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Sunday, October 17, 2021

Black propaganda targets ‘mega’ isolation facility

WHILE RESIDENTS and medical frontliners welcomed the construction of more Covid isolation facilities in Zamboanga, black propagandists and political foes of Mayor Beng Climaco continue their criticisms against the projects and spread fake news and false information in social media.

The attacks on Climaco by her foes were all aimed at destroying local government efforts in addressing the pandemic and use these as election propaganda ahead of next year’s polls. 

Climaco, now on her third and last term, is running for a congressional seat in District 1 and is likely to win by a landslide again due to her huge number of followers and supporters. 

She has no record of defeat since joining politics in 1998 as a councilor up to 2004; vice mayor from 2004-2007; and congresswoman from 2007-2010, and 2010-2013 and won as mayor after defeating veteran politician Celso Lobregat. 

Even incumbent Vice Mayor Meng Agan, of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), and running for mayor, is supporting the candidacy of Climaco, of the Partido Prosperidad y Amor. 

One of the biggest Covid-19 isolation facilities here was the brainchild of Climaco, head of the local Covid-19 task force. The new isolation facility, located at the Zamboanga Economic Zone and Freeport Authority complex in Barangay Talisayan, has 320 beds and is part of the local government’s response to address the growing number of active Covid-19 cases and the shortage of hospital beds. 

Each room has an air condition unit, a comfort room and lavatory, and a bed with an IV (intravenous) pole. The facility also has a power generator and water tanks.

But Climaco’s foes and social media trolls supporting other political candidates have nothing good to say about the project and would always look for ways to criticize and even fabricate and spread fake news.

Last July, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) also turned over to the local government the 188-room isolation facility at the Pasonanca Convention Center.

The project is intended to augment the two quarantine tents with 20 beds also in Pasonanca which was completed in March. Both facilities are being managed and operated by the City Health Office and City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office under supervision by the DOH.

Climaco said the local government is putting up more isolation facilities and supplementing the mass vaccination program aimed at fighting the spread of the deadly respiratory virus. “We are boosting our isolation facilities and efficiency of ambulances,” she said.

Even the DPWH was not spared by political trolls and denounced the isolation facilities it constructed in Barangay Pasonanca, saying it would put residents at risk of being infected with Covid-19 because the “virus can jump out of the tent.” 

They also called on Pasonanca residents to oppose the project while others have “demonized” those living near the facility to protest it. The spread of black propaganda, fake news and false information have alarmed Pasonanca residents and has prejudiced public tranquillity. 

In May, the DPWH said it is also ramping up the construction of additional isolation facilities here with an “off-site modular hospital and pop-up dormitory” for health workers. It is also constructing a modular hospital with 22 beds for moderate, severe to critical Covid-9 patients at the Mindanao Central Sanitarium General Hospital (MCSGH) in Barangay Pasobolong and will be operated by the Zamboanga City Medical Center with equipment supplied by the DOH; and a dormitory with 16 rooms and double decker beds medical personnel.

It also identified five buildings and a covered court at the Regional Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center also at the MCSGH compound as a potential 300-bed quarantine facility and dormitories with 30 beds for health workers. (Zamboanga Post)



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