NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
A town vice mayor and a chief of police are in hot water for allegedly violating basic health protocol amidst mounting public criticism.
Jagna Vice Mayor Theodore Abrenilla and Police Chief Benedicto Tañola of the Dauis PNP are now under investigation by the Municipal Inter-Agency Task Force and the Philippine National Police respectively.
VM Abrenilla who is a physician by profession arrived at the Tubigon Port last Saturday reportedly to attend a meeting with Gov. Art Yap at the Capitol.
His arrival, together with his wife, caught public attention after the vice mayor declined to ride the Jagna ambulance dispatched to pick him up at the pier. Instead Abrenilla rode the “unauthorized” van of the town’s Sangguniang Bayan.
Aside from breaking the protocol of taking the ambulance, the Jagna vice mayor went straight to JJs Seafood Village to take his lunch instead of going straight to his designated quarantine area in Jagna town.
Aside from having lunch at a city restaurant, Abrenilla proceeded to the Capitol for a scheduled meeting with Gov. Art Yap.
The Jagna Inter-Agency Task Force will continue tomorrow its investigation even as Dr. Arnold Cagulada and MDRRMO Operation Officer Aljay Agustine Lecciones already issued their statements to the Jagna IATF last Thursday. The findings and recommendation of the Jagna IATF expected on Tuesday will determine on what formal charges will be filed against the vice mayor.
Meanwhile, the relief of Police Lt. Tañola from his post as Dauis PNP chief is expected to be followed with the formal criminal and administrative charges while public demands even for the dismissal of the police chief whose break of health protocol was traced to be the reason for the contamination of Corona virus to 12 other cops now under isolation.
Dauis Mayor Miriam Sumaylo was irked upon knowing that the police chief broke protocol by going straight to the PNP station upon his arrival from Cebu, instead of going to the quarantine area.
After the spread of the virus at the Dauis PNP, the town reached to 43 Covidpostive cases, the highest in the province.At least six barangays in the town have granular lock downs where residences of those hit with Covid-19 are located.