The police commander of the Talipapa Police Station in Quezon City was sacked from her post for command responsibility over the deployment of her men for State of the Nation Address (SONA) duties even if they were still waiting for the results of the swab test for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
A total of 51 of the 82 personnel of the Talipapa Police Station who tested positive for coronavirus were deployed for SONA duties. They were tested on July 23 but the results were only released on Wednesday, July 28. or two days after they tapped to secure the protest sites for President Duterte's final SONA.
Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the relief of Lt. Col. Cristine Tabdi was due to a breach of protocol when she allowed the deployment of her men who were then still waiting for the RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) result.
"This should serve as a reminder to all our commanders to exercise prudence and to strictly abide with our existing protocols amid the serious threat of COVID-19, especially with the rising number of infection from the Delta variant," said Eleazar.
Tabid was already subjected to swab test but tested negative.
"Right after the RT-PCR results were released and showed that 82 of our QCPD personnel tested positive for coronavirus, we immediately conducted focused testing on all other QCPD personnel in order to identify, isolate and provide necessary medical assistance for all those who may have been infected by the virus," said Eleazar in a statement issued on Thursday, July 29.
Part of the contact-tracing and testing were the policemen and other people who made close contacts with the 82 policemen who tested positive. They include 167 PNP personnel who were subjected to swab test on Wednesday and are now waiting for the result.
"Hindi pa natin alam kung Delta variant ang tumama sa aming mga kasamahan sa QCPD kaya nakikiusap tayo sa ating mga kababayan na iwasan ang mga espekulasyon tungkol dito (We still do not know if this is Delta variant so we appeal to the public to refrain from speculating regarding this," said Eleazar.
"But your Philippine National Police has long prepared for all worse-case scenarios like this, which include aggressive vaccination and preparing for more isolation and medical facilities, so we assure the relatives of those who were infected and also our kababayan of full attention and care for our personnel," he added.
Right now, Eleazar said their our focus is to ensure that all of our personnel who were infected receive their necessary medical needs and continue our aggressive contact-tracing and testing.