The ongoing satellite registration of the Commission on Elections at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City is a super spreader activity with hundreds, if not thousands, of prospective “out-of-town transferee-voters” being allegedly unloaded by vehicles of Negros Occidental local government units at the USLS grounds and Ayala Malls in the past two weeks.
This was the analysis of the Bacolod Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) as it pointed out that the spike in COVID-19 infections began with the onset of the voter registration, a press release from the Bacolod City Public Information Office claimed Wednesday, September 29.
The EOC-TF also took into account the report of law enforcement agencies that the out-of-towners are in violation of curfew hours as they mass up at the registration site as early as midnight or 1 a.m., it said.
“Is it just a coincidence?” City Administrator Em Legaspi-Ang, concurrent EOC-TF executive director and COVID-19 Vaccination Council (CoVaC) coordinator, asked.
Ang has reason to believe the ongoing voter registration has something to do with the surge of cases, recalling that two months ago, before these daily “hakot” registrants from out-of-town were being unloaded in satellite venues, Bacolod City cases slowed down with infections averaging everyday only between 20 to 30, the press release said.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the claim that Negros Occidental residents are causing the surge of cases in Bacolod City sounds like a desperate accusation.
“It is a sign of desperation, they don’t know what to do except blame the entire province,” Diaz said.
The provincial government is the one taking care of the sick from Bacolod through its hospitals, and Bacolod does nothing, he said.
“The entire province knows that it is Bacolod that is sick and infecting the other LGUs,” Diaz said.
Meanwhile, Ang also expressed alarm that with the reported extension of voter registration until October 31, COVID cases in Bacolod may turn for the worse, noting that photos and video footages forwarded by concerned netizens to the EOC show that those lining up at the USLS do not wear their face mask properly and fail to observe proper physical distancing.
“I even doubt if Comelec even has thermal scanners to check on body temperatures,” she said.*