Raise the red flag

THE decision of President Duterte to ease the quarantine level in Metro Manila and other neighboring provinces to General Community Quarantine should be viewed as a positive step towards restoring our ambushed economy since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

That’s the good news. Now comes the bad news. The announcement is being perceived the wrong way by communities under Modified General Community Quarantine, like Pangasinan.

The apparent lax atmosphere everywhere poses a serious threat to the gains earned by our towns and cities in the past six months. A red flag alert must be raised all over Pangasinan if we are to preserve the largely safe environment we have established.

Let there be a loud, urgent reverberating call from our local government leaders, from the barangay level, to assume a more guarded stance against the growing laxity like what the Metro Manila Mayors Council unanimously agreed to do – to keep the 8 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew, to pass ordinances that penalize and punish pasaways who don’t wear face masks and violate the social-physical distancing rule.

Gov. Amado Espino III, the provincial board and Liga ng mga Barangay should do as much if not more if we want to keep their towns and cities to remain COVID-free.

Let there be no mistake. At this stage of the war vs. COVID-19, the burden and responsibility to keep the campaign to protect communities now lie in the hands of local government officials, no longer the national government’s IATF.

 

Landmark decision

THE Supreme Court has just made a landmark decision hitting at the core of human rights, in the process dealing a jarring blow against cynics heaping doubts on its independence when confronted with President Duterte’s war on drugs policy.  In a historic 11-3 verdict, the High Court declared as illegal police actions against person/s perceived dealing in drugs based solely on an anonymous tip.  The tribunal said confiscated drugs could not be used as evidence if it was “tainted” by a violation of the accused’s rights.  “When the Constitution is disregarded, the battle against illegal drugs becomes a self-defeating and self-destructive enterprise.  A battle waged against illegal drugs that tramples on the rights of the people is not a war on drugs; it is a war against the people,” said Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, the verdict’s author. Now who said our court of last resort has become incapable of pro-people action?

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