Gwen invites IATF consultants to present data before Cebu board members

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. | file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Cebu Provincial Government is inviting consultants and experts of the national government’s anti-COVID task force to present their data before local lawmakers here.

Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, during the Senate Hearing on Tuesday, June 15, said she will be requesting Provincial Board to review Ordinance No. 2021-04 also known as the Swab-Upon-Arrival policy.

In doing so, the governor asked the Technical Advisory Group and members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) to show their findings before the Provincial Board.

“I am asking our Provincial Board members to revisit the ordinance and this time, to invite the Technical Advisory (Group) and medical experts… to invite them over so that they could present their own data,” Garcia told members of the Senate.

Garcia on Tuesday virtually attended the Senate hearing that tackled concerns surrounding the national government’s vaccination program and quarantine rules regarding COVID-19.

She was invited by Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III to provide insights on how Cebu managed the outbreak amid its swab protocols for Returning Overseas Filipinos (ROFs) and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs0 that differed from those from IATF.

Also present during the hearing were Health Sec. Francisco Duque III, chairperson of the IATF, and Interior and Local Government Sec. Eduardo Año.

Duque, for his part, accepted Garcia’s invitation.

“We will arrange for that particular meeting, and we will be asking the members (to accept) the opportunity to present… We would love to get our experts to visit Cebu province and to present their own data why they are of certainty that the protocols that is nationally adopted is the way to go,” said Duque.

The Malacañang recently announced that President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered Cebu province to abide by the protocols of IATF.     /rcg