Membership shopping company S&R confirmed that Senator Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel III went to their grocery to shop goods one week before he was found positive to CoViD-19.
On Thursday, March 26, the supermarket chain said that they quickly launched an investigation when several witnesses saw Pimentel shopping at S&R Bonifacio Global City on March 16, 2020.
After reviewing CCTVs, they discovered that the rumors are real and Pimentel really went to buy groceries despite the reports that he already experienced body pains and flu around on March 14.
On March 18, Pimentel started to show symptoms again by having 38-degrees Celcius fever.
According to them, they already made the necessary steps to keep their employees safe by putting all the staff possibly contacted by the Senator.
They also disinfected the whole S&R BGC to assure the erasure of the possible virus left by the Senator.
“It was confirmed that the senator was at S&R BGC on March 16, 2020. CCTV footage showed him checking out at counter 13 at exactly 1:59 PM,” the statement of S&R read.
“As a result, S&R employees who were in contact with the senator were already placed in quarantine. S&R BGC also took extra disinfection steps,” they added.
“We would like to assure S&R members that we are taking measures to maintain the safety of our members. We disinfect our stores daily and ascertain that our staff is clear before work. Shopping carts and handles, front-end belts, item shelves, and registers are kept clean every single day. Our employees are constantly reminded of the safety precautions regarding the virus,” they also said.
Unlike Makati Medical Center, S&R chose not to denounce Pimentel and only said that they’re going to “respond with compassion, prayer, and service,”
Yesterday, the public was alarmed and expressed anger after Pimentel, a senator of the Republic of the Philippines allegedly violated the quarantine protocols by going to Makati Medical Center despite waiting for his CoViD-19 test results.
The camp of the Senator insisted that Pimentel was not aware of his CoViD-19 status when he visited the hospital.
Pimentel’s staff also launched a contract tracing to find the people he encountered.