POLICE VISIBILITY. A police officer of the Leganes Municipal Police Station is on guard against violators of quarantine protocols amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. Authorities said on Saturday (June 27, 2020) they have filed cases against a 34-year-old female overseas Filipino worker (OFW) from Hong Kong who breached quarantine protocols. (Photo courtesy of Leganes MPS)
ILOILO CITY -- A 34-year-old woman, a repatriated overseas Filipino worker (OFW) from Hong Kong, is facing charges for breaching the quarantine protocols amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
The repatriate is a local of Leganes, Iloilo who arrived last June 14 here as organized by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Capt. Roy Tayona, Leganes Municipal Police Station chief, said Saturday.
The repatriate was swabbed for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) upon her arrival.
She was quarantined in a hotel pending the result of her RT-PCR test.
“June 23, she arrived in Leganes as her result for RT-PCR arrived and she tested negative,” Tayona said in a phone interview
As a protocol, OFWs who arrive in Iloilo are quarantined first and are eventually picked up by their local government unit (LGU) when they test negative for Covid-19.
The female repatriate was fetched by the LGU and was brought to the quarantine facility of Leganes to finish her 14-day quarantine.
Her 14-day quarantine is supposed to end on June 28, Tayona said.
But the evening of her arrival in Leganes, the OFW allegedly sneaked out from the quarantine facility last June 23 around 7 p.m. and went home.
“We located her and she was at their house,” Tayona said.
The town’s Covid-19 team negotiated with the OFW who insisted to stay at home.
Tayona said the negotiations lasted until 11 p.m.
The authorities sued the OFW her on Friday for violation of the Bayanihan To Heal as One Act and the violation of Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code on resistance and disobedience to a person in authority.
Tayona said she is currently on facility quarantine and can post bail of PHP3, 000.
“Our problem increased if you refuse to be quarantined,” he said, adding that Leganes still has five quarantined OFWs. (PNA)
