Zamboanga City opens own mega Covid facility

CHIEF COVID frontliner Mayor Beng Climaco inaugurated the 320-bed isolation facility as the local government continues to fight the spread of the deadly respiratory virus and the threats posed by the new Omicron variant.

Climaco, head of the local Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, was joined by other members of the Covid-19 task force. She said the facility will serve in healing and recovery of Covid-19 patients and forms part of the local government’s efforts in protecting the public from the virus. 

She thanked all those who supported the realization of the so-called mega isolation facility, the biggest in the region and is part of the legacies of the Climaco administration. The mayor also expressed her gratitude to all medical frontliners and those working to save others from the grave risk posed by the pandemic.

 Mayor Beng Climaco leads members of the the local Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the inauguration of the 320-bed mega isolation facility in Barangay Talisayan. (Bong Serondo)

The new isolation facility is located at the Zamboanga Economic Zone and Freeport Authority complex in Barangay Talisayan. Each room has an air condition unit, a comfort room and lavatory, and a bed with an IV (intravenous) pole.

Climaco previously said the local government is putting up more isolation facilities and targeting at least 2,000 beds as part of the Covid-19 response, supplementing the mass vaccination program aimed at fighting the spread of the virus. “We are boosting our isolation facilities and efficiency of ambulances,” she said.

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 last year. Both facilities are being managed and operated by the City Health Office and City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office under supervision by the Department of Health (DOH).

But while Climaco and the DPWH and DOH continue efforts to address the pandemic and respond to the health crisis, social media trolls and black propagandists also heightened their attacks against the mayor.

Climaco’s foes peddled fake news and false information aimed at bringing down the mayor. Political propagandists resorted to spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and even denounced the isolation facilities 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. But the public’s support to the mayor and the local government remain strong.

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 popularity and huge number of 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, and running for mayor, is supporting the candidacy of Climaco. (Zamboanga Post)