Año says 28 more BFP West Visayas relieved

June 18, 2020

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Thursday said 28 more Bureau of Fire Protection- West Visayas personnel were relieved after a COVID-19 positive personnel breached quarantine protocols in Boracay Island.

In a TV interview, Año said it is not only Fire Senior Superintendent Roderick Aguto who was relieved from post after a female BFP personnel roamed in the island for an alleged “despedida” while waiting for the result of her reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test which turned out to positive.

“Well, a total of 28 personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection Region VI were relieved of their positions and of course they are undergoing quarantine. We have formed an investigation team that is coming from the headquarters of the Bureau of Fire Protection. They are going now to Iloilo to start the formal investigation," he said.

They are placed under floating status.

"We will see what is the accountability of everyone, whether it is command responsibility of the senior officers who participated and for the other officers, what is the extent,” Año said.

According to reports  received by the DILG, the group was able to enter the island last June 12 after saying they were participants of a conference held on June 11 to 12.

The  personnel partied with 27 of her co-workers in the island from June 12 to June 14.

“When she arrived in Boracay on June 12 along with companions, she joined the other Bureau of Fire Protection personnel on Boracay. They went on a meeting and later on they had some drinking and eating and then on June 14, that was the time the result came out and she turned out positive,” Año said.

But the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said the group were not members of the Boracay Inter-agency Task Force.

Due to the incident, Año said 24 staff of the hotel, where the fire personnel went, and about nine boatmen, who transported them, will be placed under quarantine.

“We have put on quarantine also 24 staff of the hotel where they billeted. Of course, also the boatmen that service them about nine of them and some personnel of BFP, five of them stationed in Boracay,” he said.

Año said the quarantine violations they committed caused inconvenience to residents of Boracay.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat expressed disappointment over the incident as the island was just formally opened on June 16. Ella Dionisio/DMS