Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has ordered the activation of an emergency working arrangement at the Department of Finance (DOF) to ensure the continuity of its services to the public while its Manila office is on lockdown, so it could be thoroughly disinfected as a precautionary measure to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).
Under the DOF Continuity Program, which Dominguez said was triggered upon his instruction “whenever disasters and other abnormal events occur,” alternate locations were identified for the different DOF Groups where their respective skeletal forces will temporarily hold office.
DOF workers who will not be assigned to the alternate offices will work in their homes for the duration of the lockdown.
“Under these arrangements, the DOF Building is abandoned and DOF holds office in alternate offices,” said Dominguez, who has gone under self-quarantine after learning he was exposed last week to a person who later on tested positive for COVID-19.
He said the Policy Development and Management Services Group (PDMSG) headed by Undersecretary Gil Beltran will determine the number of critical employees that can be accommodated in each of the alternate offices.
Dominguez instructed all undersecretaries to identify the critical offices and employees under their respective groups, collate the contact information of those working under them, and decide on how to issue instructions and receive outputs based on the facilities available to them.
“In view of limited working spaces, only critical employees and critical offices under each Undersecretary shall report for work in alternate offices. The rest will get instructions online and work in their respective homes,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said the following were identified as alternate offices for the different DOF Groups:
1. PDMSG, and Domestic Finance Group (DFG) which are both under Beltran: Social Security Office (SSS) office in Makati City;
2. International Finance Group (IFG) led by Undersecretary Mark Joven: Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) in Intramuros, Manila;
3. Revenue Office Group (ROG) and Corporate Affairs Group (CAG), both headed by Undersecretary Antonette Tionko: Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) office in Manila;
4. Legal Services Group under Undersecretary Bayani Agabin: National Power Corp. (Napocor) office in Quezon City;
5. Privatization and Management Office (PMO) led by Undersecretary Grace Karen Singson: Philippine Guarantee Corp. (PhilGuarantee) office in Makati City;
6. Strategy, Economics, and Results Group (SERG) headed by Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua: SSS office in Makati City; and
7. Office of the Secretary (OSEC): LANDBANK office in Makati City.
Dominguez has also ordered the DOF-attached agencies—which include, among others, the BTr and the Bureaus of Customs (BOC) and of Internal Revenue (BIR)—to thoroughly disinfect all their respective premises this weekend.
Aside from the DOF, the Office of the President at Malacañan Palace; the offices of the Senate, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) complex in Manila; Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in Pasay City; and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Mandaluyong City will also be closed for disinfection.
President Duterte earlier declared a state of public health emergency through Proclamation No. 922 to ensure that the government can best fight and contain the spread of this pathogen.
In a March 11 statement, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom said that with the number of cases in the past two weeks increasing 13-fold to 118,000 infections outside China—the epicenter of COVID-19—and the number of affected countries tripling to 114, this new strain of the coronavirus “can be characterized as a pandemic.”
However, the WHO chief added it is “a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time.”
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