By Jennifer P. Rendon
Is Metro Manila a league of their own?
Mayor Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City spewed a mouthful at Interior and Local Government Assistant Sec. Epimaco Densing in a virtual meeting with other Western Visayas local chief executives and members of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) on Friday, July 16.
“Why are we feeling so bad Usec (Densing)? Why is it that when it’s the NCR (National Capital Region or Metro Manila), parang Diyos sila. You consult them,” Treñas told Densing after the latter said that they would place Iloilo City and province on enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) if it could not lower its COVID-19 cases in a week’s time.
At first, Treñas took it slow only to bombard Densing shortly later.
“What do you want? What will happen following a week or two weeks? Why is that when we are from the provinces, you just throw this on us,” Treñas said.
Responding to Densing’s pronouncement that the city and province has one week to lower COVID-19 cases, the mayor pressed Densing on how to “logically” achieve it.
He also challenged Densing to ask the Department of Health on how to lower the cases within the given time.
In response, Densing said he personally saw what Treñas was doing for Iloilo City. But he cited the presence of Alpha and Beta variants of COVID-19 in the city as basis for his ECQ statement.
“Saludo naman po kami sa inyo diyan. Kaya lang may mga bagay na hindi natin kontrolado. Binanggit po ng Philippine Genome Center, nandiyan na po ang maraming kaso ng alpha and beta variants,” he said.
Densing said this made them wonder why the city’s situation did not improve despite being under MECQ for four weeks.
“Bakit mabilis ang pagkalat? The possibility is, the faster the variants are there that you are not able to control this despite the fact na lahat ginagawa na ninyo,” he said.
Densign also said “we should not be totally dependent on the vaccines as the sole solution for the containment of COVID-19.”
While vaccine is one of it, there is still a need to practice the PDITR (Prevent, Detect, Isolate, Treat, Reintegrate). “What we are doing is containment strategy. Hanggang di nawawala, containment strategy is the long term solution,” he added.
The National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (NIATF-MEID) earlier recommended to place Iloilo City and Iloilo province under ECQ.
But both Treñas and Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. appealed to retain the MECQ status.
President Rodrigo Duterte subsequently approved Iloilo’s MECQ status until July 22.
But a few hours after the meeting with RIATF on Friday, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced in a recorded video uploaded to his office’s Facebook page that the city and province of Iloilo will be placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine from July 16-31, 2021.
FIGHTING FOR RECOVERY
A few hours before Roque’s announcement that Iloilo City will revert to ECQ, Treñas said that they are fighting for safety and economic recovery.
In a statement, Treñas noted that “the RIATF announced that Iloilo City is at the peak of our Health Care Utilization Rate.”
“But we have been explaining to the DOH that 58 percent of all the bed capacity of all our hospitals came from other provinces. Without the PhilHealth claims, these hospitals cannot afford to add COVID beds and personnel. The city has hired personnel to assist them and had been extending our efforts to protect the Ilonggos,” he said.
Treñas said they met with Densing and the RIATF to make them understand the real situation of the city.
“We are doing everything and beyond for my people. We are calling for their help because we can only do so much. We are hoping that we are also assisted with the same assistance with those areas that once experienced a peak of cases,” he added.
A day before meeting with Densing, local chief executives of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo Province, Negros Occidental, Bacolod, and Iloilo City met with the RIATF to share their sentiments on the quarantine status determined by the national IATF.
The meeting happened after IATF recommended the new quarantine status in the region.
“Most of the local chief executives will appeal for our classification as we do not want our people to suffer,” Treñas said.
He added that majority of Ilonggos are struggling to recover.
“We have been exerting our efforts to ensure that we protect their welfare while they are trying to earn an income for their families,” he said.
During the meeting, both the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) also agreed with the appeal on the quarantine status.
“Iloilo City is the regional center and we also cater to the patients of other provinces. We have been meeting with the LCEs, PhilHealth, and DOH to assist us. We are asking the Regional IATF to help us in this battle. It has been over a year, and the LGUs have been always at the forefront. We are hoping that they will see what is really happening in the ground, and help our constituents during this difficult time,” Treñas said.
PHILHEALTH PAYABLES
In a letter dated July 9, 2021 and addressed to Atty. Valerie Anne Hollero, PhilHealth-6 regional Vice President, Treñas presented a list of PhilHealth claims of health care institutions in Iloilo City.
Of the 10 health care institutions in the city, nine were able to update their list.
PhilHealth’s payables to the hospitals totaled P1,355,454,877.65.
Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district posted the highest claims with P556.984 million as of April 30, 2021.
PhilHealth owed Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center in Jaro around P190.756 million as of June 23, 2021; Uswag Iloilo City Molecular Laboratory with P170.289 million as of July 6, 2021; St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo with P131.069 million as of July 7; and Iloilo Mission Hospital with P99.645 million as of April 30.
The Medical City Iloilo has claims reaching P88.052 million as of May 31; West Visayas State University Medical Center with P49.998 million; Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital with P38.265 million; and QualiMed Hospital with P30.393 million:
Only the Medicus Medical Center wasn’t able to provide an updated list.
