Cagayan de Oro City Hall is willing to help within its means the city´s neighbor Iligan City in housing their arrivals provided they also do their part in handling their COVID-19 cases, Mayor Oscar Moreno said Tuesday noon (Aug. 18). 

“I told (some Iligan City officials) that Cagayan de Oro City is willing to help provided nga molihok din sila (that Iligan City is also doing their part). It´s like when your neighbor´s house is on fire. You can easily pack your belongings and let them fend for themselves but wouldn´t it be better if you help in putting out their fire (so it won´t reach your house?),” Mayor Moreno said during Tuesday noon´s press briefing.

Mayor Moreno confirmed that he met with some Iligan City officials last Monday who asked for the city´s assistance in housing their arrivals. The meeting came even as Mayor Moreno said Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) chief implementor Carlito Galvez Jr. and Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) chief Martin Andanar were invited to attend Wednesday noon´s (Aug. 19) press briefing.

Mayor Moreno said Galvez and Andanar´s visit may have something to do with reports about the recent spike in local COVID-19 cases in Iligan City which rose to more than 60 as of this month. Mayor Moreno previously offered the city´s aid in housing the arrivals of both Iligan City and Misamis Oriental.

There were reports that Iligan City Hall is considering to ask the city government to allow them to house their arrivals at some of the city´s hotels and accommodation establishments.

“Aside from sharing the city´s best practices in handling our returning Kagay-anons and local positive cases, I offered to help them house their arrivals since Iligan City will handle their COVID-19 patients themselves,” Mayor Moreno said.

Mayor Moreno said accomodations for Iligan City´s arrivals can be provided by the city through proper management´ and handling.

“We must remember that even if most of our COVID-19 positive cases were arrivals, it doesn´t necessarily mean that all of them are positive,” Mayor Moreno said.

What´s important, Mayor Moreno said, is to ensure that Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC), the designated COVID-19 referral hospital in northern Mindanao, is not overwhelmed with a surge of COVID-19 cases from all over Region 10. This is done, he said, by confining arrivals in isolation units or housing positive cases in the city´s temporary treatment management facility (TTMF) to prevent them from infecting others until they test negative of coronavirus.