Retired police general and senatorial aspirant Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar wants to hold accountable the eight travelers from South Africa who allegedly put wrong contact details in a tracing form.
The Department of Health said the eight travelers have to be subjected to swab test as they came from a country where the omicron variant was reportedly first traced on Nov. 24. But they were nowhere to be found and could not be contacted as the information they put in the tracing form is inaccurate.
The eight individuals were part of the 253 travelers that arrived in the country from South Africa on November 15 to 29.
Eleazar said dishonesty in providing the contact details is not acceptable especially with the threat of the omicron variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which the Philippine government has been trying to prevent from entering by implementing strict rules on travelers coming from countries with confirmed cases of the new variant.
“Maliwanag na ito ay isang pambabastos hindi lang sa batas ng ating bansa kundi pati na rin sa mga Pilipino sa gitna ng banta ng Omicron variant ng COVID-19 This is a clear disrespect not only to our laws but also to the public amid the threat of the omicron variant),” Eleazar said.
They have to be immediately traced and have to be held accountable if necessary because what is at stake here is the safety of the people, and our economy," he added.
Meanwhile, Eleazar expressed support to the planned second wave of the National Vaccination Days on Dec. 15 to 17 where around seven million people are expected to be inoculated.
“We welcome the decision of the national government to conduct another round of national vaccination day because millions of Filiponos were vaccinated during that time," said Eleazar.
Around 9.9 million Filipinos were vaccinated in the first round of the nationwide immunization campaign from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 after it was extended in some local government units.