friday | MAY 29, 2020

MDM

P5

Austral-Asia Link Mining Corporation/Hallmark Mining Corporation in answer to Bayanihan Heal as One Act contributed sacks of rice to PLGU-Davao Oriental (in-photo) as represented by Engr. Maria Victoria G. Rodriguez, Provincial Treasurer and Sid Paglinawan, OIC of the Provincial Social Works and Development Office for distribution to the families and households affected by the pandemic community quarantine.

Paraiso Consolidated Mining Corporation also provided disinfectants and food to frontliners assigned in five checkpoints of Olaycon (national highway), Brgy. Salvacion, Brgy. Union, Brgy. Upper Ulip, and Brgy. Mt. Diwata, all in the Municipality of Monkayo, Davao de Oro.

LIVELIHOOD REPAIR. With the green light from the local government to operate under the general community quarantine (GCQ), this jeepney driver in Davao City repairs his vehicle so that he can provide for his family again.

76 OFWs from Davao Region return homeDAVAO CITY – A total of 76 returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) originally from the Davao Region arrived at the Macabalan Port in Ca-gayan de Oro City on Tuesday and were immediately brought to Davao City using transpor-tation arranged by the Over-seas Workers Welfare Admin-istration (OWWA).

OWWA-11 labor commu-nications officer Maricel Sara-

billo said that the returning OFWs took 2Go Travel’s MV St. Therese of the Child Jesus for their voyage to Cagayan de Oro. The OFWs, she added, are Davao residents who were previously stranded in Metro Manila and Cebu due to travel restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The repatriation was ar-ranged by the OWWA in Re-gion 10 and 11, in coordina-

tion with the Department of Internal and Local Govern-ment (DILG) 11 and the City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) of Davao City.

Among the returning OFWs include 45 residents from Davao City, 17 from Davao del Norte, five from Davao del Sur, five from Davao de Oro, two from Davao Occidental, and two from Davao Oriental.

Sarabillo said that the

agency has provided transpor-tation for the OFW repatriates from Cagayan de Oro back to Davao City. Their respective local government units in the Davao Region then provided transportation to fetch them from Davao City going back to their respective hometowns, she added.

Sarabillo said that these OFWs did not avail of the sweeper flights as it was only

the 2GO Travel ship that was most possible means for them to be able to come home to Davao Region.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier warned local govern-ment units not to bar returning OFWs to their hometowns, not-ing that only the national gov-ernment can impose restric-tions on travel as it is the only agency who can declare such.

“I’m ordering you to ac-

cept them, open the gates of your territories and allow the people, and allow the Filipino to travel wherever they want,” the President said, pointing out that it is “constitutional right of people to go home.”

“Do not obstruct the movement of the people be-cause you run the risk of get-ting sued criminally,” Presi-dent Duterte stressed. Warren Elijah E. Valdez/MindaNews

More returning students from Cebu

found positive of COVID-19CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Two more returning students from Cebu who took a sea vessel on their way home were tested positive of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the quarantine isolation unit here, doctors said.

This brings the total number of COVID-19-positive students to 14 among those who returned to Mindanao.

The students, who were stranded in Cebu City during the lockdown, availed of the government’s Balik Program to go back to their respective families.

At least 25 of them arrived in Cagayan de Oro aboard a 2Go vessel last May 19.

Nine from the group were immediately quarantined in Cagayan de Oro while the Maguindanao provincial government fetched 16 other students and brought them back to their province.

Dr. Joselito Retuya, chief epidemiologist at the Cagayan de Oro City Health Office, said the latest to be found positive of COVID-19 was a 25-year-old female student, a resident of Barangay Lumbia here.

Retuya said the student has cough, diarrhea, and is experiencing shortness of breath but is in stable condition.

The first in the group of students to have been found positive of the coronavirus was a 26-year-old architectural

student who hails from Iligan City.

Retuya said the source of the students’ infection might be at the port of Cebu where they stayed for four days while waiting for passage to Cagayan de Oro. He added that it was unlikely that the students were infected at the boat as it was only an overnight trip.

Of the 16 returning Maguindanao students, 12 were found to be positive of COVID-19, according to Dr. Elizabeth Samama, chief of the Maguindanao Provincial Hospital.

She said one student had symptoms upon arrival and confirmed positive when all the students were tested. The rest, who are also quarantined in a building near the hospital, again underwent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test Friday last week when three of them developed fever. The results were released Tuesday.

Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, Minister of Health of the Bangsamoro Region, said the students were not tested when they left Cebu port.

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella was quoted in a report published in the Cebu Daily News that he ordered an investigation into why the Maguindanao students were allowed to leave Cebu without being tested for COVID-19. Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews

ARJOY M. CENIZAMDM PHOTOGRAPHER