MANILA, Philippines — The Marikina City government on Tuesday announced that it is set to open a local COVID-19 testing center even without Department of Health accreditation to address the public health emergency immediately.
Marikina Mayor Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro, citing the law, invoked local autonomy and said that they are willing to face legal action from the Health department if necessary. The city will operate its local testing center on Friday.
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“Willing kami kung anumang legal case o meron silang kaso na ibibigay samin (We are willing to confront a legal case or any case they’ll have against us). But we will, at this point, invoke our local autonomy and health services to the whole function,” Teodoro told reporters Tuesday.
Section 16 (General Welfare) of the Local Government Code states:
“Every local government unit shall exercise the powers expressly granted, those necessarily implied there from, as well as powers necessary, appropriate, or incidental for its efficient and effective governance, and those which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare.”
Among the functions that local governments are required to ensure and support in their respective territorial jurisdictions under the said provision is to “promote health and safety.”
“We could exercise the necessary incidental and appropriate powers in order to promote to ensure effective governance in the promotion of public health,” Teodoro said.
“At hinihingi rin ito sa Proclamation 922 na pupuwede naming i-manage (This is also what Proclamation 922 demands, that we manage) effectively and efficiently all the resources we have, exercise all the authorities necessary in order to effectively combat the spread of coronavirus.”
The State of Public Health Emergency declaration, as stated under Proclamation 922, “would capacitate government agencies and LGUs to immediately act to prevent loss of life, utilize appropriate resources to implement urgent and critical measures to contain or prevent the spread of COVID-19, mitigate its effects and impact tot he community, and prevent serious disruption of the functioning of the government and the community."
As of Monday afternoon, Marikina has seen a total of 59 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the city’s public information office.
Teodoro said that the Health department failed to assess its new testing facility despite multiple attempts to coordinate with them.
“The DOH has been contacted several times by the city government for it to check the new facility, but its team did not arrive.”
On Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte said he "will take the risk" and ordered the "immediate" purchase of rapid test kits for the new coronavirus.
The DOH earlier warned that rapid test kits can produce false positive and false negative.
The country's Food and Drug Administration earlier said trained health professionals should evaluate and interpret the results of rapid test kits.
"We have to be very cautious is using these rapid test kits because they measure antibodies and not the viral load itself. The body takes time to develop antibodies and this might give a negative result for patients who have been infected but bodies have not yet developed antibodies," FDA Director General Eric Domingo earlier said.