Swine flu grips Philippine Congress
Swine flu has paralysed the House of pork.
The Philippine House of Representatives whose members receive pork barrel (countrywide development fund) has suspended office work for five days after reports that the country’s first swine flu-related fatality was its employee.
A 49-year-old woman was a staff member of the House committee on people’s participation, which holds office on the third floor of the Ramon Mitra building along with dozens of other committees.
She attended a seminar from June 15 to 16 at the Batasan complex in Quezon City where the House is located, and reported for work on June 17 until she fell gravely ill on June 18, according to a House official. She died on June 19.
House Speaker Prospero Nograles ordered the suspension of office work from noon yesterday until June 28 to allow the Department of Health (DOH) to sanitise all buildings in the complex and conduct contact tracing of the victim’s families and friends .
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, however, said there was no need for the House to suspend work until Sunday (June 28).
“That’s not recommended, because you’re now assuming that the person had contact with a majority of the people working there. I hope the lower house of Congress will look into these guidelines (for workplaces) and follow them. Otherwise they might be (wasting) unnecessary efforts,” he said.
Duque said testing all the 3,000 employees of the chamber for the Influenza A(H1N1) virus was unnecessary. “Why do you want to do that? I’ll talk to the leaders of the House,” Duque told reporters at a briefing.
The DOH has advised employees who have flu-like symptoms not to report for work to avoid spreading the virus.
Identified
At an impromptu general assembly at the North Wing lobby yesterday morning, Ramon Ricardo Roque, House deputy secretary general for administration, called on the employees to “pray for (our colleague)”.
Roque identified the woman but asked that her name not be published.
The employee died of a heart attack at her home in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. A throat swab after her death indicated she was infected with the virus.
Respect privacy
The announcement from the House that the deceased was one of its employees also did not sit well with Duque who had asked the media to respect the family’s privacy.
Duque is a longtime friend of the deceased’s brother.
Health authorities would not have known about the case had the woman’s brother not called up Duque asking for a postmortem swab test for the swine flu virus.
Laid to rest
Duque said he was not consulted before Roque announced that the woman was a House employee.
He said the deceased was laid to rest yesterday afternoon after the family had held a wake since the evening of June 19.
Duque said it was perfectly all right to hold a wake since a person’s remains no longer harbored any disease-causing organisms and viruses.
Senate
The Senate has yet to come up with a contingency plan amid the flu pandemic, according to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. The sessions of Congress are set to resume on July 27.
Among the senators who are still out of the country are Jinggoy Estrada, Alan Peter Cayetano, Lito Lapid and Loren Legarda.
Also out of the country are Juan Miguel Zubiri, Jamby Madrigal, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Edgardo Angara.
With reports from Leila B. Salaverria and Christine O. Avendaño
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