CEBU, Philippines — Comparing house-to-house contact tracing for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients to the operation “Tokhang” in the controversial war against illegal drugs is an exaggeration.
This is how Police Regional Office (PRO)-7 Director Albert Ignatius Ferro described the public reactions against it.
“Actually, for me, it is not like that because what we will be doing is social responsibility of every citizen, based on Republic Act 11332 Section 9, 2 and 8, non-cooperation of the individual is punishable by that particular law,” said Ferro.
Ferro said contact tracing is important because it concerns the security of the people and the lack of cooperation could lead to possible contamination of the whole community.
Ferro explained that the contact tracers will just conduct a simple interview to determine the proximity of the contact they have with a COVID-positive patient. He said only houses identified to as having contact with positive patients will be visited by the contact tracers.
“So I think people have really their own opinion, I respect their opinion, but what will be doing is for the good of the majority and not for an individual person and for our community diri sa dakbayan sa Cebu, we need to cooperate,” Ferro said.
He appealed to the public to cooperate in the contact tracing to end the pandemic at the soonest time possible. Ferro reminded the public that contact tracing is not a “single responsibility” of the police but a collaborative effort of the people.
Cebu now has 79 teams of contact tracers composed of police personnel, Bureau of Fire Protection, and medical workers. The teams underwent trainings with Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año announced earlier that contact tracing will be done house-to-house. The announcement was met with opposition by some senators who likened it to the controversial Oplan Tokhang in the war against drugs. FPL (FREEMAN)