22/03/2020
Mabalacat City mayor
Wants suspension of
All Clark airport flights
By ding cervantes
March 22, 2020
MABALACAT CITY, Pampanga- Mayor Cris Garbo has joined the mounting call of his constituents to temporarily stop all flights at the Clark International Airport amid fears of the entry of passengers afflicted with Covid 19.
Since four days ago, some 200 overseas Filipino workers from countries with Covid 19 have landed at the Clark airport and motored by the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) to the Dau bus terminal here while awaiting to be picked up by relatives from Northern Luzon.
Local folk have launched an online signature campaign for the halting of all flights at the Clark airport which is managed and operated by Lipad Corp.
Garbo said his city government was told by higher authorities to attend to the needs of the OFWs at the bus terminal.
“I have asked for the suspension of operations the Clark airport and was told that flights would be halted last Friday, but it seems nothing has been done,” Garbo said in a telephone interview.
Domestic flights at Clark airport were halted recently after OFWs were stranded at there following lockdown declarations in their hometown destinations in the Visayas and Mindanao.
But because international flights continued, OFWs have continued to fly in, prompting the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC), the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and Lipad Corp. to vow to provide them with accomodations and other basic needs while in wait for the lifting of lockdowns in their hometowns.
Garbo said, however, that OFWs bound for Northern Luzon are being motored upon arrival at Clark airport to the Daus bus terminal here where relatives are supposed to pick them up.
“So we established a desk there to help them. We have served about 200 OFWs there and most were already fetched by relatives while others are still awaiting relatives coming from northern areas such as Tugeugarao, Baguio, Ilocos and Pangasinan,” he said.
But Garbo said he wanted the temporary suspension of international flights at Clark airport, noting that OFWs in developed countries such as Australia, South Korea and even the Hong Kong administrative region can have access to better medical protocols where they are, in case they contract Covid 19.
He said that encouraging them to come home unnecessarily would just expose their families to possible contamination in provincial hometowns which lack needed medical capabilties for Covid 19 cases.
Garbo also denied reports that some OFWs who were motored to the Dau terminal have remained unfetched by relatives are now sick in local hotels and other rented facilities in Barangay Dau in his city.
He also disclosed that Mabalacat has about 202 persons under management for Covid 19, mostly those who recently arrived from abroad
Garbo also said the city government has prepared enough food supply for hundreds of indigent families amid the enhanced community quarantine, adding that the supplies are good for five days and are to be replenished regularly.
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Courtesy: Mabalacat City News