A COUPLE who stayed for weeks at the Pasonanca isolation facility in Zamboanga City after contracting Covid-19 praised the local government’s medical services during their quarantine period, saying they were accommodated and served well.
Florencio Fernandez and wife Lydia were transferred to the isolation facility where they stayed for more than two weeks after both had been tested for Covid-19. His wife also has kidney disease and barangay health workers were patient enough to bring the woman to the Zamboanga City Medical Center for her three-times a week dialysis treatment.
He said they said medical frontliners took very good care of them until their last day at the quarantine facility after new RT-PCR tests turned out negative for the virus. And they were even brought home by barangay workers from Tetuan where they reside.
“Nohay gat yo cosa puede habla. Buen bueno el maga frontliners hindi lang comigo y de mio mujer hasta na maga otro paciente alla na Pasonanca isolation poreso ta pide kami gracias con Mayor Beng y health workers, el Barangay Tetuan,” Florencio told the Zamboanga Post.
He said even the food served at the facility is even better at what they have at home. And he was bragging that their room is complete with air conditioning unit and a bathroom. “Nohay gat falta el comida y bien sabroso pa. Battered chicken, bijon bien y otro pa, todo sabroso. Dol na hotel kami alla cay tiene pa air con poreso bien frio,” he said.
Florencio also praised the Kusug Tausug partylist for helping providing his wife over P11,000 worth of medical care. He said he met Al-Guin Ajijul. a staff of the Kusug Tausug partylist, during their stay at the quarantine area and he quickly offered help.
“Believed gat yo na Kusug Tausug partylist. Ya conose yo con Sir Al-Guin alla na facility y cuando ya sabe le el de amun pobre situacion enseguidas este ya dale ayuda por medio de Congresswoman Shernee Tan del Kusug Tausug. Muchas gayod con Congresswoman Shernee Tan, con Si Al-Guin y el Kusug Tausug partylist, bien grande ayuda este na mio mujer que ta man dialysis tres beses cada semana,” he said.
New facility
The local government is also set to open another mega isolation facility at Barangay Talisayan and is one of the biggest in Zamboanga. 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 to ensure steady supply of potable water and electricity.
The brainchild of Mayor Beng Climaco, head of the local Covid-19 task force, the new facility located at the Zamboanga Economic Zone and Freeport Authority complex 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.
While the public and medical frontliners welcomed the construction of more
Covid isolation facilities here, black propagandists and political foes of
Climaco continue their criticisms against the projects and spread fake news and
false information in social media.
The mayor has publicly said that 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.
Dirty politics
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 para na Zamboanga.
But Climaco’s foes and social
media trolls supporting other political candidates have nothing good to say
about the projects and would always look for ways to criticize and even
fabricate and spread fake news.
The isolation facilities here are
being managed and operated by the City Health Office and City Disaster Risk
Reduction Management Office under supervision by the Department of Health.
Even the Department
of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was not spared by political trolls and had denounced
the isolation facilities it constructed in 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)
