Manila: The Philippine government has agreed with local leaders in central Luzon who had opposed plans to quarantine 112 Filipino peacekeepers returning from Liberia, sources say.

Authorities are now looking for an island where the 112 Filipino peacekeepers, who have been working for the United Nations in the Ebola-hit west African country, will be stationed for 21 days to be monitored for the virus, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Catapang said.

The location would serve like a resort for the peacekeepers, who will be arriving on chartered flights in two batches on November 10 and 14, Catapang said.

The issue of where peacekeepers and other overseas Filipino workers returning from Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia will be quarantined for 21 days has become a sensitive issue because the national government has not yet revealed plans or emergency measures in case one or two returning OFWs and peacekeepers are found positive of Ebola virus, sources told Gulf News.

The retuning peacekeepers, who were drawn from the military and the police, are expected to comply with the military’s order for isolation.

It is not known if civilian OFWs returning from West Africa would comply with such an order, one source who requested for anonymity said.

Earlier, the Armed Forces said the Filipino peacekeepers will be billeted at the Philippine Peacekeeping Operations Centre (PKOC) inside a military camp in Capas, Tarlac province, 100 kilometres north of Manila.

The military’s Mechanised Infantry Division and Training and Doctrine Command are also based in the same military camp.

Last week, mayors of Tarlac and members of Tarlac provincial board issued a resolution that rejected the government’s plan, saying they were concerned about the safety of fellow residents.

The local government of Tarlac has yet to launch an education campaign on Ebola, the board said, adding there were not enough experts to handle Ebola patients in the region.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) in northern Luzon also insisted that the government’s plan to quarantine peace keepers and OFWs in northern Luzon “could affect business and tourism in the region,” PCCI regional head Rene Romero said.

The returning Filipino peacekeepers could be quarantined in an island with low population, Romero suggested, adding the Philippines is composed of 7,100 islands.

Local government officials also expressed fears that the Philippine military camp in Capas will be continuously used as a quarantine site, said Romero.

President Benigno Aquino was the one who advised local government units about plans to set up a quarantine centre inside Tarlac’s military camp, confirmed Mayor Antonio Rodriguez of Capas.

The 5,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita (a sugar plantation) that is owned by the family of President Aquino is based in Tarlac.

As of now, the Filipino peacekeepers are healthy. “We hope that not one of them will test positive for the Ebola virus,” said Col. Roberto Ancan, head of the Philippine Peacekeeping operations Centre in Tarlac.

The chartered flight of the Filipino peacekeepers will land at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga, central Luzon, another source said.

A total of 3,759 Filipinos are based in West Africa, 1,979 of them are OFWs in Sierra Leone; 880 in Guinea; and 900, including the peacekeepers, are based in Liberia, the labour department said.

Some 4,922 people, mostly from West Africa, have died from Ebola, the World Health Organisation said.