“We are not blaming them.”
That was the response of Em Ang, Bacolod Emergency Operations Center executive director, to the statement of Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz on Wednesday, November 3, that it appears that the blame was being shifted to Negros Occidental.
Diaz was reacting to Ang’s statement that about 50 percent of the COVID-19 patients in Bacolod City hospitals are from Negros Occidental’s towns and cities.
One of the reasons cited by the National Inter-Agency Task Force for placing Bacolod City under COVID-19 Alert Level 4 is its high hospital occupancy rate prompting Ang to point out that not all of the admitted patients are from the city.
Bacolod remains under Alert Level 4 despite an appeal from the city government for it to be downgraded to Alert Level 3.
“It’s like blaming the whole province, the enemies of volunteer Em Ang are 31 cities and municipalities,” Diaz said.
What does she want for Negros to also be placed under Alert Level 4? he asked.
The NIATF has placed Negros Occidental under Alert Level 2 from November 1 to 14.
“We’re not blaming Negros Occidental, we are just saying that not all the patients in the Bacolod hospitals are from the city, which is true, we have the data to prove that,” Ang said in response.
The “Corazon Locsin Montelibao Memorial Regional Hospital is full of Bacolod residents, we have to appeal for Negros residents to be admitted because there is no space”, Diaz said.*