Malilong: Find the 7 Koreans, not your Judas Iscariot

I received the other day, via the Internet, a copy of a “Quarantine Consolidated Monitoring List” purportedly issued by the Central Visayas Center for Health Development of the Department of Health. It contained 20 names, their gender (11 males and nine females), their nationality (Korean), their place of origin (Daegu, Korea), their date of arrival (Feb. 25) and their respective addresses while in Cebu (11 different hotels).

Some hours later, I received through the same route the official statement of the Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu Inc., accusing “certain individuals” of using the current Covid-19 to “spread false information,” through the social media, that may cause panic, to the prejudice of their industry.

The second message was obviously a reaction to the first and the “certain individuals” referred to the people who leaked the monitoring list and posted it on social media. They have instructed their lawyers to investigate the leak and posting, the HRRACI said, for the possible filing of criminal charges under the cybercrime law.

I have gone over the list many times and have not found anything that said it was confidential as claimed by the association. Neither did it say that the persons named in the list have tested positive for the virus, again contrary to the HRRACI’s assertion. It was a monitoring sheet as its caption clearly indicated and the fact alone that many people may not be able to understand that persons under monitoring are a different classification from infected persons does not make the one who leaked it guilty of spreading false information.

So what will the association charge the leaker with, assuming they find direct evidence to identify him? Violation of the data privacy law? If that law can be invoked, are the hotel, resort and restaurant operators the right people to do that, instead of the 20 Koreans?

I understand what the HRRACI members are worried about. They said so themselves: The revelation of the names of the hotels that the 20 Koreans were supposed to stay in will affect their reputation. From a purely business standpoint, the fear of damage may be a valid concern. But shouldn’t the desire to earn profits yield to the higher interest of public safety?

In fact, wasn’t the cruise ship that carried 3,700 passengers and crew, and was quarantined in Japan because nearly 700 of those on board were infected with the coronavirus, identified in the news reports on the outbreak? Did the operators of Diamond Princess ever complain that they should not have been named because it was bad for their business?

Closer to home, was the airline that operates the planes that brought the Filipinos home from the Diamond Princess ever kept a secret? No! From the time the two planes left Manila last Monday, we were already told that they were Philippine Airlines flights. PAL knew that they would take a hit where it will hurt most—their bank accounts—in helping repatriate our countrymen. Did they ever accuse anyone of trying to ruin their business by leaking information about their mercy flights? Again, no!

Instead of wasting their time looking for the list leaker, the Department of Health should devote themselves to looking for the seven other Koreans who, according to yesterday’s news reports could not be found. Instead of spreading too thinly their manpower and other resources in order to help the businessmen locate their Judas Iscariot, the region’s DOH should add more vigor to their campaign to keep us safe from Covid-19.

In their official statement, HRRACI assured the public that “in their respective establishments utmost protocol on this health issue is enforced.”

If they have use for unsolicited advice, I suggest that this be the direction that they pursue, that regardless of who has previously stayed in their hotels, guests will remain safe from the coronavirus because they have done everything and left nothing to chance to make them so.

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