Malabon Mayor Lenlen Oreta on Friday disclosed that some of its private companies are not coordinating with them whenever they test their employees for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
According to Oreta, this is one of the “concerns and challenges” that the local government faces in handling the COVID-19 crisis in the city.
"Yung mga private companies, minsan they do their own testing. Hindi naipapaalam sa city health natin, lalo na 'pag positive. So 'yun ang problema (Private companies sometimes do their own testing. They don't inform our city health, especially if some of their employees turn out positive. So that's the problem)," he told members of the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (C.O.D.E.) Team as they visited the city's COVID-19 facilities.
Brian Manapat, head of Barangay Catmon, shared Oreta's sentiment, noting the lack of coordination between private companies and the local government leads to delay in tracing COVID-19 patients’ contact.
"Minsan nagrarapid sila or nag-saswab, medyo sinisikreto nila samin. 'Yun nga po, yung contact tracing naaantala tuloy (Sometimes they conduct rapid or swab tests secretly. That's why our contact tracing is being delayed)," Manapat said.
Aside from uncooperative companies, Oreta said that the local government is also being challenged by the lack of discipline of its constituents, giving them a hard time containing the spread of the virus.
Although residents of some areas "follow all the health protocols," there are also those "who do not follow" and "can hardly have discipline."
Oreta said that they are urging barangay heads to educate their constituents because "convincing the mindset of people" is their main problem.
The mayor also said that they are seeking some advice from other local chief executives and the national government to know what are the best practices in handling such concerns.
"Yung pag-uusap-usap, malaking bagay that we have 'yung ating mga big brothers. In fact, naayos na because of Metro Manila mayors we meet, usually every week now, with all the Inter-Agency Task Force members via Zoom. So lahat napag-iisapan, yung mga problemang dumadating (Our meeting with our big brothers is a big help. In fact, some of our concerns are already given solutions because of Metro Manila mayors and IATF members who we meet every week via Zoom. So any problem that comes is being discussed)," he said.