By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

SOMETHING doesn’t seem to make sense in Dagupan City that was recently declared a “high risk area” for COVID-19.

Within days of that declaration by the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU), the Lim administration declared the Tondaligan Beach open to families for business and swimming. Is the city government daring the pandemic to do its worse even among children? And if that is not bad enough, no one is enforcing the wearing of face masks in the area.

The beach, like the malls and public markets, invites families and friends to converge. While it is an open space where the virus theoretically is not likely to be stagnant, the COVID virus is transmissible by humans.

If this is warranted by the city’s IATF, then the officials must be made accountable.  Now that the national IATF already withdrew Resolution 125 that allowed minors to go out in public areas, will city IATF continue to ignore it?

To a certain extent, I can support the argument that families need to go out for leisure but it should be done only if the safeguards are in place, i.e., there are strict enforcers of the health and safety protocols in the area.

For instance, families must be constantly be made to be conscious that they cannot come close to other families or persons in the area beyond their family circle, and families must be reminded to wear their face masks if they are not in the water.

These are very basic measures that can prevent a spike in the transmission particularly among family members who unknowingly caught the virus in the area.

Isn’t there anyone at the city hall who fully understands what the pandemic is all about?

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HOW TO RESTART.  Efforts of local governments to restart their local economies must be fully supported.  

All establishments must be encouraged to reopen for business. Business establishment owners need to earn from customers to pay salaries of employees who have no other means but their employment. The salaries enable employees to move around with money to spend on food, medical services, education of kids, etc. Then, entrepreneurs can create employment. That’s how the economy works.  

But we are not under old normal circumstances. We are working with a new normal – to continue what we are doing but with one difference – to observe health and safety protocols to keep anyone from being infected with the virus.  

Alas, with the tolerance and little or no help from the local government officials, people are simply left to remember the protocols with no thoughts of strictly enforcing the protocols. So if the situation does not change, even if the local governments encourage the busines sector to resume normal business operations, we can expect towns and cities to remain “high risk” areas. 

Here’s a suggested shortlist of “to do“ to effectively restart the economy while keeping the contagion in check.  Basically, it’s about doing everything normal as in the past with one critical and crucial input-  Local governments must make:

1. Establishments accountable for the observance of protocols among their employees and customers.
2. Police designate marshals in business districts particularly on the streets, inside public markets and malls, that will strictly enforce the local ordinance that imposes fines and penalties for violating the protocols on a 24/7 basis.
3. The barangays have their own marshals to enforce the ordinance in their areas of jurisdiction and their officials must be made accountable for failure to enforce the protocols.

 Short of these three measures, restarting local economy will be futile.

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REMOVING TAGS AS “HIGH RISK”. Starting this issue, The PUNCH will post the box that contains updated list of “High Risk Areas” and names of their respective mayors.

We hope that this will help remind Pangasinenses of the accountabilities and duties of  mayors of “high risk areas” and this will prompt them and their mayors to act as a team and consciously work to eliminate “high risk areas” in the province.

With the Covid-Delta variant threatening to wreak havoc in the province like it is starting to do in other provinces, our mayors should do no less, and do more and all, to protect their constituents.

One thing is sure, what the mayors of “high risk areas” are doing (and not doing) today and will continue, will  change the situation. The mayors need to act not only proactively but actively on the scene to do practical problem-solving.

The medical sector already has the treatment protocol so rate of recoveries can be expected to increase. The crucial phase is to stop infection and this can only be assessed by level of efficiency of the contact-tracing teams. This is where the beleaguered mayors can start.

I say “beleaguered” because this is what their political enemies will surely pounce on when they campaign for reelection in 2022.

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ALLEGED OWNER OF TERMINAL. There is an ugly rumor about the impasse on the status of bus transportation to-and-fro Pangasinan and Metro Manila as a result of the mandatory requirement of the LTFRB that all buses must begin and end at the North Luzon Express Terminal in Bocaue Bulacan.

It is this rumor that appears to be standing in the way to the resolution of the issue. After LTFRB revealed that the odd requirement was made by the IATF, it is being made to appear that the bus transport operations have become a health issue!

The claim that the use of the Bocaue terminal by all buses from the central and northern Luzon will make crowd control more efficient for purposes of enforcing the health and safety protocols. This argument simply does not hold water because bus companies operating out of provinces in the north, don’t have single or unitary terminals but they can have effective control of their passengers from their terminals. So, IATF has no reason to compel buses to do as it pleases.

That being the case, DOTr-LTFRB cannot invoke the IATF resolution. So what’s keeping everyone from acting?  

It is the rumor that the Bocaue terminal is owned by Iglesia ni Cristo, a vote-rich religious sector. (No one has shown me a list of shareholders so it’s hard to lend credence to that).

But if INC is familiar with this rumor, it should come forward and disavow any involvement in the issuance of that controversial IATF resolution and the LTFRB rule because the requirement will hurt thousands not only of its own members residing in the central and northern Luzon in Metro Manila with relatives in the north but it adds a heavy burden to those who don’t own cars and jeeps.

And assuming it is true, the INC should seek the IATF and the LTFRB to withdraw the resolution and rule because of the negative impact of these on Filipinos. Whatever millions the terminal stands to earn on a monthly basis by renting out slots for  P100k each to bus companies as a business venture, the profits are taken from the households in the middle and lower income families, and I’m sure the INC is aware of the significance of that.

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PUNCHERS THROUGH 65 YEARS. Still remembering the men and women who lent their talents, skills and integrity in the past to make The PUNCH what it is today: Columnists:   Former Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Antonio “Bebot “Villar Jr., (Deretsahan), Camilla & Shawn Fernandez, columnists (Millennial Hub,) and Reporters: Dada Martin, Yoly Sotelo, Ging Gardinoza and Melody Valenton.

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