WITH four Covid-19 cases and hundreds of “persons under monitoring” (PUM), the Lanao del Sur provincial government-imposed quarantine measures more draconian than in the days when fighting raged to regain control of Marawi City from Daesh-inspired Maute gunmen raged three years ago.
Col. Jose Maria Cuerpo, chief of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, said checkpoints manned by health workers, the PNP and soldiers will stop vehicles at the provincial boundaries to check on the residents.
“Non-residents are advised to turn away. The measure covers NGOs and aid agencies unless they have informed us,” Cuerpo said,
He said they have advised NGOs and aid agencies that they cannot go inside the province to monitor their projects.
According to the Department of Health’s latest medical bulletin dated March 27,2020, there are four Covid-19 cases and one death in the province.
The bulletin shows there were 28 “persons under investigation” (PUI) and 2,017 PUMs under home quarantine.
Bangsamoro Transitional Assembly member Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson of the Lanao del Sur anti-Covid 19 Task Force, said they have directed residents to stay in their homes but they may be allowed to go out on errands if they have “quarantine home pass.”
Adiong said one family is entitled to one vehicle with the driver sitting in the front and the passenger at the back for “social distancing”.
“Our quarantine measures are more draconian today compared to the Marawi siege three years ago. This time we are more stricter,” Adiong said.
He said they have also discouraged the holding of congregational prayers in all mosques in the province.
For Marawi residents living in various temporary shelter cams around the city, Covid-19 is another hardship they have to endure.
64-year-old Habib Ismail has taken to sleeping in his makeshift kitchen, the only way he can practice “social distancing” to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 among his family of six .
“I am scared. I heard the virus is very contagious,” Ismail said.
His temporary house in Barangay Sagonsongan, Marawi City measures around 24 square meters (258 square feet)—the size of a pickup truck.
“But I have to protect my family,” Ismael said.
Ismail said there is a growing concern spreading in evacuation sites outside Marawi, where hundreds of families have been living a hand-to-mouth existence since Islamic State-linked militants seized the once-scenic city in 2017.
He said the uneasiness is growing especially when they heard reports that hundreds of residents were place under home quarantine.
Ismail is also worried about sanitation in their temporary camp in Sagonsongan, where clean water was a perennial problem for an estimated 1,000 families living there.
He said at best, a couple of trucks deliver water every week to the households. (Froilan Gallardo)
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