Personal interpretation or lack of common sense?

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY --  Ahead before the enactment of RA 11469 or the “Bayanihan To Heal As One Act”, I commented in a messenger group chat for media that there will be funny and sad stories to tell, in relation to the interpretation of the new law and implementation of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

            The good news, as reported on TV is that the lockdown on March 15, 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak led to big drops in air pollution across Luzon, particularly in Metro Manila. According to the DENR, data analysis showed levels of toxic pollutants falling because traffic remained off the roads. The Earth's Ozone layer started healing itself. Consider this an act of God, a blessing in disguise of a pandemic.

On a personal note, I find the ECQ very helpful to people who, without the lockdown, would not be with their families today. Just sitting idly at home for 15 days drives us a little crazy that we now look for things to do. True, I found myself fixing things that have been left untouched for the past years. As for the kids, they found time cleaning garden weeds, something they never thought of doing before.

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 As we go through the last days of the ECQ, we are confronted with the sad experiences of people directly involved in the fight against an unseen enemy, the latest of such was the incident that transpired at a police checkpoint at the vicinity of the Hotel Supreme along Magsaysay Avenue at around 6pm of Wednesday, March 29, 2020.

             In his story on Facebook, Pakol Bagano whom I understand is a nurse-frontliner in the fight against COVID-19 said, the van that was assigned to ferry them to and from their hospital duties was stopped at a checkpoint near Hotel Supreme. He said, they readily admit that they were at fault because the shuttle service given to them by the hospital was full, which could pass as a violation of the physical distancing requirement.

            But what was agonizing was the way the policeman on duty enforced what he thought was the right thing to do by shouting at the driver and ripping the tarpaulin-poster on the van that identified them as medical workers.

After that, the policeman asked the hospital personnel to get down from the shuttle service and ordered the driver to go away, leaving his passengers behind who had no other choice but walk home. This, evenwhile the policeman knew that the health workers were very tired from a long day’s work. On top of that, one of the health workers is pregnant.

To make the situation worst, the medical workers noticed that police vehicles stopped to ask civilians waiting for rides where they were going but deliberately avoided the health workers dressed in hospital attire. Clearly, they felt discriminated upon, Pakol Bagano said.

            Almost everytime, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) spokesperson announces during their televised briefing that health workers should be protected, following the incident where a group of five splattered bleach all over the face of a worker of St. Louis Hospital in Tacurong City, Friday last week

            This prompted the DOH and the IATF to tell the PNP to “apply the full might of the law against those who dare to harm health workers.” However, what was happened at the Supreme Hotel checkpoint incident was a misplaced interpretation of the IATF order since it was a PNP personnel who allegedly “violated” it.

I do not have the words to describe the acts perpetrated by our own policemen against the people they have sworn to protect and assist. Maybe the wrong implementation of the IATF orders were personal interpretations of the law, lack of common sense or ignorance. I do not know. What is certain is that justice should be accorded our health workers who at a time when they are there to fight for us against an invisible enemy, they are being ostracized and discriminated instead.

            I was told Baguio City Police Office director Col. Allen Rae Co was already informed about the checkpoint incident near Supreme Hotel. This gives us hope that he will push for an investigation, anyway all good deeds as well as wrong actions that his field policemen do are reflections of him and that of PNP Chief Gen. Archie Gamboa in particular, or reflections of the BCPO or PNP in general.

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Orders from above do not trickle down to the people on the ground as quickly as needed. There are those who believe that bureaucratic routes have snagged the fight against COVID-19. Or sometimes, the IATF response to the concerns of the grassroots are too slow because decision-making is too centralized. There is a big chance that if solutions remain slow, the number of COVID-positive patients will continue to rise.

             In times of emergencies such as earthquakes, typhoons, and the fight against COVID-19, centralized decision-making delays the response which is supposed to be quick. In fact, it was only recently that the DOH central office and IATF decided to have a nationwide testing which should have been thought of earlier. Although of course, there are valid reasons for not doing so.

            In a dialogue post on social media, Baguio mayor Benjie Magalong mentioned something about the bureaucratic delays that are affecting quick responses to emergencies.    To an extent, the mayor knows that the success or failure in the fight against the pandemic depend on the decisions of leaders on the national level, and whether such decisions are implemented correctly by their people on the ground because the people down there are the ones directly affected by the rules and guidelines that are handed down, not the people in Malacanang.

            Understandably, this may have urged him to move faster, especially on the means of testing who are affected by the unseen virus by installing at the Baguio General Hospital the Huawei Artificial Intelligence CT Scan System, a diagnostic system that would help our doctors identify faster highly suspicious COVID19 cases.

Paired with that, the mayor authorized contact tracing of presumptive cases ahead of confirmation from the DOH-Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for people who may have possibly come in contact with COVID-19 individuals. We know that confirmatory tests take days, so that early contact tracing should be done to identify people and prevent them from spreading the disease before it is too late.  That is moving ahead or jumping over the snags caused by bureaucracy and red tape which is good.

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            There are reports of complaints about the distribution of relief packs and amelioration fund for those who deserve it. Chances are, these can be “stolen” while they are being downloaded because there is no feedback mechanism to tell the central government that the goodies were actually received. What Malacanang can depend on are the reports on paper that are sent to them from the ground. But Du30 will never know if Juan and Maria really received the goodies and the cash.

             Inconsistencies pa more! Last week, DOH Usec. Maria Rosario Vergeire wore a red band on her arm which signified her support for frontline medical workers in fight against COVID-19, and urged the public to do the same.

Lately, the PNP came up with a poster on social media warning that people with red bands are supporters of the CPP-NPA. The question in this time of emergency is: Which agency is acting on its own and not coordinating with the DOH, the lead institution in the fight against the pandemic?  

In about a week from now, the ECQ will end if the IATF will not find reasons for extending it. The latest move of Baguio is to prepare its constituents to go back to their activities even while the fight against COVID-19 continues. But as of now, what ordinary people like us can do to help in the fight is to stay home.