Duterte warns health personnel of transfer if they allow travelers to skip quarantine check

DAVAO CITY –– President Duterte warned quarantine and health personnel, who allowed travelers to skip quarantine checks at ports and airports, they would lose their jobs, or be reassigned to the provinces.

“‘Pag may pumasok isa dito, isa lang … Look, kayong mga taga health diyan, sa mga taga-quarantine, pagka may na — may nahuli lang ako na isa, I will — lahat kayo palitan ko. I will assign you to the provinces and I will get the new ones from the other — assigned in other cities also. Magpalit kayo,” he said, saying there were reports that some people had managed to sneak into ports and airports without the necessary quarantine checks.

(Even if one manages to enter…all of you health and quarantine [personnel], if I can catch only one, I will assign [all of you] to the provinces and I will get new ones from the other cities. You switch places.}

“Nakakalusot sila with the help of airport personnel at sa mga barko (They manage to sneak in with the help of airport and port personnel). I say this now as I have said it before: Do not do it kasi mayayari talaga kayo (that will be the end of you),” the President said in his talk to the people Monday night.

“You do it by allowing unauthorized travel when all of us are really worried (about) containing the contamination. Almost every country now (controls) the entry and the departure of their citizens, not only us, Filipinos,” he said. “Just one (incident) and all of you will be affected … I do not care if kasali ka diyan sa hindi kasi (you’re one of them or not because that’s a racket (‘yan eh),” he said. “If you want to be assigned to Zamboanga, Samar, Masbate, I will be the one (to send you there).”

This developed after a passenger from Japan was intercepted at the Davao International Airport at the turn of the New Year and found to have skipped the 14-day quarantine in Manila.

Mayor Sara Duterte said in a separate broadcast on Monday the city government sent the newcomer on quarantine in a separate facility here though city officials continued wondering how the person managed to skip quarantine protocols in Manila.

The mayor said the city had to strengthen health protocols against the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, which some scientists found to be more transmissible.

LZB