SOME 44 individuals, including barangay officials, in Davao City who participated in the nationwide campaign urging Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio to run in the 2022 presidential election will be quarantined upon their return to the city.
This was the directive coming from the mayor herself in a radio interview on Monday, March 23.
The mayor said the participants include some former and current barangay captains, kagawad, and their relatives.
Before their flight to Metro Manila on March 17, the mayor said she met with them and discouraged them from going with their caravan due to the rising Covid-19 cases in the area.
"Giingnan nako sila before sila nilakaw nga dili pwede mulakaw kay naga-surge ang Cebu and Manila, and it's very dangerous para sa ila nga muadto didto. Niingon pud ko nga it is very dangerous for the people of Davao City nga muadto mo didto because pagbalik ninyo (I told them before they left to discontinue their travel due to continuing surge of Covid-19 cases in Cebu and Manila. It is very risky on their part, and to the people of Davao City because when they come back), [they] would be the possible carriers of the Covid-19 virus," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
Despite her reminder and appeal, she said the officials still continued with their planned activity.
After avoiding communicating with the caravan conveners, she communicated with one of them, asking them their current situation.
"Magsulay mi og pangita og suporta kung unsa masuporta namo sa inyo because dili nako kaya nga pasagdan nalang sila nga ingon ana (We will find means on how we could support them in their needs because I cannot just leave them behind)," she said, adding that she will try to find assistance for food and gas in their campaign activity.
Recently, the City Government reimposed the mandatory reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test to all air passengers traveling via Francisco Bangoy International Airport, also known as the Davao International Airport.
Based on the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) order, all arriving passengers will no longer be subjected to a 14-day home quarantine.
But Duterte-Carpio ordered the group to go under a 14-day quarantine once they return to the city.
"The only thing na pwede nako buhaton (we can do to them) is quarantine all of them for 14 days para to protect the Dabawenyos sa ilang gibuhat, and para matagam, para next time dili na sila mugawas (from their actions and to serve as a lesson to them so that they will not do this again) because otherwise, i-quarantine nasab sila (we will quarantine them again)," Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor said she already communicated with the Liga ng mga Barangay to monitor the officials. The Liga official is currently scouting for a separate isolation facility for the officials.
Barangay leaders who are behind the “Run Sara Para sa Bayan 2022” announced Monday, March 15, started their nationwide advocacy campaign on March 17, urging the presidential daughter to run for the presidency next year.
Barangay 23-C chairman Alimoden Usman, the campaign convenor, said they will travel by land and will gather at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila for the grand caravan on March 21.
After the caravan, he said they will continue to go to various parts of the country for advocacy.
Usman, however, assured their group will follow strict health protocols.
Duterte-Carpio had been distancing from the calls for her to run for the presidency.
The mayor even barred her supporters in the city from staging motorcades and ordered for the removal of tarpaulins, posters, and billboards with the text "Run, Sara, Run," mounted by her supporters in some parts of the city.
Despite this, she expressed gratitude to those who are calling on her to run for the presidency in the 2022 elections.
"Once again, I am grateful to all my friends who believe in me and who relentlessly expressed their call for me to run as president," Duterte-Carpio said in a video message forwarded to the media by the Davao City Information Office on Monday, March 1.