Two suppliers complained of two village leaders for blocking two oxygen tanks for a critically ill patient in a checkpoint in Quezon City.
In a video from Gina Romanos, she and her live-in partner showed a quarantine pass for the tanks to pass through the checkpoint at Zytec Compound, Barangay Pasong Tamo, Sunday morning.
However, the checkpoint guards told them that entry and exit from the area were prohibited from 10 am to 3 pm.
“Tinext kami ng nurse na kausap namin, sabi na kailangan na ipadala ‘yung oxygen tank kasi naghihingalo na ang pasyente. Kaya nagkagulo na kami,” said the delivery staff Louie Bugayong.
(The nurse we are talking to texted us that the oxygen tank needs to be delivered because the patient is dying. So we panicked.)
“Tinanong ko ‘yung purok papaano ang deskarte kasi ayaw kami paalisin. Sabi niya, ‘Edi mamatay ‘yan kung mamatay,'” he added
(I asked the village leader on how we can pass through. He replied, ‘It will die if it will die.’)
The group passed through to the checkpoint after one hour when village officials arrived and assisted them.
They will file a lawsuit because they have experienced discrimination in the incident despite being considered frontliners in the COVID-19 crisis, Romanos said.
Also read: ‘No contact rule’ for ECQ violators urged following Makati incident
Bigger quarantine facility to be built inside Bilibid
The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) administration is preparing a larger quarantine facility inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) that will temporarily house inmates who will test positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
According to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the facility will be called “tent city,” which is being built at the Bilibid compound.
According to Guevarra, BuCor’s work is now centered around serving COVID-19 positive inmates.
In the last report, up to 48 inmates were transferred to Bilibid after they tested positive for COVID-19. The last 27 are from the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Several communities in Muntinlupa City have earlier questioned the transfer of COVID-19 positive inmates.
There is also a pending Supreme Court petition to release some detainees to reduce prison congestion. The Office of the Solicitor General contradicts the said petition.