ILOILO City – As a precautionary measure from the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD), eight Chinese workers who went on vacation in China are temporarily barred from coming back to work at a coal-fired power plant in Concepcion town, Iloilo province.
“They can’t come back until the situation has normalized,” said Maricris de Guzman Cabalhin, vice president for corporate affairs of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC).
“The PCPC has issued guidelines and preventive measures to be strictly implemented in our power plant,” Cabalhin.
Cabalhin said that the eight Chinese workers flew back to mainland China last month for the Chinese New Year celebration.
“With flight cancellations, they can’t also come back to the country,” Cabalhin added.
PCPC’s act to temporarily bar the return of the workers for its sub-contractor was a result of the request made by Mayor Raul Banias, who wants to ensure that the town remains free from 2019-nCoV ARD.
To recall, PCPC has retained the services of NEPC Power Construction Corp., a Chinese firm that built the 135-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant and still backs up Filipino workers in maintenance work.
Meanwhile, there are currently 75 Chinese workers at PCPC’s power plant in Concepcion.
Cabalhin reiterated the remaining Chinese workers at the site did not have any recent travel.
“We can confirm that our power plant facility has remained to be nCov-free,” Cabalhin added. (Tara Yap)