WOMEN’S world boxing champion Nesthy Petecio is finally back home in her native Davao after weeks of waiting for a confirmed flight.
But her ordeal didn’t end when she got that precious plane ticket for home. The boxing pride has to undergo quarantine in a designated facility in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, which she described as unfit for lodging.
“We don’t have beds. It is also very hot. I also don’t know the persons I stay with in my room,” she said.
Being quarantined is nothing new for the 28-year-old Tokyo Olympics potential. She was locked down in a Baguio City dormitory last March after flying in with fellow boxers, including Tokyo Games qualifiers Eumir Felix Marcial and Irish Magno, from the qualifiers in Jordan.
After some four months isolated at the Philippine Sports Commission training facility at the Teachers’ Camp, she and other athletes and coaches were brought to the PhilSports to be on furlough to their provinces. She underwent another round of swab tests and a two-week quarantine.
Now that she’s in Davao, she has to undergo the same process for coming in from Metro Manila, the epicenter of the Covid-19 in the country.
“My family had to wait in the quarantine area to give me food and toiletries. What is surprising is that there are no mattress or even an electric fan at the quarantine area,” she said.