Año orders relief of BFP Western Visayas fire chief
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday ordered the relief of the Western Visayas regional director of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) after a reported breach of quarantine protocol by a BFP personnel who roamed around Boracay while awaiting the result of her PCR test, which turned out positive.
Año said Fire Senior Superintendent Roderick Aguto will be replaced by Fire Senior Superintendent Jerry Candido, director for logistics of BFP-National Headquarters.
“We will never tolerate any wrongdoing by our BFP personnel or any other DILG personnel for that matter because lives are at stake here. Moreover, as law enforcers, we must set a good example to our people and the breach of quarantine protocols sets a very bad example,” he said.
Año said contact tracing is not an easy job and for public safety officers to be careless is deplorable.
Based on the initial report, the positive PCR result of the concerned personnel came out on June 14 and it was found out she had close exposure to her two colleagues.
Año also directed BFP Chief Jose Embang to investigate the matter and to submit the results to his office.
A Special Investigation Task Group of the BFP National Headquarters was created to investigate personnel of BFP Western Visayas and her 27 other co-workers whom she had close contact with.
The BFP West Visayas regional office is ow conducting swabbing and placing under quarantine all its personnel who had contact with her.
As of Tuesday, 196 BFP Western Visayas personnel have undergone rapid tests.The Department of Health (DOH said 28 of the 196 were subjected to RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction).
They were advised to undergo quarantine pending results expected to be released on Friday.
The BFP Western Visayas regional office, its provincial offices, and fire stations have been placed under lockdown and were advised to observe strict sanitation and disinfection efforts.
According to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, the group held a despedida and stayed in the island from June 12 to 14 after saying they will attend a conference there even though members of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force had left as the conference was held from June 11 to 12.
Puyat said they will revoke the hotel’s license to operate for allowing the group as formal opening of the island was last June 16.
“It’s disappointing because residents of Boracay are excited to operate in Western Visayas. Everyone is complying, they are very careful on the protocols then this negligence will happen just because they want to party,” she said.
The local government unit of Malay strongly condemned the blatant disregard of quarantine protocols.
Acting Municipal Mayor Frolibar Bautista consulted with the municipal legal office for filing of cases against personnel violating protocols on quarantine.
“LGU Malay exhausted all means to mitigate the risk of spread of COVID-19. Contact tracing as well as the investigation of the series of events is being conducted through joint efforts of the municipal health office, municipal tourism office, and the Malay police station. Information gathering from the BFP has been difficult,” it said in a statement.
Establishments who accepted the unofficial business of BFP personnel will also be investigated for possible violation of Executive Orders No. 027 and 027-A of the municipality of Malay. Ella Dionisio/DMS
