Senators want to teach health chief a lesson: Wear protective gear

MANILA, Philippines–Would she shake hands with acting Health Secretary Janette Garin when she appears in the Senate on Monday? “Good question,” Sen. Pia Cayetano said, chuckling.

Other senators want to teach Garin a lesson for going on an “unprotected” visit to Caballo Island where peacekeepers who returned last week from Ebola-stricken Liberia are quarantined.

At the plenary debates on the proposed 2015 budget, Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III wondered how the body would treat Garin when it tackles the budget of the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday.

“I’ll preempt you. If you want her to wear protective gear to protect us, I will not object,” Sen. Francis Escudero, sponsor of the national budget, said in jest.

Sotto pressed Escudero if he would make sure Garin turn up on Monday, days after coming from Caballo Island, where 132 peacekeepers are quarantined.

“She can always wear protective gear,” Escudero said again in jest.

Garin and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang raised a ruckus when they visited the peacekeepers on Caballo Island on Manila Bay without wearing the required suits, masks and gloves on Sunday.

The peacekeepers and other Filipinos arriving from Ebola-hit countries are required to undergo a 21-day quarantine.

Protective gear

Garin said she would attend the scheduled budget hearing on the health agency’s proposed budget for 2015 on Monday and even give them a lecture on the Ebola virus.

But she won’t be wearing protective gear.

Ignoring calls for her to go under quarantine following her controversial visit to Caballo Island, Garin told reporters that she was willing to face the Senate if allowed to do so.

Lecture to the Senate

“Unfortunately, Ebola is a new disease so there are a lot of fears [about it]. What we are going to do is to [help allay that fear] and if the Senate will allow us, we can give [them] an updated lecture on the virus,” Garin said in an interview with reporters.

Garin said she would forgo wearing protective gear during the budget hearing in the Senate because she did not want to become a party to the false information circulating about the virus.

She added that the lack of information about the Ebola epidemic was fueling anxiety and panic among Filipinos, and must be addressed.

Garin, who earlier insisted that she did not violate the quarantine protocol, also said that the need to correct misinformation about Ebola pushed her to make the visit to Caballo Island.

WHO consulted

She said the visit was made following consultations with the World Health Organization (WHO).

“I might have lapses but in a critical situation like this, I would not do anything without consulting the experts,” she said.

She also needed to address the impending shortage of personal protective equipment for doctors and other medical personnel attending to the peacekeepers during the quarantine.

After the Senate hearing, Escudero said he wasn’t serious but wanted to make a point that Garin should have followed the protocol when she and Catapang visited the peacekeepers.

“I completely disagree with what she did. I’m saying it [that Garin wear protective gear in the Senate] in jest to emphasize the point that at that stage she should have taken extra precautions, and should not have been nonchalant about going there visiting,” he told reporters.

Sotto said Garin could come in “whatever form” for Monday’s plenary debates on the DOH budget to answer questions not only on the Ebola virus but also on other issues.

“When it comes to health, we should not be swashbuckling,” he told reporters. “She should have been more careful and you should be more careful now. If we are 100-percent sure there’s no problem, then we should be more prudent in our actions.”

Protocol breached

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said that Garin and Catapang clearly breached protocol.

“Let’s just pray that nobody in Caballo Island right now is carrying the Ebola virus because what acting Secretary Garin and the AFP chief did was a breach of protocol,” he said. “Up to this time, there’s no cure for the disease.”

“Political stunts like this have no place because we’re dealing with a very serious and a very deadly virus, and serious epidemic,” he added.

Cayetano said she was withholding judgment on the matter.

“It’s really for the experts to tell us. The precautions they’re giving to the public could be different from their own precautions. Let them explain so that we don’t unduly discriminate against health workers who are exposed or helping, or officials who are doing their official job,” she said.

Amend quarantine law

A medical group is proposing an amendment to the quarantine law to prevent protocol violations in the future.

Dr. Anthony Leachon, president of the Philippine College of Physicians, said the confusion on Ebola quarantine protocol brought about by Garin’s and Catapang’s visit to the island stemmed from the lack of clear-cut guidelines.

“Maybe there is a need to revise the existing rules and regulations to clear things up,” Leachon said.

He pointed out that the implementing rules and regulations of the Quarantine Act of 2004 specified only management protocol for diseases, such as cholera, yellow fever and plague.

There was none for emerging and contagious diseases like Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Leachon pointed out.

He said a review and revision of the quarantine law must be conducted and could be spearheaded by the health secretary. An administrative order can also be issued on the matter “to clarify things.”