ILOILO City – “Very, very, very, very ill-advised.”
This was how Mayor Jerry Treñas described the sudden removal of Director Marlyn Convocar of the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 as overseer of Western Visayas’ response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
“It is not right to change your field commander in the middle of a fight. I’ll be very frank, I do not like the idea,” said Treñas yesterday.
On Thursday, DOH central office tasked the director of DOH Region 7 (Central Visayas), Dr. Jaime Bernadas, to take the lead in Western Visayas’ response to the pandemic. Convocar would just be managing the regular operations of DOH-6.
“I’m not the Secretary of the Department of Health. I don’t know why this happened,” said Treñas.
He described the development as unfortunate and unnecessary.
“Ako kadamo man sang hinanakit. Kadamo man sang akon away kay Director Convocar but I feel it is not very good to change your commander in the middle of the fight. If you do that you will have to wait for the new field commander to learn everything first antes masugod sya obra,” explained Treñas.
Department Personnel Order No. 23 replacing Convocar was signed by DOH undersecretary Adbullah Dumama Jr.
It came right after DOH Region 6 came under fire for classifying the people of Guimbal, Iloilo as persons under monitoring following a case of local COVIOD-19 transmission.
Dumama Jr. explained the decision this way: “It is vital to maintain harmonious partnership with local government units/local chief executives and other stakeholders that play vital roles in this emergency situation.”
“Para sa akon, there will be time to fight one another. What is important (for now) is that we work for the good of Iloilo,” Treñas said.
Bernadas, on the other hand, played down this added assignment. “Twinning arrangements” between regions were “just normal”, he stressed.
Also the focal person of DOH’s Field Implementation and Coordination Team in the Visayas, Bernadas said he is familiar with Western Visayas.
He also said he and Convocar already talked and the DOH-6 director was thankful.
“May mga innovations kami diri sa Central Visayas nga ma-apply naton dira,” said Bernadas in an interview over DyFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo yesterday.
Bernadas said he is not fully appraised yet with the issues in Region 6.
“Makadto ko da (next week). Istoryahon ta ang mga mayors kag gobernador,” said Bernadas. “Gusto naton ma-align ang mga trabaho dira.”
Bernadas stressed the importance of cooperation between DOH and local chief executives./PN
