Emano dares Lina to ease him out as mayor

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Mayor Vicente Emano yesterday dared Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jose Lina Jr. to suspend him after passing an ordinance that bars a suspected SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) patient from Bukidnon to be quarantined in the city.

"The ordinances passed by the City Council must be respected even by the highest official of the land. No executive order, as far as I am concerned, is over and above an ordinance passed by a local government," Emano stressed during the weekly flag-raising ceremony at City Hall.

Malacañang earlier directed the transfer of C.O., a suspected SARS patient from Kitaotao, Bukidnon to the city to be quarantined at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC).

Sensing that C.O. could be a possible SARS patient, national health officials ordered her to be brought to this city for medical check up.

But while still on the road, this city’s police department dispatched a team, led by Senior Inspector Roel Toga, to stop the ambulance from entering the city premises.

Toga said they were only following a city ordinance barring suspected SARS from the city.

The impasse was only broken when Police Regional Office X (PRO-10) director Chief Superintendent Manuel Raval and other policemen from the PRO-10 arrived and took custody of the patient.

Emano explained that while he understand the need for collaborative effort to defeat the disease, the welfare and the lives of the people of Cagayan de Oro should not be out in danger.

"We understand the problem. We would like to defeat this particular disease but to do this, we should not gamble with the lives of the people, my people in the city of Cagayan de Oro, by putting their lives at risk," he said.

Emano also criticized health offcials Dr. Marietta Fuentes, director of the Department of Health for Northern Mindanao (DOH-10) and Dr. Evelyn Clarete, NMMC administrator, for allegedly insisting to put a quarantine area at the NMMC where C.O. can be treated.