Cotabato gov wants probe on alleged discrimination against frontliner

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco has urged the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to take appropriate actions on the reported discrimination against one of the frontliners of the provincial government.

The frontliner Catamco identified as a certain Junmar Gonzales, had been exposed to another frontliner who tested positive of Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Gonzales, according to reports, manifested flu-like symptoms and was placed under quarantine at the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) Hospital, the only DoH-accredited Covid-19 treatment facility in North Cotabato.

Records show that he is resident in Barangay Lanao in the city.

But even before the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) in Cotabato City could release results of his Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, officials from Barangay Lanao placed a yellow or "caution" line in front of his house.

His wife took photos of the yellow line and posted them online through her Facebook account, which had gone viral among the netizens in the province.

Wife cries discrimination

Gonzales' wife considered the act of barangay officials as a form of ‘discrimination.’

She said her husband is mission head of the province’s Task Force Sagip Stranded North Cotabatenos, which has rescued more than 6,000 locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) from high-risk areas in Metro Manila, Luzon, Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao.

For Governor Catamco, Gonzales doesn’t deserve the harsh treatment from anybody, much less from government officials.

In an interview, Barangay Lanao chairman Alberto Canonoy admitted having cordoned the area on orders from the local chief executive.

On June 29, Mayor Joseph Evangelista issued Executive  Order No. 58, series of 2020, which placed a portion of Barangay Lanao and Barangay Amas under ‘focused containment’. 

This happened even if the city government knew Gonzales from Barangay Lanao was not yet tested positive for the virus, reports said.

A portion of Barangay Amas, where the 9th confirmed Covid-19 case in North Cotabato resides, was also placed under "focused containment" status.

On July 3, Evangelista lifted the order.

It was only last Thursday that Gonzales tested negative of the virus.

Dicrimination vs. frontliners must stop

Catamco believed Gonzales and his family became victims of discrimination and harassment when their house was cordoned off by barangay officials.

This must stop, Catamco stressed, so as to spare her other frontliners from being subjected to unfair treatment.

Catamco has urged the DILG and the provincial legal office to take appropriate measures against those responsible for the act.

She also set to report the incident to the Inter-Agency Task Force both in the region and in the national level. —LBG, GMA News