San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora —EDWIN BACASMAS
MANILA, Philippines — San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora held an online briefing on Monday to deny a report that he would be charged with violating quarantine protocols for failing to report to village officials that five of his household staff had tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“They were immediately isolated, tested and are currently in a quarantine facility. They are being monitored by the city health office,” Zamora said, adding that he had informed barangay officials.
“There is no issue and no one has complained,” he stressed, calling the report fake news.
According to him, nine of his staff tested positive for COVID-19—five of them in his house and the rest in his office. They were asymptomatic and had not been hospitalized.
Earlier, a radio report said that Aloysius “Al” Santos, a former board member of North Greenhills where Zamora was a resident, would file a complaint against him for violating quarantine protocols, specifically for not reporting COVID-19 cases in his household to village officials.
“I spoke to the chair of the board Teddy Ortiga and verified if a case will be filed against me and he was shocked. They personally asked Al Santos to verify if it was true. Mr. Santos was even surprised that his name was being dragged into the issue,” Zamora told the Inquirer, adding that there was no complaint against him.
“We are in a pandemic, a crisis. Spreading these kinds of things is not helping. Let’s stop doing these things because they do not help,” he said.
“I have been living for 42 years in Greenhills since 1977. I was also former president and part of the board of the village association and I will not do anything that will put people in peril,” he stated.
As for the report that he was also being questioned for going out of his house to exercise without following quarantine protocols, he said, “I don’t know where this story came from.” He noted that the issue was timed to coincide with his State of the City Address on Monday morning.
Zamora explained that no protocol was violated as he was found negative twice through swab tests in the past eight days. His wife had also tested negative for the virus thrice. Because of this, they could go out to exercise and even shop for groceries as there was no one else available to do it for them since their household staff was in quarantine.
He also rejected the need to place his office or house on lockdown as the confirmed cases had their own work areas and did not have close contacts.