By Vanne Elaine Terrazola Senator Francis Tolentino urged on March 26, Thursday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to use vacant ships as hospitals to address the overcrowding of the country’s health facilities due to COVID-19. Sen. Francis Tolentino
(Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN) Tolentino wrote DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade to propose the initial use of three passenger ships as temporary hospitals or medical facilities to help increase bed capacity needed for COVID-19 patients and decongest hospitals that are already operating above ideal circumstance. "May I request the Honorable Secretary... to immediately alleviate the situation, in coordination with the Department of Health, by providing the three passenger vessels—one for Luzon (Manila Port), Visayas (Cebu Port), and Minadanao (Davao Port), to serve as hospital ships," the neophyte senator said in a letter Tugade dated March 26. "Given that a passenger ship’s capacity can reach up to 1, 200 and since these are available now, with most of these vacant and docked the Port of Manila due to travel restrictions, allowing these vessels to be used as temporary medical facilities will address the of hospital spaces and will ease the burden of our hospitals and our health workers,” he also told the DOTr secretary. Tolentino said his suggestion was in line with the recent passage and enactment of Republic Act 11469 or the "Bayanihan to Heal as One Act,” which authorizes the President to, among others, "direct" the operation of passenger vessels for the use of health workers or to turned these into quarantine centers or temporary medical facilities He also cited as legal basis Republic Act 9295 or the “Domestic Shipping Development Act of 2004,” which states that “The State may temporarily take over or direct the operations or any vessel engaged in domestic trade and commerce, or prescribe its rates or routes of operation, in a state of national emergency and when required by public interest, under reasonable terms prescribed by it." In a statement, Tolentino said he finds the of use of ships practical. “Mas maganda gamitin natin ang mga barko na marahil ay nakadaong lang ngayon para magamit ito ng ating mga health workers bilang mga ospital at tirahan nila (It would be better to use these ships that are most probably docked at ports to serve as hospitals or houses for health workers),” he said. RA 11469 immediately takes effect after its publication today, March 26. It gives the President "necessary and proper" powers to carry out measures against the COVID-19 pandemic for three months.