Covid stories at Luisas Cafe

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY -- I had a night of spirits Tuesday when the drinking ban was lifted with some old-timers at Luisas Café, the undisputed media hangout here along Session Road.  

Discussion turned spirited when someone remarked Baguio and Ilocos Region top officials agreed to open their borders to tourists. Roland “Chongloy” Wong, proprietor of Luisas didn’t indulge in the spirits but said it was high time places start opening up their economies.

He noted the economy has gone down due to the Covid-19 pandemic and local government may need to balance the dilemma of boosting the economy while addressing rising cases of Covid-19.

Most agreed but were of the opinion that the public must take precaution and accept the fact that we may have to live with the virus for years -- like HIV, dengue or other contagious diseases.      

Others noted some government Covid regulations have become “comical and overacting.”

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One said if you are below the PNB near Luisas and you want to go in, you cannot go up the sidewalk which is only around 10 steps away. You have to go up Session Road at the other side of the road then go down just to go to the place, one said.

Another noted the resourceful ones walk on the road pretending to wait for a ride and when they are beside the resto, they go in.

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I related my share of – I’ll just call it stupidity. I was driving the car one Saturday afternoon and stopped beside Luisas to give copies of the Northern Philippine Times to be sold in the resto.

A cop suddenly accosted me saying I had to leave. I told the lawman I’ll just give the copies to the cashier. He told me I couldn’t do that. Even for a few seconds? I asked him. He told me the law is the law and I had to leave since the area is a loading and unloading zone.

I was unloading newspapers and it would only take a few seconds, I told him. He just shook his head and motioned me to drive down, saying I could park down the road or elsewhere before returning to the resto.

I had to go down the road, go up General Luna then to Upper Mabini and park at the Joem parking building then back to Luisas to give the copies. Oh well.

Time and gasoline wasted. You don’t argue with a cop nowadays. If it happens again, well … maybe, I’ll just have to shake my head considering having mananita even if it is banned is a privilege of the few high up there with positions of power.     

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So back to the session of spirits. One said visitors to Baguio should be forewarned that one can only go up Session road passing the right sidewalk. To go down, one has to use the left side. You make a mistake going down the wrong side of the road if you alight from a taxi, he said, you could be subjected to forced exercise.  

There are a lot of Covid stories up here in this once City of Pines now turning into a concrete jungle. But for now, we will leave it at that and talk about other matters.      

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Former Pampanga lawmaker and pulmonologist Anna York Bondoc has warned two Covid rapid antibody test kits banned in some countries are now being used in the country.

Bondoc said SD Biosensor and RapiGen Inc. from South Korea had been banned in the US, United Arab Emirates and India because of inaccuracies in detecting the virus.

She said several hospitals and clinics have purchased the test kit brands.

Bondoc said rapid antibody testing is “highly inaccurate.”

The Dept. of Health had earlier said only test kits approved by the Food and Drug Administration and validated by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine should be used. 

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Sen. Imee Marcos has castigated the Civil Service Commission for allegedly abetting high unemployment amid the Covid-19 pandemic by failing to certify applicants eligible for thousands of government jobs that have been left vacant for years.

Marcos, who will sponsor the CSC budget for 2021, said more than 269,000 permanent government positions were left unfilled in 2019, with almost 178,000 still vacant at the end of August this year.

“When government positions are left unfilled, the unused budget for hiring personnel are later declared as yearend savings. These suspicious savings become bonuses divvied up among agency officials,” she said in a press statement.

Marcos cited that some P7.6 billion from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) in the 2020 budget remains unused to hire new personnel in various government agencies.

Internal wrangling among CSC board members and a passive attitude in taking government agencies to task were complicating the delay in filling up vacant government posts, Marcos added.

“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Ceasefire and work, serbisyo muna (service first),” Marcos said.

“The CSC will have difficulty justifying its proposed budget for next year if no initiatives are made for better housekeeping,” Marcos warned. 

Marcos recommended that the CSC fast-track a policy that makes contractual employees eligible for government jobs that they have performed for years but from which they could not claim commission-certified salaries and benefits.

“The government must stop being the biggest promoter of end-of-contract employment. Let’s stop treating contractuals as mere supplies whose salaries are taken from funds for miscellaneous and other operating expenses,” Marcos said. 

Marcos added that idle funds for government posts that continue to remain vacant should be removed from proposed agency budgets and instead be used to increase funding for the government’s pandemic response measures.