The spokesman of the Bohol Inter Agency Task Force (BIATF) insisted during an interview on Friday, Apr. 30, 2021, that there is no gag order on department heads to talk about the Coronavirus disease (Covid) situation from and of their respective offices.
Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez, BIATF spokesman, said there is no directive given to any department head to remain silent or evade questions from the media, and instead claim that the Provincial Health Office (PHO) is the right agency to answer Covid-related queries about their respective offices.
“Wala ma’am, in fact simple ra man tong pangutanaha kung symptomatic or asymptomatic ba ang empleyado,” Lopez told The Bohol Tribune’s managing editor Ardy Araneta Batoy during an exclusive radio interview on Friday, over Newsmakers Ug Uban Pa with Batoy’s son Chandymar Araneta-Batoy.
Lopez’ statement was an answer to the question thrown to him by Ardy Batoy which ran this way: “Dr. Lopez dili pa lang dugay among gikahinabi ang panuglo sa General Services Office aron mokuha kami ug mga kasayuran kabahin sa sitwasyon sa Covid 19 gikan sa iyang buhatan. We were very disappointed at the way the office head answered our questions. We had to cut short our interview as we noticed how uncooperative the office head was. Kadaghanan sa among pangutana iyang tubagon pinaagi sa pag-ingon ug ‘I am not in a position to answer that’ or ‘I am proactive’ or “Pangutan-a lang ang PHO’. We had to cancel our interview with him especially when we asked him whether or not the Covid positive GSO employee was asymptomatic or sympotamic and he answered by saying: ‘I am not in a position to answer that.’ Aduna ka ba’y kamanduan Dr, Lopez nga dili nimo patubagon ang mga pangulo sa mga buhatan ug nga ikaw lang gyud ang mahimong motubag sa mga pangutana kabahin sa mga Covid status sa ilang mga opisina?”
The issue stems from the reluctance of Provincial General Services Office (PGSO) head, Glenn Doloritos, to answer any question about the Covid status of his personnel.
On Apr. 22, 2021, Doloritos was the resource speaker on Newsmakers ug Uban Pa and he showed a recalcitrant attitude by avoiding the questions posed by the program’s hosts, Batoy and Gloria Leodivica-Araneta.
Lopez bared that he has already called the attention of Doloritos and has already talked to him (Doloritos) about the latter’s recalcitrant attitude in answering the questions during the show’s Apr. 22, 2021 episode.
“I talked to him about it. Among gi-istoryahan to [about the radio interview],” Lopez said.
CONCERN
Doloritos was invited as a resource speaker on the Apr. 22, 2021 episode of the said radio program to shed light on the news about a number of PGSO personnel who are infected with Covid.
However, the program’s hosts were unable to get any sensible answer from Doloritos as the latter kept on dodging the questions and even declined to answer a simple question whether the infected PGSO employee deemed as the index case is asymptomatic or symptomatic.
The public is interested to know what is going on the PGSO given the fact that the office is part of the provincial capitol and is serving both public and private clients every now and then.
As of Friday, there are at least 33 personnel from the PGSO infected with Covid, Lopez mentioned this information in an interview aired over a radio program produced by the Provincial Government of Bohol.
As this developed, the Capitol will reopen tomorrow, Monday, May 3, 2021, after a 4-day closure to allow the disinfection of all offices and facilitate contact tracing activities, Lopez added.