QC to sue agency for alleged failure to aid COVID-19 positive worker

The local government of Quezon City will file charges against a manning agency for its supposed failure to assist a worker who tested positive for COVID-19 while waiting for deployment overseas.

City Legal Officer Atty. Orlando Casimiro said the local government will press charges against Staffhouse Manpower Office for violation of the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Disease and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act or Republic Act 11332.

"The city government will also file a complaint before the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) against the company, being a manpower agency sending Filipinos abroad," he said.

According to the QC government, the worker -- who remained unnamed -- from Lapu Lapu City was in Quezon City since February 21 while waiting for his deployment abroad.

He took a swab test along with 20 other applicants from Staffhouse on March 18, 2021, and tested positive the following day. Other residents of his lodging asked him to leave thereafter.

The patient was said to have requested assistance from the manning agency, but was told to go home instead. This was when he went to the Quezon City Hall where he asked for help.

"We won't let this act go unpunished. Inilagay ng manning agency na ito sa panganib ang buhay ng pasyente pati ang napakaraming resident ng lungsod," said Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte.

"I have ordered our city legal to leave no stone unturned that this manning agency is punished to the full extent of the law," she added.

Belmonte also ordered the Business Permits and Licensing Department (BPLD) to cancel the business permit of the Quezon City-based firm.

GMA News Online reached out to the firm through the contact form available on its website, but no response was received as of this posting. — DVM, GMA News