The Quezon City government on Sunday threatened to file charges against another manning agency for its failure to help a COVID-19-positive worker, who was waiting for his deployment overseas.
City Legal Officer Orlando Casimiro said the city government would run after the Staffhouse Manpower Office for violation of Republic Act No. 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.
“The city government will also file a complaint before the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration against the company, being a manpower agency sending Filipinos abroad,” he said.
Mayor Joy Belmonte ordered the Business Permits and Licensing Department to cancel the business permit of the Quezon City-based manpower firm.
“We won’t let this act go unpunished. The agency is putting the lives of the patients and many of our residents in danger,” she said.
“I have ordered our city legal to leave no stone unturned to guarantee that this manning agency is punished to the full extent of the law,” Belmonte added.
Left with no other choice, the patient from Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu province used public transport to travel to the Quezon City Hall and seek assistance from the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, the city government said in a statement.
The patient has been staying in Quezon City since Feb. 21 while waiting for his deployment abroad.
On March 18, he underwent RT-PCR test at Delos Santos Hospital where he joined 20 other applicants from Staffhouse.
After receiving the positive result the following day, the other residents of the house where the patient was staying asked him to leave and look for another place to stay.
The patient sought help from his manning agency, but he was told to go home.
Nowhere to go, the patient rode a public transport to the Quezon City hall and sought assistance from the DRRMO.
Upon arrival, he informed the DRRMO employees about his positive test and he was immediately brought to a quarantine facility via ambulance.
Last February, the local government sued a recruitment agency for bringing a COVID-19 positive patient to an apartment on Commonwealth Avenue without informing authorities.