BY MATÉ ESPINA
DAVAO City has seen a surge of COVID-19 cases recently prompting the Palace to send there, Gen. Melquiades Feliciano who just left Bacolod City after two months of battling the coronavirus here.
Feliciano will help establish the Coordinate Operations to Defeat the Epidemic (CODE) at the behest of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, and will be using the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) manual that was institutionalized here in Bacolod and was seen as an effective model in addressing the pandemic.
Among the features that will be replicated is setting up the One Hospital Command Center which monitors bed capacity in all seven hospitals in Bacolod for an efficient referral system and the contact tracing protocols.
Ironically, the contact tracing which has been proven as an effective measure to curb the spread was introduced here, by no less than Baguio City Mayor, Gen. Benjamin Magalong, which unfortunately today is also seeing a spike in cases.
In a statement, Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia said he is happy that Bacolod is sharing its best practices with other LGUs because he believes that it is a good way to improve COVID-19 responses.
“We have benefited by learning from the experience of Cebu and other cities that have experienced outbreaks, while developing better ways as we tackle other emerging problems that come with the pandemic,” the mayor added.
But while Bacolod’s best practices may bring good tidings to Davao in their fight against COVID-19, Gen. Feliciano left behind a bitter pill for the city government to swallow after he personally filed a complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against Bacolod’s City Health Officer, Dr. Carmela Gensoli.
According to NBI Bacolod Chief, Renoir Baldovino, they have recommended to the prosecutor’s office to charge Gensoli for violating RA 11332 or the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act” and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.
This stemmed from the discrepancies in number of tests done and real data collected from the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) and the epidemiological surveillance unit of the CHO which affected the EOC’s response to the pandemic.
The CHO allegedly failed to report about 90 cases who were then not subjected to contact tracing starting mid-September for about a month. A source from the EOC claimed that “because of some intervention, the data went missing and the EOC’s data was also compromised because of that particular action of Gensoli as CHO.”
Indeed, the allegations are serious because if we just peg five people as possible close contacts of those 90 positive patients, it could be possible that some 450 others were probably infected but not tested, thus, could have spread the virus to hundreds more base on the multiplier effect.
There were already talks that Gen. Feliciano was allegedly not satisfied with the city’s response to the pandemic. However, those rumors fizzled out when Feliciano and his wife, Mia, was accorded the honor of being the first adopted couple of Bacolod through Executive Order 69 before they left the city early this month.
But perhaps the city government was privy of Feliciano’s move because Gensoli who tendered a leave of absence earlier this month as well, was not reinstated to her post as CHO head when she returned to work, but was transferred to the city’s economic recovery group.
Prior to this latest issue, Gensoli was also embroiled in the procurement of overpriced Vitamin C supplements as part of COVID intervention.
Apart from this, the city government is getting their share of criticisms after the public found out that the newly-inaugurated 32-bed isolation facility will not be able to serve its purpose until early next year because no power lines have been installed in the area.
Supposedly, that facility will serve as recovery center for COVID patients who are on recuperation stage to allow decongestion of hospitals. Unfortunately, the city did not have the foresight to ensure power and water were installed at the center even though that was their responsibility under the MOA signed with DPWH.
City Administrator Em Ang said they are looking at January as the earliest time the facility can be used as they will also need to install perimeter fences and pave the roads.
Meanwhile, another headliner here are two Negrenses who took the second spots in the recent 2020 Physician Licensure Examination.
Patrick Joseph Mabugat of the University of St. La Salle (USLS) from Bacolod City and Adrian Emmanuel Teves, of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) from Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, both got a rating of 88.58 percent.
These two doctors have been consistent topnotchers with Mabugat topping the 2014 Medical Technologist Examination, and Teves ranked second in the 2014 Physical Therapy Exam.
Mabugat is the son of Col. Calixto Mabugat and Arlene Amunategui while Teves is the son of Bayawan City’s Mayor Pryde Henry Teves and Zonna Lee Diago.
USLS College of Medicine Dean, Dr. Ricky Gallaga said their school had an 81.82 percent passing rate, which is higher than the national average after 45 out of 55 students passed this year’s exam./PN
