MARIVELES Mayor Jocelyn Castaneda said on Thursday there is no coronavirus in her municipality, much less in the Freeport Area of Bataan.
The lady mayor in a news briefing that there is no truth to the raging reports of a worker who refused to go to work or had been refused entry to a factory at the FAB because of possible coronavirus.
Reports of coronavirus scare swept Mariveles town particularly since this industrial town has the most number of Chinese nationals many of whom are working at the nearby GN Power Coal-fired power plant in Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.
Roberto Racelis, vice president for community relations at GN Power said about 1,000 Chinese nationals are employed at the coal-fired power plant.
“Many of them are holding supervisory and technical positions,” Racelis said. He said no Chinese workers ever contracted coronavirus.
Atty. Jose Michael Operario, legal consultant of the office of the mayor of Mariveles, said the municipal government had been closely coordinating with Engr. Emmanuel D. Pineda, chairman and administrator of the Authority of Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) with regards to the status of Chinese employers and workers at various FAB factories.
“There are companies that are yet to be informed of proper protocol and sometimes they don’t know what to do,” Operario said.
He said the municipal government is also aware of the fact that a number ships and cargo vessels from different part of the continent are seeking are anchored in Mariveles port and thus protocol should be established and defined with the AFAB authorities.
