Davao city official quits over cockfighting issue

April 6, 2020

DAVAO CITY –Marissa Torentera, chief of the Davao City Business Permit and Licensing Division, tendered her resignation on Saturday and Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio accepted on Monday.

Torentera quit over a fallout in the holding of a multi-million cockfighting event early last month, which has emerged as the center of contagion of the 2019 coronavirus disease ( COVID-19)and whose contamination may have reached other regions.

The Department of Health here said eight persons have since died of COVID-19. It traced t eir contracting the disease from attending the cockfighting event.

Duterte-Carpio said no law has been violated, starting from the issuance on February 4 of a City Council resolution approving of the  six-cock derby and up to the issuance of the permit on March 3 after all the documents were submitted, “she {Torentera) failed to exercise her judgment”.

The event was held on March 7, 10, and 12 this year as a parallel event for the Araw ng Dabaw on March 16, but on March 8, Duterte cancelled all events to follow the admonition of the Department of Health to avoid all public gathering.

“It is, however, noted that on March 3 and 8, the Division Chief of the Business Permit and Licensing Division could have stopped the conduct of the derby and further prevented the situation from escalating, but did not vigorously act on it. It was a judgment call that was never made. This person already tendered resignation effective April 4,” Duterte said.

Cleo Fe Tabada, chief of the regional DOH’s epidemiology unit, said they have contacted 427 persons “who were at risk of exposure”.

Davao City has the highest number of contacted persons, at 139, followed by Davao del Sur, at 127. Forty-six persons have been traced to the other regions.

“The problem is that we are not even a third of the likely number of attendance there because of the multi-event,” Tabada said, adding that the total number of those who attended may be as many as 10,000.

Tabada said the interview and validation indicated clear secondary transmission.

The Davao Region has  turned up 82 Covid-19 positive cases since  last month, of which 11 have died and 21 have recovered.

Leopoldo Vega, chief of hospital of the Southern Philippines Medical Center, said this number of persons turning positive was  6.5 percent from out of the total of 1,261 persons tested between March 31 and April 4. He said none of the 160 frontline health personnel contracted the disease yet.

“If we continue to implement the interventions and the strict measures, we may likely bring down the number of transmission,” said  Lenny Joy Rivera, assistant regional DOH director.

On Tuesday, at least four localities would shift to the enhanced community quarantine, two of them locking their border down even if the entire Davao Region has locked down its boundaries on March 19.

Davao de Oro province, formerly Compostela Valley, and Tagum City, the capital of Davao del Norte, announced they would lock down their borders on Tuesday.

Davao Occidental, with the least number of confirmed infection has locked down the province since over the weekend, including Davao City, which started its ECQ on Saturday night.

Curfew here has been expanded, from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am, while Davao del Sur has been on a 24-hour curfew last week.

Duterte said she would not lock down the city borders saying that the ECQ alone has restricted movement of people. DMS