Piñol's nephew, North Cotabato’s provincial youth exec tests positive for COVID-19

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The politically-influential Piñol clan is sad with a member now positive to COVID-19 but proud of his dangerous frontline roles that exposed him to the disease.

Emmanuel Piñol, chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority, announced to reporters via online Messenger Friday that his nephew, Shane Mathew, indeed tested positive to coronavirus, but has no symptoms of the dreaded disease at all.

“While we are very sad of his having been infected with coronavirus, we are proud and honored with the thought of his having been out there to help in the war on COVID-19 of the provincial government of North Cotabato. We are mighty proud of him,” Piñol said.

The 20-year-old Shane Mathew, now under quarantine, is son of Piñol’s younger brother, Socrates, a former North Cotabato Sangguniang Panlalawigan member.

He is North Cotabato’s provincial youth development officer who joined local frontliners after President Rodrigo Duterte placed the country under state of health emergency last March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shane Mathew was in one of the teams helping enforce the anti-coronavirus campaign of the office of North Cotabato Gov. Nancy Catamco.

Catamco said among Shane Mathew’s last assignments before he tested positive to COVID-19 this week was the screening of locally stranded individuals returning to North Cotabato via the airport in Davao City.

“I felt sad learning that Shane Mathew Piñol tested positive to COVID-19,” said Catamco, who, as North Cotabato’s governor, is presiding chairperson of the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council.

Catamco said the plight of Shane Mathew will not dampen the zeal of other frontliners actively helping push the provincial government’s war on coronavirus forward.

“As a very determined person, he will recover. Let us pray together for his speedy recovery,” Catamco said.