Village councilor dies of heart attack while arresting GCQ violators in Cotabato

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KIDAPAWAN CITY – A village councilor here died of  a heart attack in the midst of arresting violators of the province’s “No Sunday Movement” at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 30.

Jim Batislaon, a village councilor of Singao, Kidapawan City, was with a group of Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT) at a quarantine control point, when two men on a motorbike passed by and were flagged down.

When the two men fled, Batislaon, 55, and other BPAT personnel chased the teenagers and brought them to the quarantine control unit to file the written report.

Later, Batislaon was driving a motorbike with one of the teenagers to turn the violators over to the local police station when he fell off the motorcycle and was seen holding his chest and gasping for air.

Singao Barangay Chair Eduardo Loma said they rushed Batislaon to the hospital but the latter was declared dead upon arrival.

“It was extremely hot at 1:30 p.m. here and that could have triggered the heart attack,” Loma told reporters.

The province of Cotabato has reverted to the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) status and started implementing the “No Movement Sunday” to help curb the rising cases of COVID-19 infections in the area.

Officials said more than 20 people across the province had been held and penalized for violating provisions of Executive Order No 29 that placed the province under GCQ.

As of 6:30 p.m. on May 30, Cotabato province registered a total of 1,977 COVID-19 cases, 461 of these active cases; 1,406 cases recovered and 108 died.

Kidapawan City registered 61 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday alone, according to the Department of Health in the Soccsksargen region.

Of the 61 new cases, Kidapawan City has 22 cases; followed by Midsayap town with 20 cases while the rest of the towns had less than five cases.

EDV