MANILA, 25 April 2003 - In its strongest action yet to keep the dreaded SARS disease from spreading, the government yesterday said Filipinos and foreigners alike who evade health inspections and submit false health data will face criminal charges.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said those who violate quarantine orders will also face punishment.
"We must now impose stringent yet humane measures to contain this threat," she said in a statement. "Those who willfully evade health checks at our ports of entry or who falsify their health data will be charged for violations of the law."
Arroyo issued the announcement as the Philippines began feeling the impact of the global scare, with some foreign governments including the country in its list of "risk" areas.
Yesterday, Libya indefinitely put on hold the hiring of Filipino workers over fears it could be hit by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome creeping around the globe.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it had been notified by the Libyan Embassy in Manila that no airline is allowed to transport Filipino workers bound for Libya.
Any OFW who attempts to defy the ban will be turned back at their own expense, the Libyan Embassy told the DFA.
Foreign Undersecretary Jose Brillantes said the government would ask Tripoli to reconsider the ban, stressing that the Philippines remains among those countries not severely affected by the disease.
Brillantes suggested that OFWs bound for Libya could be issued a certificate giving them a clean bill of health.
"Because of this certification, Libya might find it possible to remove any kind of restriction or any kind of ban on workers who are clearly not SARS infected," Brillantes said.
Some 50 Filipinos late Wednesday were barred from boarding a Libyan-bound carrier, airport officials said. Two of them had been working for a Libyan oil firm for more than a decade and had just returned for a vacation here. There are about 1.3 million Filipinos living or working in the Middle East.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said that the Philippines would lodge a strong protest against any country that bans the travel of Filipinos or which prohibits travel to the Philippines for the reason that the Philippines is a "SARS-infected country."
"There is no medical or factual basis for anyone to discriminate against travelers coming from or going to the Philippines," he said.
"The extraordinary efforts taken by the Philippines, in coordination with other countries and international organizations to prevent the spread of SARS have been clearly successful and the results speak for themselves," Ople said. "Because of our early actions and the dedicated efforts of our officials, particularly our health workers and those who guard the entry points to the country, there have been no confirmed local transmission of SARS."
Ople said the Philippines is prepared to address any outbreak of SARS, adding that "even if there should be a possible SARS infection, we have measures and resources in place to ensure that it will be contained and that inbound and outbound travel will continue to be generally safe."
The Philippines has not reported any confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, but authorities fear a nurse may have spread it when she returned from Canada earlier this month and died of pneumonia April 14. Her 74-year-old father died Tuesday, probably from colon cancer, but he is also considered a SARS suspect because of contact with his daughter.
Arroyo said she will soon issue an executive order to consolidate an anti-SARS campaign and strengthen government agencies' capacity to deal with the threat.
Another three people who came in contact with the nurse were being monitored in a Manila hospital, and about 250 relatives, friends and neighbors were asked to undergo a voluntary quarantine in her hometown of Alcala in Pangasinan province, 150 kilometers (95 miles) northwest of Manila.
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said none of those under observation showed symptoms of SARS and "they are most probably not going to become new cases."
Dayrit said a Manila hospital technician who took X-rays of the nurse was also quarantined after she developed a fever. The technician, considered a suspected SARS case, was given antibiotics for a bacterial infection she contracted before she came in contact with the nurse, Dayrit said.
The health chief also defended the strict regulations against those lying about a fever or a cold, saying the measures were necessary, "otherwise the hysteria would build up beyond the capacity of the system to respond and all of us would suffer." (With inputs from agencies)
