By Christine Fabro
Baguio City Mayor and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong holds all face-to-face training of the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the Cordillera Administrative Region Training Center (CARTC) in Teachers Camp to contain COVID-19 infection among policemen.
In a Laging Handa public briefing on Tuesday (July 13), Magalong explained that he temporarily holds such training as it violates the city’s public health standards, as well as the non-observance of physical distancing in barracks and classrooms.
The mayor added that the city detected new COVID-19 positive patients among the PNP trainees, thus the need to discontinue said activities.
“It’s about time that we have to make a strong stand and strong message na if you cannot comply with the minimum health standard in the city of Baguio, we will never accept anything na nag-ti-training dito sa siyudad. We have to follow iyong policy namin dito sa Baguio, hindi sila separate na republic dito,” Magalong said.
Magalong ordered the lockdown of the entire training facility in the third week of June to be able to control the movement of people and imposed the conduct of testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine measures to control the further spread of COVID-19.
The contact tracing also suspended the training of the Bureau of Fire Protection in Baguio City. – rir
