DOH defends IATF on gov’t employees’ exemptions from quarantine protocols

Facade of the DOH main office in Manila. Photo by Consuelo Marquez / INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday defended the decision of the government’s Covid-19 task force in the exemption of government personnel on official business from the testing and quarantine protocols of local government units, saying that it aims not to “delay government transactions.”

“This has been decided in the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases). Noong dinesisyonan ‘yan, ang talagang objective is for us not to delay government transactions,” DOH spokesperson and undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during the Laging Handa online press briefing.

(When this was decided upon, the objective was not to delay government transactions.)

“And usually, ‘pag tiningnan naman natin, ‘yung ating mga officials ng government ‘pag pupunta from one place to another, they do not take long. Sometimes dalawa, tatlong oras lang at sila’y aalis na rin doon sa puwesto,” she added.

(Usually, our government officials do not take long when they travel from one place to another. Sometimes they only take two to three hours then they leave.)

It was on Feb. 5 when Malacañang announced the IATF’s decision that government officials/personnel on official business, including employees of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation, are now allowed to travel without having to go through the mandatory testing and quarantine protocols of their destination’s local government units.

Such government officials are exempted “as long as they can present valid IDs issued by their respective government agency and an original or a certified true copy of the Travel Authority/Order,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.

Malacañang also previously defended the IATF decision, saying that there was “no double standards” in exempting government personnel.

JPV