Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas laughed at the controversial plan to visit houses to look for persons infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The proposed house-to-house search for patients deemed asymptomatic or with mild symptoms of the disease is part of the government’s “Oplan Kalinga” program.
Under the program, police officers are tasked to assist health workers and local government personnel in bringing COVID-19 patients from their houses to isolation facilities.
According to Treñas, the move is against the Bill of Rights in the Constitution and impractical.
“Paano kita makahouse-to-house search kon asymptomatic kay wala gani symptoms. How can a police officer determine whether or not a person is asymptomatic?,” the mayor said.
Iloilo City, as of July 16, has 46 indigenous or local cases and 44 cases that involved returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
Of the total coronavirus-positive patients in the city, majority are asymptomatic or have not manifested any symptom of COVID-19.
In an ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel) interview, testing czar Vince Dizon clarified that house-to-house search for infected patients is not a police operation.
“There will be no policemen knocking on doors and picking up people,” he said.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, meanwhile, issued an official statement denying the “house-to-house enforcement of quarantine measures.
“There will be no house-to-house search for COVID positive patients. They will have to be reported by the persons themselves, other members of the household, or their barangay officials,” he said.
“Further, the local health workers are the ones who will lead the transfer of COVID positive patients from their homes to government quarantine facilities, which we call ‘Oplan Kalinga’, Police presence is merely to provide support or assistance in the transport of patients and the implementation of lockdown in the affected area.”IMT
