Key House leader, 13 others test positive for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — A key leader of the House of Representatives and 13 others have tested positive for COVID-19 after undergoing reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test prior to President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address yesterday.

“I’m OK, asymptomatic for the moment and I’m in isolation now. I learned at 11:30 last night (Sunday) I was positive (for COVID-19),” Deputy Speaker Johnny Pimentel confirmed yesterday.

The Surigao del Sur congressman received a call from a doctor of the House to relay the result of the RT-PCR test that yields immediate and highly accurate results.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Miguel Zubiri again tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and was forced to skip the SONA along with Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who went on self-quarantine after having lunch with Zubiri yesterday.

“According to doctors, it is possible that the swab test detected remnants of the dead virus cells in my body,” Zubiri, a COVID survivor, said.

House members, along with their staff who wanted to attend the SONA, were required to undergo RT-PCR test on Sunday and rapid test yesterday. The senators, their staff, Cabinet members and members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) were also subjected to the tests.

Those who tested positive were 11 from the House and three from PSG: four (including Pimentel) from the House, seven from the House’s Internal Affairs Office and three presidential guards.

Last July 23, the House leadership recorded its third employee who died of COVID-19, after the chief of staff of a congresswoman from Bicol and one from the Batasang Pambansa’s printing press office.

House secretary general Jose Luis Montales said the 52-year-old employee, assigned at the Bills and Index Service, was the third employee of the chamber to die of the disease out of 18 confirmed COVID cases so far.

Montales said the employee tested positive for COVID-19 just last July 20.

The House has logged a total of 22 COVID-19 cases among its employees. The chamber has been implementing health protocols since the start of the pandemic last March, including holding of online or hybrid hearings and social distancing for lawmakers physically present at hearings. – Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez