Comelec to Rama: Vacate schools used as BICs

CEBU, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) wants three Cebu City schools used as isolation centers and evacuation centers readied for the national and local elections on May 9.

Cebu City Central School, Tisa 1 High School, and San Nicolas Elementary School, which are still being used as either Barangay Isolation Centers or an evacuation centers, will be utilized as voting centers in the upcoming elections.

Comelec South District officer Marilou Paredes and Comelec-North officer Edwin Cadungog, in a joint letter, made a request to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to have these schools vacated.

“In this context, the undersigned are respectfully requesting your good office to have these schools vacated for the time being so that they could be utilized as voting centers in the forthcoming elections,” read the letter addressed to Rama through Emergency Operations Center deputy chief implementer and City Councilor Joel Garganera.

Garganera, in an interview with The FREEMAN said, they are ready to turn over the said schools except for the Cebu City Central School.

Garganera said they are asking COMELEC to give them more time to clear City Central as it is the only BIC right now that has a lying-in facility for pregnant mothers infected with COVID-19.

“Okay ra, amo ng ehatag except for City Central, mangayo mig one month, kay kana gung City Central, naa atong lying-in sa mga magdos ba,” said Garganera.

The city government is looking at transferring the lying-in for COVID-19 pregnant women to the former Cebu City Medical Center building.

”Right now, we are negotiating with CCMC kay kanang the old fire department, puro man na mga COVID didto…and they are going to extend to 100 rooms and then we will deploy personnel to man and monitor sa atong mga pregnant COVID patients ba,naa pud tay e deploy didto na OB(GYNE) and mga midwives,” said Garganera.

With City Central School going to be utilized for the elections, the city government will instead reserve Labangon Elementary School as BIC, should the need arise.

But Garganera said he understands that COMELEC and DepEd need time to prepare the schools for the elections.

Garganera said though the city will not have a problem vacating all schools eventually as the Moses Quarantine Center (formerly Cebu City Quarantine Center) at the North Reclamation Area is already operational.

Before turning the schools over to DepEd and Comelec, Garganera assured they will be disinfected and be returned to their original state.

“Og unsa ang kondisyon, sitwasyon sa pag-abot didto the same sad na sila sa pag-take over nila og balik."

"We will transform it where it was before, so ingon ana lang tingali amo sang limpyuhan, of course among kuhaon among mga butang, lisod man sad kaayo og sila among pakuhaon, I’ll be coordinating with our BIC’s nga cluster namo, QRT and at the same time ang atong local school board," said Garganera.  — Decemay Padilla, KQD (FREEMAN)