A 19-year-old male bound for Jolo died from a heart attack on Saturday after being unable to leave Zamboanga City, Mayor Beng Climaco said today.
“The City Government of Zamboanga condoles with the family of the locally stranded individual (LSI) from Jolo who expired due to heart attack at a local pension house Saturday night,” the mayor said in a statement.
Climaco said that the unnamed teen, who was travelling with his father, had a history of heart disease. He arrived in Zamboanga City on June 29, and stayed in the city for five days before he succumbed to the fatal attack.
“Based on protocols, LSIs and ROFs [Returning Overseas Filipinos] from neighboring cities/provinces who are in transit or passing through Zamboanga City shall be taken cared of by their respective Local Government Units (LGUs) while in Zamboanga City,” the mayor said.
“In this case, the LSI was profiled, assessed and brought to the pension house, along with other Jolo-bound residents by the BARMM-DSWD [Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao – Department of Social Welfare and Development] representative while waiting for the travel arrangement to bring them home,” Climaco added.
Climaco said Zamboanga City’s Health Office has already “assisted and facilitated his burial,” but did not specify when it took place.
Meanwhile, the mayor said that another unidentified Jolo-bound LSI who was passing through the city and staying at a local pension house tested positive for the coronavirus yesterday. The infected traveler is a 33-year-old woman who arrived in Zamboanga City on June 29, the same day as the teen who died of a heart attack. She has been transferred to the Ateneo de Zamboanga-Lantaka Campus, where a COVID-19 isolation facility is located.
The mayor did not say whether the pension house where the patient had stayed will be closed down, or if the travelers residing there will also need to be isolated.
Read: At least 200 passengers stranded at NAIA after airlines cancel domestic flights
Traveling during the pandemic in the Philippines has presented problems, mainly because of a lack of coordination from authorities. Early last month, hundreds of domestic passengers alone were stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after their flights were unceremoniously canceled, leaving many province-bound Filipino workers to sleep in cardboard boxes and towels laid out on the airport floor.
Reader Interactions