Punchline
Community transmission imminent
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
I’M afraid our provincial government may not see anytime soon the day when it can confidently proclaim that it has defeated COVID-19, or flattened the curve at the very least.
Pangasinenses, no doubt, are aware that the provincial government is doing everything to contain the spread of COVID-19 infection with its proven effective protocol in treating infected patients. The rate of recovery among infected patients is remarkable.
But all that may all be to naught.
The probability that it will be dealing with a bigger problem in the weeks ahead is already higher. I say this because our town mayors appear to have taken a leave from their duties as gatekeepers of their towns’ welfare.
Many residents are seen to have already lost their anxiety and apprehension over possible COVID-19 infection. It’s back to the old normal in the barangays where their officials already see nothing wrong with residents congregating outside heir homes without wearing face masks.
It’s a sure sign that community transmission will soon be on the rise.
Guv Pogi has to crack the whip if he doesn’t want Pangasinan to be tagged as the epicenter of COVID-19 in north and central Luzon in the weeks ahead.
It’d be useful for him to ask both the provincial DILG director and provincial PNP chief to keep a close watch over mayors and barangay kapitans who are negligent. In fact, to have one or two barangay kapitans arrested for violating the health protocol will send the signal that the Espino administration is serious about defeating COVID-19.
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DUMB PURPOSE FOR A CHECKPOINT. I passed through the police checkpoint positioned at the De Venecia Highway-Malued intersection last Thursday. There was a 300-meter-long queue of vehicles waiting to pass thru. When I finally reached the area, I saw several vehicles ahead of me being stopped by the lone cop and peered inside. I began to wonder what he was looking for.
So I got to him, he directed me to pass thru with my pass. But I stopped briefly. I had to ask what it was that he’s been ordered to check. “To check overloading of passengers in the vehicles,” the young policeman said.
I was naturally dumbfounded. I was tempted to ask further what he’d do if a family of 6 are found inside the family car, and many of whom are not wearing masks? But I decided against it because that would further hold the queue for another 30 seconds. I drove off shaking my head.
What indeed could a policeman to do in such a case? Arrest the occupants and hold the long queue while explaining and arguing with the vehicle occupants??
Meanwhile, the two cops on the motorcycle lane were smarter. Since no overloading was possible on motorcycles, they just allowed the single riders to pass through with a smile. No documents of ownership checked.
That checkpoint has the most useless, dumbest purpose. One wonders whose dumb idea was it. The police chief? The city administrator? The FOMs (friends of the mayor, he, who I’m told is too busy hiding from his constituents. It’s his cordon sanitaire that has been busy fending off personal requests for attention). If that was the only purpose the Dagupan Police Station could think of for a checkpoint, then it might as well dismantle the checkpoint, and stop delaying motorists needlessly.
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POLITICAL AGENDA. At the national front where ABS-CBN management and supporters and political allies are desperately competing for media space vs. updates on COVID-19 contagion, one cannot help but see the ultimate hidden agenda behind the emotional outcry on ABS-CBN franchise issue – still to destabilize and oust the Duterte administration via people power.
The staging of lightning protest marches and noise barrage mainly in Metro Manila, coupled by emotional appeals from the network’s popular contract artists are being orchestrated to produce an expected tipping point.
The series of attempts to compel the House of Representatives to turn around and grant ABS-CBN its lost franchise even via a ridiculous proposal to launch a People’s Initiative is certainly an indication of the level of desperation of the political opposition.
The tact is an obvious attempt is to equate the lost of ABS-CBN’s franchise to the abuses of the Marcos then the Estrada regime through emotional issues to bring about the ouster of a third president, Rodrigo Duterte.
In all past ‘oust’ movements, the LPs were squarely behind these. Perhaps believing that it’s tested template can be used again, ABS-CBN fans and their favorite entertainers are being brought out to unwittingly back their desired political end.
Unfortunately for the organizers and funders of the protest rallies, etc., the fans are not likely to easily be persuaded to get out to the streets, aware that they are risking COVID-19 infection. Worse, the rest of the country are more focused on getting ahead with their livelihood affected by the pandemic.
Out here in Pangasinan where ABS-CBN has a provincial operation, there is total indifference. It’s just as well because it’s foolhardy to even consider organizing a rally and risk COVID infection.
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HYPOCRISY OF PRO-ABS-CBN POLS. What grates on most people’s nerves is the hypocrisy of the LP and Makabayan bloc.
They loudly protested the rejection of ABS-CBN’s application for a new franchise following the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2020, saying the congressmen had their priorities wrong, acting on these during the pandemic.
Do they honestly think our legislators are incapable of multitasking? But that’s not necessarily our point here.
Today, the same political personalities are ominously quiet, not daring to warn ABS-CBN supporters about the serious risks are facing by leaving their homes to join protest rallies and marches to air their support for the disenfranchised network.
They showed themselves to be seriously concerned about government not focusing on COVID-19 on one hand but not concerned at all about the serious health risks that their supporters are facing?
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