Punchline

By June 9, 2020Opinion, Punchline

New Normal Enforcers, not contact-tracers, needed

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

 

WHETHER our national government defeats the COVID-19 with a vaccine in time or not, the transition to the new normal is inevitable. And the burden to make the transition smoothly rests with local governments.

The fact is, new normal is here. It’s already happening. And if our LGUs are not committed to make the transition effective, their communities will continue to be at serious risks.

Let there be no mistake about it. The governor and the mayors are accountable for enforcement of protocol, and how the future will affect the province will depend on how they perform today to impose discipline.

Fortunately, the provincial government already has an effective protocol for reversing COVID-19 infection on a patient. With this, Guv Pogi and the mayors can move quickly to stimulate the local economy by maximizing use of tolerated business operations backed by strict enforcement of protocols.

Under Modified GCQ, public transport is restored, more establishments allowed to open, checkpoints remain. This means, our LGUs should allow as many jeepneys and buses to move people, open as many establishments to resume business operations with one important caveat – strict implementation of protocols.

So, instead of hiring more contact-tracers as IATF is wont to suggest, our LGUs should consider hiring or empowering barangay officials (tanod and kagawad) to act as ‘New Normal Enforcers’, they who will see to the strict implementation of health protocols under the new normal:

  1. Everyone wears a mask when outside homes. 2. Public transport units limit occupancy while making sanitizers available. 3. Restaurants strictly observe physical-social distancing inside and outside their establishments while staffs wear masks and gloves. 4. Beauty parlors and barbershops require their staffs to wear gloves and masks (and PPEs), etc. 5. The checkpoints are alert watching out for travel passes.

Meanwhile, Guv Pogi can begin to synchronize and harmonize restrictions imposed by towns/cites affecting their neighbors. Left alone to impose their own restrictions without regard to plight of others to stimulate their local economy, will dampen overall efforts to make the province ahead of everyone.

It is ENFORCEMENT of protocols, not restrictive policies, is the major key to a smooth transition to new normal.

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MGCQ, NOT GCQ FOR DAGUPAN.  It didn’t help Dagupan City, therefore, for the city government to insist on remaining to a higher community quarantine status instead of availing of lesser restrictions under Modified GCQ.

Insisting on GCQ does not improve the situation in the city. Worse, it cuts itself of economic opportunities to enable its residents to get on with their lives, to transition smoothly under the new normal.

Adopting MGCQ is proactive governance; staying in GCQ is being passive allowing itself to be led by the initiatives from the national government.  

The key to efficient and smooth transition to new normal is discipline.  If discipline has not been learned during any of the CQ stages, then there is no hope for the New Normal. 

And the key to discipline is a corps of New Normal Enforcers across the province.

The key to an efficient organization of New Normal Enforcers is training and discipline from the top. 

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TECHNOLOGY AS THE NEW NORMAL. There is one activity in our daily lives that will be new normal with or without COVID-19 in the way. It’s the use and access to internet whether for family, business, medicine, professional practice, education, livelihood, governance and yes, relationships.

This will become more obvious when Huawei 5G finally makes its presence in the country.

For instance, Artificial Intelligence (AI) already makes it possible to detect and identify Covid-19 infected persons within 10 minutes – no swabbing, no waiting and necessary treatment can be employed immediately. This technology is already available in few hospitals, among them the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.  The provincial hospitals should already begin to embrace use of AI.

The changes will overwhelm the way we think and act once others begin to use it especially when the new normal dictates the use of internet for education beginning this year  – if we want Pangasinenses to excel in the 21st century.

The provincial government should already consider convening a summit on education under the new normal so a relevant and meaningful public-private partnership can be developed for the future province’s youth’s.

Given our lag in education compared to other developed countries, it may already be late in the day to adapt but still better late than never.

Another reality is the development of our communities for Smart Governance and Safe Communities using advanced technology.  We have advanced technology experts in our midst and they should already be consulted for what could be for Pangasinan in the next decade.

The likes of Wilson Chua and the Metro Dagupan ICT Community can very well help open the inroads to the new normal in advanced technology that will lead to establishment of Smart City/Towns and Safe City/Towns in governance using technology.

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HUMAN RIGHTS OVER LIVES OF INNOCENT?  The brouhaha by the political opposition and human rights groups over the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 is not the least surprising.

One need not be a rocket scientist to understand why – it’s all about money and more funding from those whose business it is to control nations.

Human rights and press freedom issues are influenced by interminable fears of, for and by the future. You can count on those two (and religion) for endless debates that can keep a nation paralyzed for ages while hard realities confront the nation.

Take for instance the recent take of the UN Commission on Human Rights on recent “clampdown” on press freedom. It finds countries that punish purveyors or fake news as an attempt at curtailment of press freedom, and the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law as a threat to human rights.

Quickly, you wonder what the UN commission would react if a story about pervasiveness of wholesale corruption inside the world agency to protect the interests of its biggest funders, becomes viral or, if terrorists bomb a number of the UN headquarters around the world.

The anti-terrorism law seeks to protect innocent lives from terrorists backed by corrupt politicians motivated by power grab.

Imagine what the country would be like today if the government had succumbed to the pressure and call of the opposition and their network to stop the drug war invoking human rights as their righteous weapon.

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