Senator Koko Pimentel points to his temple during remarks at the US-Philippines Society Breakfast Panel Presentation and Discussion at The Peninsula Manila last Feb. 17 2020. (Senate website)
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III broke quarantine rules when he accompanied his pregnant wife Kathryna to Makati Medical Center for a scheduled delivery Tuesday night, drawing the ire of hospital staff and netizens.
It turns out Pimentel is positive for Covid-19, which the pro-Duterte senator announced to reporters on Wednesday.
Screenshots of chat messages from angry doctors made the rounds of the internet, condemning Pimentel for contaminating the hospital and forcing exposed staff to go on quarantine, further reducing the dwindling number of hospital staff.
Pimentel claimed he did not know of his Covid-19 test results until he and his wife reached the Makati hospital. Kathryna Yu-Pimentel’s C-section was “aborted” or put on hold when doctors were informed of the result, he said.
He also claimed he did not go to the examination room with his wife, and stayed in the corridor.
But Pimentel, even when he was still a “person under investigation,” was supposed to have stayed at home and under strict quarantine, and should have maintained physical distance from his pregnant wife.
In a statement on Wednesday, March 25, the Makati Medical Center chastised Pimentel for breaching hospital protocols.
Senator Aquilino Martin Pimentel III breached MakatiMed hospital infection control protocols. pic.twitter.com/uPUVIF25Pb
— Makati Medical Center (@IamMakatiMed) March 25, 2020
Hospital medical director Dr. Saturnino Javier called out Pimentel for being “irresponsible and reckless” and said the senator’s earlier appeals for the public to observe social distancing, quarantine rules and proper hygiene were “empty rhetoric.”
Pimentel later faced Jessica Soho on GMA News’s 24 Oras, where he tried to defend himself and fellow politicians who were supposedly given “VIP” testing for Covid-19.
“Tignan ‘nyo rin naman kami, ‘pag negative kami bina-bash. ‘Pag positive naman kami, binabash pa rin. So ‘yung example ko shows na kailangan din magpatest ng mga senador natin kasi ‘yung iba nagkakasakit din naman talaga,” he said.
(Look at us, if we’re negative, we’re bashed. If we’re positive, we’re also bashed. My example shows that senators need to be tested because some really get sick.)
(PressONE.ph)