CEBU CITY – Two Cabinet secretaries are reportedly mulling legal action against Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for her supposed defiance of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) protocol involving overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs).
The Cebu governor on Tuesday disclosed in a press briefing that she got the information from Marinduque Gov. Presbitero Velasco, president of the of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP).
Garcia said Velasco was told by Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año that it will be presidential spokesman Harry Roque and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra who will file the charges against her.
"He (Año) said IATF is firm that Reso 114 should be strictly complied. They are worried about transmission of variants. He said Secretary Harry and Meynard Guevarra is considering legal action against you," the Cebu governor quoted Velasco as saying in a text message.
IATF Resolution No. 114 requires arriving OFWs and ROFs to undergo 14-day quarantine before they will be swabbed on the seventh day.
If tested negative, OFWs and ROFs will remain in the facility for three more days and the remaining four days may be completed through home isolation.
But in an Executive Order (EO) that the governor has issued, OFWs and ROFs arriving at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport will be swabbed upon arrival and will only have to stay in hotel isolation facilities for two to three days while awaiting the result of the swab test.
If tested negative, non-Cebuano OFWs and ROFs will be allowed to leave but must follow the health protocols set out by their respective local government units.
OFWs and ROFs from Cebu will be allowed to go home where they will be swabbed on the seventh day of their isolation.
Garcia stressed that her EO is not a form of defiance but an “innovative” way of implementing the health protocols.
“I am not defiant. I'm just trying to look for the best possible way to implement policies that will not further burden our people,” Garcia said, adding that she will stand by her EO.
She was also not convinced that Roque will take legal action against her. “I know Secretary Roque. He has a very sharp legal mind. He knows his law. So I doubt if he is in fact really planning to institute legal action," Garcia said.