of origin, more stringent criteria, and organized return trips which observe minimum health standards.
