Mayor Edgardo Labella said residents in the hinterland village of Taptap here have nothing to worry about the plan to turn the city-run training facility there as possible quarantine center for persons under investigation (PUIs) for the new coronavirus (Covid-19).
Labella said they are mulling on making the Cebu City Resource Management and Development Center (Cremdec) into an isolation area but currently there is no single PUI case in the city. “They have nothing to worry (about),” he said.
It can be recalled that Cebu City Health Officer Daisy Villa recently engaged village residents in a heated discussion as the city officials announced that Cremdec was ready to receive patients who would be placed under monitoring for suspicion of being infected with Covid-19.
Villa explained to the residents that the virus could not be transmitted through the air but through close contact.
Residents, she said, will remain safe.
As Cremdec will be transformed into an upland quarantine site, Villa said all PUIs and facility workers will wear personal protective equipment (PPE).
However, the residents stood pat with their decision to oppose the quarantine center in Cremdec, citing their fear of being afflicted with Covid-2019.
The village chief of Taptap, Bryan Bontuyan, claimed he received no memorandum from Labella over the plan to convert the training facility as isolation area for PUIs.
Griffin Malazarte, a councilman in the said village, said the local barangay officials are one with the residents in opposing the designation of Cremdec as isolation center.
Malazarte called on Labella to reconsider his decision, citing lack of consultation before the plan was announced.
Labella, along with Villa, visited Cremdec on Friday (Feb. 21) and announced that the facility was ready to take PUIs.
“Mayor, kung giisip mo kaming adunay bili sa imong pagserbisyo, nanghinaot mi nga imong paminawon ang tingog sa kadaghanan nga dili mi uyon sa maong (Mayor, if you count our value in your service, we hope that you will listen to our voice that we are against that) quarantine center,” Malazarte said in his statement posted on social media.
He urged Bontuyan to protect the interest of village folks and object to the establishment of a quarantine center in their place, saying that barangay officials like them know what is best for their constituents in terms of safety and orderliness.
Cremdec, created under Cebu City Ordinance 1775, is a city-run training site for resource-based management, capability building courses, continuing education programs and action research studies aimed at professionalizing local governance management and services at the Cebu City Hall.
It is recognized as the only LGU-managed training facility accredited by the Civil Service Commission and a Center for Local Governance in the Philippines accredited with the United States Agency for International Development. (PNA)
