Senate nCoV inquiry: Cabinet men engage in finger-pointing

by Rainier Allan Ronda, Rudy Santos, Paolo Romero, (The Philippine Star), 5 Feb 2020

MANILA, Philippines — Cabinet secretaries yesterday tried to shift the blame during a Senate hearing where it was learned that only 58 out of 331 passengers on three flights from China that carried the first fatality from the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) in the country have been located.

Secretary Francisco Duque III of the Department of Health (DOH) admitted the low contact rate during the Senate inquiry headed by Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go on the government’s efforts to contain the nCoV outbreak.

This raised fears that there may be carriers spreading the virus and spawning the first case of local transmission.

The hearing was marked by finger-pointing by Cabinet officials and senators lamenting the DOH’s “failure of leadership.”

Duque said that of the 331 passengers that needed to be traced and checked for symptoms, 58 have been located.

Of the 58 contacted, 53 were sent home while five exhibited possible signs of nCoV infection.

“Four of the five allowed themselves to be admitted for observation and treatment. The other refused to be quarantined,” Duque said, adding he cannot immediately give details of the person who refused to be quarantined.

Duque asked senators to strengthen penal provisions of the country’s quarantine laws to allow authorities to enforce quarantines.

The passengers subject of contact tracing were on board Cebu Pacific flight 5J241 from Hong Kong, Cebgo flight DG 6519 from Cebu to Dumaguete last Jan. 21 and Philippine Airlines flight PR 2542 from Dumaguete to Manila on Jan. 24.

The two confirmed cases of nCoV infection – a Chinese couple from Wuhan – were on those flights.

The 44-year-old male died on Saturday while his companion appeared to be recovering.

Duque’s disclosure of the poor contact tracing efforts alarmed senators, who could not believe that the DOH was making such slow progress despite available addresses of the passengers.

“It’s been how many days already? And you haven’t contacted 100 percent of those who were in contact with these two patients? The difficulty of tracing those in hotels and restaurants they’ve visited is understandable, but for a plane?” Sen. Nancy Binay asked Duque.

He said the airlines were not sharing contact details and invoking confidentiality of passenger records. He said the airlines were also making continuous announcements of concerned passengers needing to report to health authorities.

Sen. Ronald dela Rosa suggested that the DOH should tap the help of the police to hasten the contact tracing.

“Three days, two days, they will all be apprehended,” Dela Rosa said, referring to the passengers.

“But we must hurry, many people are getting paranoid,” he said in Filipino.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Ed Monreal and Civil Aeronatics Board (CAB) chief Carmelo Arcilla said experience in previous global disease outbreaks showed that airlines were cooperative.

Duque apologized, saying he was running so many things that he did not know much about operational details entrusted to his subordinates who are expected to do their jobs. He lamented the “lack of transparency” within his department.

‘Better thrown under bus’

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said details of passengers are easy to come by.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade threw shade at Duque, saying that if only the DOH would coordinate with his department, the MIAA and the CAB, “which have ascendancy” over the airlines, they could immediately compel the carriers to release the information.

“There is a glaring failure to communicate… these agencies have the whip on the airlines. We now have a sad situation of failure to coordinate,” Tugade said.

Referring to Monreal and Arcilla, Locsin said the “two characters” would be better off “thrown under the bus” for not lifting a finger to help the DOH.

He said he immediately placed the Department of Foreign Affairs under the DOH when emergency broke out for “unity of command.”

There were reports that Duque received a tongue-lashing from President Duterte during a Cabinet meeting on the nCoV emergency on Monday night.

Senators pinned the blame for the apparent gaps in government response on Duque.

“There’s a failure of leadership on the part of the health department,” Sen. Francis Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan expressed surprise that the DOH did not immediately have the data on the 80 cases – all Chinese nationals – being monitored for nCoV infection.

Duque said of the 80 cases, 48 have left the country.

“What happens to the principle of unity of command? I thought this is a health issue, and the DOH should be the first line of defense and should be designated as the Office of Primary Responsibility. You shouldn’t be blaming other people because this is a health issue. And it’s wrong to point to the BI and CAAP as it should be the initiative of the DOH,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson said, referring to the Bureau of Immigration and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) said airline companies should cooperate with the DOH in efforts to prevent the nCoV from spreading by submitting the passenger manifest.

Airline firms could not invoke the Data Privacy Act (DPA) of 2012 when they are required to submit the manifest, NPC commissioner Raymund Liboro said.

“The DPA is not meant to prevent the government from processing sensitive personal information when necessary to fulfill their mandates,” Liboro told The STAR yesterday.

PAL and Cebu Pacific denied Duque’s allegations.

“We provided the passenger manifest information to the DOH in relation to PR 2542. On top of that, PAL also reached out to the passengers,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a statement.

PAL’s vice president for security Caesar Ronnie Ordoyo told the committee that PAL released to DOH, through the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ), the full unredacted manifest of flight PR2542, including the contact details of the passengers.

“We are also assisting the BOQ in the call-out of the passengers. We will always do our part to cooperate fully with the authorities when it concerns the health and safety of the general public,” Ordoyo said. ?Charo Logarta-Lagamon, Cebu Pacific’s director for communications, said the airline has been coordinating with the DOH, the BOQ and other concerned agencies.

“There is no impediment whatsoever for CEB to provide any and all information that the DOH and the BOQ would need from us for their purposes,” Lagamon said.

She said the CEB has opened a hotline to enable passengers aboard specific flights to call the airline.