Subic Bay Freeport—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) will fine a shipping agency in Olongapo City after a disembarked foreign seaman sponsored by the firm repeatedly violated safety protocols at a quarantine hotel here.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the SBMA will impose the highest penalty under the law to Thyverse Marine and Shipping Agency, which is an accredited operator in the Freeport, for being negligent in controlling its off-signer.
“We cannot tolerate any violation of health and safety protocols because our mandate is to ensure that all stakeholders in the Subic Bay Freeport adhere to the rules laid down by the IATF,” Eisma said.
“There are rules, which are for everyone’s safety, and we will see to it that they are obeyed,” she added.
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Crew Change, which manages the government’s crew-change hub in the Subic Freeport, identified the violator as Zaw Oo, a crewman who disembarked in Subic from the cargo ship M/V Voyager Elite.
Zaw Oo was quarantined at Horizon Hotel on Feb. 25, but while the crewman did not leave the hotel premises, he reportedly went out of his room several times in violation of quarantine rules.
Hotel staff also told the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) that the foreign off-signer has argued with hotel housekeepers and sometimes appeared intoxicated.
Off-signers are required to take an RT-PCR test upon arrival in Subic, then go to a quarantine hotel where they are supposed to stay inside their rooms all the time and take another confirmatory RT-PCR test five days later before they can be cleared by BOQ for release to their destination.
In a letter dated Feb. 28, Lt. Napoleon Veneracion II, commander of the IATF Crew Change One-Stop-Shop in Subic, told Thyverse president Jason Lacbain that a review of CCTV footage in the hotel indicated “that the said off-signer went out of his room several times.”
Veneracion added that Zaw Oo’s quarantine period has been set back to day one effective Feb. 28 because of the violation.
Under the rules set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), violation of health and safety protocols carries a P5,000 fine.
Eisma said she has instructed concerned SBMA departments to prepare the notice of violation and bill Thyverse Marine for the infraction.
The Subic Bay Freeport has served as crew-change hub since September last year to help ease the current congestion in Manila Bay, where merchant ships with Filipino crewmen await their turn to disembark their crew and take in fresh personnel.
Under this setup, inbound seafarers are quarantined in local hotels after their RT-PCR test.
Eisma said the SBMA insists on strict health and safety protocols to keep Subic safe for both residents and visitors. Currently, the Subic Bay Freeport has registered zero active cases of COVID-19.
