MANILA: The Philippines' top health and military officials were under fire Tuesday for visiting Filipino UN troops undergoing quarantine after serving in Ebola-ravaged Liberia.
More than 100 soldiers and police were confined for 21 days on an island at the mouth of Manila Bay last week, part of measures meant to ensure the Asian country remained free from the deadly Ebola virus.
However, armed forces chief General Gregorio Catapang and acting health secretary Janette Garin then apparently violated the government's own protocols with a visit to the island over the weekend, said Philippine College of Physicians president Anthony Leachon.
"It was a breach of protocol -- quarantine is an enforced isolation during the 21-day incubation period" of the virus, Leachon, who leads the country's 9,000-plus internal medicine specialists, told AFP.
"It might send the wrong signal," Leachon said.
Politicians and netizens also criticized the two officials for the visit, in which neither wore protective gear. The general was shown on television engaging in elbow bumps with the quarantined peacekeepers.
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