I was both miffed and amused while listening to the interview of a senior citizen who went to one of the local radio stations here to accuse the Bacolod City government of inefficiency in so far as management of returning residents is concerned.
This man, who has dabbled in media through a local cable TV show and write-ups as well, portrayed himself a victim and slammed the local government for their failure to inform travellers of health protocols.
Based on his narration, he left for Manila a week ago for a business engagement. Based on the travel papers he had, he was supposed to secure a swab test with negative results, valid within 72 hours before his return.
In fairness to him, he followed the process and flew back home. Upon his return, he was stopped at the airport because what he had on him was not an RT-PCR test but a rapid test result which has no value in so far as travel protocols are concerned.
To make the long story short, he was brought to ETCS to be quarantined because he refused to take an RT-PCR test initially. Finally, he transferred to Avenue Suites and secured the mandatory test from one of the hospital labs here which tested negative. He even mentioned on-air that it was my niece, a medical technologist, who took his samples.
Based on health protocols, an LSI (that was the travel papers he had on him) is supposed to undergo another five days of home quarantine even after testing negative but this man refused and even went to a radio station the following day to publicly air his point. Anchor, Teresa Ellera scampered away to get a mask after learning what the man’s mission was.
This man blamed the city government for not clearly explaining to him that what was needed was an RT-PCR test. He also blamed the laboratory in Taguig where he got himself tested before flying home for allegedly not telling him that what he had was a rapid test and not the RT-PCR one.
Listening to him rant against the city and even publicly dropping names that he called up Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran and sugar planter, Enrique Rojas, the father-in-law of Councilor Cindy Rojas so he can plead his case and be sent home.
He also could not help but mention that he took much care of his safety that he even flew business class and checked in at a first-class hotel, which of course was a far cry from the ETCS school where he was brought to after refusing to follow local protocols.
Midway into the interview, I was laughing so hard because no amount of explanation from Teresa and co-anchor Edgar Lucasan, who told him that the city team was right, could appease the man. Rather, he vowed that come election, he will take to the microphone to campaign against the present administration for what he perceived was a flawed implementation of travel protocols.
To summarize, there are loopholes in this story that must be given attention. El Cid rightly pointed out that Philippine Airlines should not have allowed the passenger to board in the first place since the travel documents he presented were not what was required.
Secondly, if the accuser was telling the truth, that he was made to believe by the Taguig laboratory that what he had was an RT-PCR test, then that facility must be reported to the DOH because after all, as the man claimed, he even paid P5,000 for the test alone.
It was quite unbelievable of course that he does not know the difference between a rapid test and an RT-PCR test because he contradicts himself by claiming that he had an RT-PCR test done sometime last year.
From what I can sense, it all boils down to the fact that he was inconvenienced and woe to anyone who crosses his path. His point that he was not made aware of the necessary tests one needs to comply with upon returning from travel falls flat because these protocols have been hammered upon us by city officials through media reports.
To even say that based on looks alone, he is far from sickly and should not be treated as a COVID suspect was downright laughable.
Teresa was right when she pointed out that the fact that the passenger was a senior citizen makes him more susceptible to the virus.
I can understand the shout out of Cindy that they will not compromise the health of 600,000 local residents because one person feels entitled that he should not be inconvenienced.
I have been tagged as a critic of this government and I will continue to be so if I see things are not being properly addressed. But I have to give it to local officials that after the birth pains, they have been managing the pandemic much better nowadays.
To claim that he was not properly informed and thus lays the blame on others but himself was not right. After all, ignorance of the law excuses no one.*