Richard Gomez criticized the agencies due to Balik Probinsya Program
Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez questioned several government agencies regarding the Balik Probinsya Program.
The said program was proposed by Senator Bong Go with the intention to avoid overpopulation in urban areas, especially in Metro Manila. This came after the government’s aim to address the problems concerning the community quarantine. President Rodrigo Duterte signed this as the Executive Order No. 114 last May 6.
However, apparently, Richard, as the incumbent mayor of Ormoc has encountered problems regarding the said program and he called out the attention of several agencies.
“DILG, NHA, OWWA, what happened to all the protocols that you guys are trying to formulate for returning residents?!!!” the actor-turned-politician said in his Facebook post on Monday.
He shared that the Department of the Interior and Local Government regional office and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration “texted” them in the morning of May 25 that “3 planes will be arriving in Tacloban.”
The mayor was instructed to receive the passengers of the planes, however, he criticized the idea that they will do that “without Covid protocols, undocumented and untested.”
He stressed that they were able to maintain their city as COVID-free for 70 days because they are implementing protocols in borders. “Then here comes a TEXT from the National government agencies telling us that there are repatriates coming in our city and telling us to accept them?!” the Ormoc Mayor said.
Richard Gomez also questioned why the agencies that told them to observe protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic are not doing the right thing. “It only takes one infected person to get to our city to infect a hundred innocent people bec of carelessness from the national government agencies,” he added.
The Mayor also called out in his post the attention of the “National Task Force Covid Shield and the IATF” regarding this issue.
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