Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu Provincial government has expressed support on the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH) to ban travelers coming from Wuhan, and all other cities in Hubei Province in China.
However, the latest statement issued by Sugbo News, the Capitol ran-news agency, reiterated that they would not ban travelers from other parts of China outside Hubei province.
“To give Cebuanos further assurance, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia subscribes to the recommendation of DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III to ban travelers coming from Wuhan and all other cities in Hubei Province in China,” the statement said.
“The governor clarified that as a local chief executive, she cannot ban travelers from China because imposing a ban on foreign nationals will have an implication on foreign relations, which policy-making rests purely on the President as the chief executive,” it added.
The provincial government’s recent statement was published around seven hours after they announced that Garcia would not implement a total ban of travelers from China where the epicenter of the 2019 novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, is located.
Garcia’s decision came just hours after Duque, together with other top officials of the country’s health bureau, announced the first 2019-nCoV recorded in the Philippines — a 38-year-old female Chinese patient from Wuhan City now admitted in San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila.
The action taken by the provincial government, however, received huge backlash from Cebuano netizens.
The first post announcing that the Capitol will not be totally banning Chinese travelers from areas outside Hubei province, published on the official Facebook page of Sugbo News, has also gone viral on social media.
It generated over 9,900 angry reactions; 1,800 sad reactions; 1,700 likes; over 700 laugh reactions; 106 love reactions; and 66 wow reactions as of 12:11 a.m. on Friday, January 31. / dbs
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