Hostage-taking

BY MATÉ ESPINA

AS THE week ended, a hostage-taking drama took place in Victorias City, Negros Occidental when Andrew Grecia, a 39-year-old seaman, whom police said was clearly under the influence of illegal drugs, created alarm when he fired his weapon and took his 73-year-old mom hostage.

Fortunately, the mother was able to escape her son’s clutches, allowing the SWAT team to enter the house and subdue the suspect. Andrew is now facing a string of cases including alarm and scandal and illegal possession of firearms and drugs.

According to the police, they were informed that Andrew has not been eating and sleeping for days prior to the incident.

Andrew, already a Chief Mate, the second highest official in a sea vessel, arrived in Negros just a month ago and went through the two-week quarantine in a facility where he displayed fits of anger. He was reportedly affected by an ex-girlfriend who had been ignoring him. A doctor friend said that the suspect probably fell into depression and coupled with drug use, fell deeper into psychosis.

This is not the first time that we heard stories of OFWs displaying mental health issues. The thought of losing their jobs or the uncertainty of going back to work plus the endless quarantine and sometimes neglect before they can go home, have taken a toll on their mental health.

A health official told me a couple of months ago that they have been urging for post-psychological treatment of these OFWs. In many instances, they needed police assistance to placate returning OFWs who threatened suicide he forced to go through another quarantine.

Early in the pandemic, we read stories of OFWs getting locked down for weeks, even months, as the national government scrambled in their strategies to bring them home. We even had an incident here when some OFWs were locked down at the airport after they refused to be brought to a quarantine facility for processing and swabbing.

In short, government needs to do post-assessment of these OFWs and provide intervention if needed. All of them are bread-winners in their families and with the global effects of this pandemic, just the thought of how they can continue to provide for their loved ones if they are stuck here, can certainly cause much anxiety.

Meanwhile, after almost a week of double digit cases, we are again on a roll after 206 new cases were reported over the weekend, bringing the total cases of Bacolod City to 3,884. In Negros Occidental, the LGUs surrounding Bacolod have also the highest number of cases prompting the provincial government to take a lead in implementing a uniform contact tracing and setting up emergency center operations around the province.

Despite the strict protocols and a semi-lockdown imposed under the MECQ, netizens are confounded that it seems these are not working as cases continue to rise. Add to that, the desperation of many who lost their opportunity to earn daily, led to the massing up at the Bacolod Government Center last Saturday when they heard reports that the Department of Social Services and Development were giving away financial assistance.

Footages of thousands of people pushing against each other just to be first in line for the supposed distribution of numbers for displaced workers went viral and online bashing of the DSSD and the city government grew.

The distribution has now been suspended indefinitely and though DSSD head, Pacita Tero, sought for understanding saying they did not foresee such to happen, her comment to re-strategize their identification of beneficiaries via a “tambiolo” did not help and led to more criticisms.

Although Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia and the city government were clearly not involved in the program, as Tero herself admitted that they were under the instruction from DSWD not to course it through the LGUs to avoid a repeat of the controversial SAP distribution, he was not spared by netizens and in fact, most of the bashing was directed at him.

The frustration of the public against Mayor Bing also led to the recent post of Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas to go viral as Bacolodnons could not help but compare the brand of leadership between the two, favoring the latter for continuously updating his constituents of developments in the city.

In other news, COVID-19 cases are also not sparing our jails, infecting 56 jail personnel and detainees all around the province, including Bacolod. At one jail alone, 22 out of 39 prisoners tested positive.

Over the weekend, the BAC-UP 2 station in Bacolod was closed for disinfection after four police officers and a detainee tested positive. Ten other police personnel assigned there are now under quarantine while 18 other detainees have been swabbed.

The detainee who tested positive displayed fever and asthma last week, prompting the test. He has been under locks for two months now on charges of illegal possession of drugs. Ergo, the virus was brought from the outside and hopefully the other detainees are not infected, otherwise, it will be another headache where to quarantine them./PN

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