Philippines minister apologises to Dubai over 'false' claims that Filipina died of virus
- 07 Feb 2020
Manolo B. Jara, Correspondent
A senior Cabinet official on Friday apologised to the Dubai government for the "false" announcement that a woman overseas Filipino worker (OFW) had succumbed to the dreaded coronavirus (nCOV) ailment amid rising fears and alarm due to its rapid spread throughout the world.
In a statement, the office of Secretary Silvestre Bello of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) admitted it received a report from the Philippine Labor Office in Dubai regarding death of the OFW.
"Based on a belated report received by the Office of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello from the Philippine Labor Office in Dubai of results of confirmatory tests conducted by the Pathology and Genetic Department of the Dubai Health Authority on the (OFW's) specimen yielded negative of the coronavirus," the statement said.
It added: "Secretary Bello nonetheless wishes to apologise to the goverrnment of Dubai for the confusion and whatever anxiety that the announcement may have caused."
Bello's extended the apology immediately after the media office of the Dubai government vehemently denied "the validity of the statement of the Philippine Minister of Labour regarding the death of the Filipino woman in Dubai due to coronavius."
"The deceased," the Dubai statement stressed, "was suffering from a respiratory infection and laboratory tests showed she died not due to the virus. She died from pneumonia."
In a related development, controversy continued to rage following the complaint from local town officials in Tarlac province in Central Luzon that the government did not consult them regarding its decision to use the Athletes Village as a quarantine site for the estimated 45 OFWs who are to be repatriated from Wuhan City in Hubei province in China, the epicenter of the nCOV.
Capas town Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan complained they suddenly learned of a major change in the decision to house the OFWs at the Athletes Village used by participants in the recent Southeast Games (SEAG) hosted by the Philippines.
Initially, the government said the first batch of the 45 OFWs from Wuhan was to be brought to a drug rehabilitatiion center inside Fort Magsaysay, the country's largest military reservation located in Nueva Ecija province also in Central Luzon, upon their arrival on Saturday at the Clark International Airport in the neighboring province of Pampanga.
"While it is true that I, as a Filipino, am favor of the repatriation of our OFWs, I feel perturbed that the Department of Health did not at all ask in any way and involve the Capas officials for the use of the Athletes Vilage," Catacutan said in a statement.
The government has announced the estimated 150 OFWs deployed in Wuhan and Hubei province who wished to be repatriated would have to undergo a 14-day quarantine period to ensure they would not bring in nCOV to the country.
Filipinos have expressed rising fears and alarm over the entry of the dreaded ailment following confirmation that three Chinese nationals - two women and a male - have had already been infected with nCOV before they arrived in the Philippines.
