Abra’s COVID-19 Fight Rekindles Intense Political Rivalry

June 20, 2020 Headlines

Bangued Abra (June 19, 2020) Abra province’s fight against COVID19 seems is rekindling intense political rivalry the province is known for.
On the perennial political divide are the Seareses who owns the Dr. Petronillo V. Seares Sr. Memorial Hospital, the oldest private-run health facility in the province established in March 16, 1974 against the Bernoses led by Abra Governor Ma. Jocelyn Bernos with son in tow, capital town Bangued mayor Kiko Bernos.
Seares Memorial Hospital is owned by the family of former Dolores town Mayor Robert Victor “JR” Seares Jr., who ran against Gov. Bernos in the gubernatorial race in 2019.
Gov. Bernos had placed the hospital on lockdown since June 5 after a staff of the hospital tested positive of COVID19. Then another one who visited the hospital tested positive of the disease.
But administrators of the Seares Memorial Hospital are pressing the provincial IATF led by Gov. Bernos to lift the medical facility’s “lock-down” and let them join the COVID19 battle.
The cases (5 already), especially the most recent cases were unfairly attributed to alleged breaches in the said medical facility, the hospital believed.
Seares Memorial Hospital representative Dr. Voltaire Seares said, “we want to believe that the hospitals lockdown is not politically motivated.
We want to believe that our current leaders are capable and responsive, willing to listen to constituents, willing to forget political affiliations, especially during this time of crisis, all for the benefit of the Abreños.”
“The hospital is an essential service and it will be a great disservice to the people of Abra if we won’t help them fight this pandemic.” He reiterated, “This is not the time for politics.
Our family’s old tradition of wielding the Hippocratic Oath to heal the sick is deep in us and we remain to willingly join the province’s fight against the disease,” former Mayor JR Seares, a very close ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, said.
After being COVID19-free in April and May, Abra recorded its fourth case on June 5, with its first medical front liner to be infected — a 32 year old female nurse (AC4) from the Seares Memorial Hospital.
On June 11, yet another medical front liner – a 27 year old female government nurse (AC5) under the health department’s Nurse Deployment Program (NDP) turned out positive.
“AC5” is from Bucloc town but is assigned in Licuan-Baay town. She accordingly passed by her grandmother’s room at the Seares Memorial Hospital, which made her one of the close contacts of “AC4”.
But according to Dr. Seares, AC4 who remains isolated in an isolation facility of the hospital within the compound, has undergone another round of test and turned out negative, bewailing how the hospital is being pinpointed as the source of Covid infection.
The medical doctor raised, “what is the purpose of total lockdown if there is no mass testing?
How come other hospitals all over the world are operating in spite of having patients in their hospitals?”
It appears; he added that the (Seares Memorial Hospital) is being blamed although contact tracing shows that some of the cases who tested positive also visited other establishments and hospitals.
“No Lifting As Yet”
Abra Governor Ma. Jocelyn Bernos however maintains she is not inclined to lift the lockdown on Seares Memorial Hospital, insisting though “AC4” isolated at the compound of the hospital tested negative on her swab test twice already, “she will undergo 14 day quarantine.”
The lady governor simply shrugged off insinuations of electoral politics coming to play in the province’s battle against the disease. “No time for politics for this pandemic. There are greater problems than politics in these trying times.”
ABN Investigative Team