MANILA – Presidential Security Group (PSG) Chief, Col. Randolph Cabangbang said on Wednesday that they are wondering why the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) tests conducted by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) among PSG employees yielded false positives.
This comes after President Rodrigo Duterte declared in a public address on September 20 that PRC laboratories have executed many false-positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
According to him, 187 of the 213 PSG personnel tested positive in the PRC-Manila lab but negative in their confirmatory test.
Duterte then urged the Department of Health (DOH) to investigate the incident because it could put more people in danger.
Cabangbang stated that he is not in a position to criticize the PRC’s Covid-19 testing, but that it is impossible to imagine that so many of their employees tested positive when they were showing no symptoms.
“We are not in the position to question bakit ganun kasi hindi naman natin alam yung technical aspect ng kanilang pagkukuha. But because sinasabi nga nila marami daw and para sa akin, it will be more difficult for us to just accept na marami nga. So nagpa–reswab nalang kami (how it happened because we do not know the technical aspect of their testing. But because they said there were many positives and for me, it will be more difficult for us to just accept that there a lot. So, we decided to under another swab test) only to find out negative,” he said in an interview with reporters.
He said that requiring many PSG personnel to undergo quarantine was out of the question.
“Kasi pagka nagpositive ka itatali ka na kaagad e. Pero in our case, it is very difficult at saka hindi siya pupuwede mangyari sa amin na ganun because pag mag positive ka ng 180, ang ika-quarantine mo is times three. So that will mean na ubos na yung tao mo. Wala ka nang gagamitin pang security (Because if you test positive, you’ll be tied up. But in our case it is very difficult and it cannot happen because if 180 personnel are positive, you’re doing to quarantine times three. So that will mean you’ll run out of people. You can’t use anyone for security). We cannot just accept that,” he added.
PRC Chairperson and Senator Richard Gordon stated that the humanitarian group is open to scrutiny because they have always disclosed test results to the Department of Health and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
He said that the PRC even created a software program to speed up data transfer.
Meanwhile, Cabangbang stated that all PSG personnel, particularly those who must engage with the President, are subjected to antigen testing on a regular basis and RT-PCR testing every 48 hours.
To secure the President’s safety, he noted that they are also following minimal public health regulations such as wearing face masks, hand washing, and physical distancing.
