Constant assessment, more options needed

IT is very reassuring to see the provincial government complying fully with the directives of the national government to secure the health of its constituents vis-à-vis efforts to contain possible spread of infection of the CoVid-19 by an unknown carrier in our midst.

There is no saying or knowing, indeed, if one is a carrier or not unless verified by tests that unfortunately can only be verified by a laboratory outside the country.

However, it is also reassuring that since the news of the breakout in December 2019, the country has not seen any indication that residents in the country are easily infected by the virus. Perhaps, it’s the hot climate in the country that we often complain about but now serves as our main defense against CoViD-19 virus.

In this light, it’d be instructive for our provincial government to constantly review and assess the situation to determine what other alternatives there are that will enable our communities to resume their normal social activities the soonest possible time.

Consider calling in our efficient barangay health workers to the front, to be trained how to detect and handle residents with symptoms while protecting themselves.  Only they can give our local government factual assessment of the residents’ health on the ground.

Another is to set up a monitoring system to track recent travelers in their communities, and direct BHWs to check on their health.

These two options can also tame panic even if fake news abound.

Calida off course?

ISN’T Solicitor General Jose Calida out of line this time?  By bringing his “quo warranto” petition to the Supreme Court asking the High Court to cancel the ABS-CBN 25-year franchise (it lapses on March 30), Calida could be off course. Barking up the wrong tree. It is Congress that grants franchises and not the Supreme Court.   Quo warranto is Latin for “by what warrant or authority?” and lawyers use it to challenge an individual’s right to hold a public or corporate office or to revoke a corporation’s charter. Calida was successful in using quo warranto in the ouster of SC Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno two years ago.  But against ABS-CBN, Calida could be firing a dud as the media giant got its franchise from Congress; logic dictates that only Congress may recall/revoke/renew it.  Was the high court being merely polite as to entertain Calida’s case?  Baffling, indeed.

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