ILOILO City – The Department of Education (DepEd) has agreed to the continued use of public school buildings as quarantine facilities for locally stranded individuals and repatriated overseas Filipinos “in principle.”
But the selection of school buildings or classrooms to be utilized as such rested on the Department of Health (DOH), stressed Education secretary Leonor Briones during a virtual press conference with local journalists yesterday.
“Ang DOH ang mag-i-impose ng standards…kailangan approved ng DOH ang paggamit ng isang classroom dahil hindi naman lahat ng classrooms appropriate for isolation,” said Briones.
Still, she said, these school buildings must be far from populated areas, have a ready supply of water, stocks of emergency medicines and have functioning bathrooms, among others.
“Our space is available but we don’t have the competence to look after the patients…Ito usapan na ng DOH and of course of the Department of Interior and Local Government,” said Briones.
DepEd moved the date of the school opening to Oct. 5. The use of schools as quarantine facilities beyond Oct. 5 will not be allowed, said Briones.
“Indi gid kami magtugot nga we will be holding classes or office in schools while being used as quarantine facilities,” she stressed.
“Pag ang isang building ay gagamitin, talagang the school itself will be isolated. It cannot be made available for any other purpose,” she added.
“I am very interested in Iloilo because Region 6 is a very high-performing region sa academics, especially sa mathematics kag science…We want to maintain that kind of standard for Region 6…na hindi naman sila mako-compromise. Kung gagamitin for quarantine, quarantine lang talaga,” said Briones./PN
