Mayor thumbs down calls to restrict Chinese nationals

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY –– Mayor Oscar Moreno has opposed calls to impose a lockdown in a business complex here hosting Chinese nationals as part of precautionary measures against the threat of the novel coronavirus (nCoV).

Earlier, city councilor George Goking has proposed to the newly created City Health Office-led nCoV Task Force to order a lockdown on the Alwana Business Park in Barangay Cugman, where Chinese nationals are hosted in its residential buildings.

Recently, Goking said he would reiterate his unheeded suggestion if the Alwana Business Park management would not cooperate with government agencies who may be conducting an ocular inspection there.

But Moreno said he was not keen on restricting the movement of people and vehicles in and out of the complex just because Chinese nationals are living there.

“Just because they are Chinese, [does not mean] we have to look at them differently,” Moreno emphasized.

“You don’t order a lockdown simply because of the race issue. It’s not doable. What we need is simply communication, and, of course, they have been very cooperative. Let’s not jump into a conclusion just because they’re Chinese,” he added.

Felipe Alano Jr., Bureau of Immigration’s alien control officer in Northern Mindanao, said about 1,300 Chinese nationals are in Cagayan de Oro, most of them working in various establishments here.

Alano said they would implement deportation procedures against any of them if the health department and the Bureau of Quarantine would recommend such measures.

In Davao City, Mayor Sara Duterte urged the public not to discriminate against persons who are not Filipinos, following reports that some taxi drivers were refusing to carry Chinese passengers because of the nCoV scare.

“Do not discriminate against people with slit eyes (singkit ang mata),” the mayor said during the launching of the city’s disaster radio here.

“Everyone has to understand that this is not a race issue, this a health issue, everyone should understand that there are many things we can do to prevent the disease.”

“We must also be respectful of the right of peoples, not just of our fellow Filipinos but foreign nationals as well,” she said.

Meanwhile, Camiguin Governor Jurdin Jesus Romualdo has ordered the mandatory disclosure by local and foreign tourists of their travel history for the past three months before their arrival in the island-province, one of northern Mindanao’s foremost destinations.

“Any person found to have willfully hidden such required information when demanded shall be subject to investigation and applicable criminal prosecution,” Romualdo’s order read.

Romualdo said the order also included Camiguin residents, who traveled to places where there are nCoV infections, requiring them to undergo a mandatory medical checkup./lzb