"Still, Lockdowns and checkpoints doesn't stop the problem."
(or: Thoughts after the second 'Enhanced Community Quarantine')
Days up to August 5, residents in Metro Manila flocked in vaccination centres, as the following day marks the the start of the strictest "Enhanced community Quarantine" (ECQ) that encompasses Metro Manila and its neighbouring provinces.
"Authorised persons" and mass transport
However, the difference between this updated ECQ to those of last year is the expanded definition of "Authorised Persons Outside Residences" (APOR) with the privilege of leaving their homes during ECQ, as per omnibus guidelines of the COVID-19 Interagency Task Force (IATF).
These APORs are consists of the following:
- health and emergency frontline services and uniformed personnel;
- government officials and employees on official travel;
- duly authorized humanitarian assistance actors;
- persons traveling for medical or humanitarian reasons, and those leaving their residence to be vaccinated (with proof of schedule), and persons availing of DFA consular services (with confirmed appointments);
- persons going to and from the airport including overseas Filipino workers carrying Overseas Employment Certificates;
- any person whose purpose of travel to the zone of destination is for work, business, or activity that is also permitted in areas under ECQ;
- and public utility vehicle operators.
- working APORs, who are reporting physically to their workplace and considered as essential workers;
- consumer APORs, or those who need to buy goods;
- and other APORs, such as those who have other essential reasons for going out, such as for their medical needs.
Non-APORs are generally refrained if not prohibited from going outside their premises, but non-APOR drivers can fetch their working APOR but must present the necessary documents at police checkpoints.
Another difference from last year's ECQ is that of allowing public transportation in the metro- but only for APORs with that of a limited capacity up to 50% by the IATF. Furthermore, the Department of Transportation also announced that vaccinated APORs can get free rides on MRT-3, LRT-2, and PNR trains during the 2 week ECQ period.
Which establishments are prohibited, allowed from operating?
Like last year's ECQ, venues such as entertainment, recreational, as well as personal care facilities are not allowed to operate on the duration of the lockdown. Hence, sports and leisure venues, tourist attractions, amusement parks, to those of massage parlors and barber shops are prohibited from operating.
On the other hand, Restaurants are allowed with a limited workforce and for take-out and delivery capacity.
***
As the Duterte administration again imposed this "Enhanced Community Quarantine" out of "controlling the virus through regulating people's movement", it is not suprising that the regime, despite having the "capacity" to conduct scientific and medical-based procedures such as genome sequencing and necessary measures to detect and trace the anticipated threat, failed to conduct seriously; but instead choosing to treat this situation in a perspective primarily that of a "peace and order situation" such as imposing new restrictions aside from lockdowns and checkpoints.
Furthermore, the failure to strengthen the country's health service system especially in the much-needed barangays and in the provinces, has burdened further the Filipino folk while the regime as trying to downplay the situation even further. Also to think that this lockdown measure rather stunted earlier campaigns to vaccinate people especially those whose schedules for vaccination are also included in this two-week 'quarantine'.
But Duterte disregarded efforts to strengthen the health system by a vaccine-centric response, that is now proving slow and insufficient. People wanted sound means to conduct measures (contact tracing, as well as immediate treatment) and by improving public health (especially those of health workers over delayed salaries and bonuses, as well as facilities), only to found how the administration treated this in a token manner while seriously prioritising that of the armed forces, the police, and debt servicing.
Nevertheless, as the folk struggle whether for the vaccine, treatment, or for their sustenance, the government's treatment of the situation is half-hearted. Corruption continues to aggravate with bureaucrats making profits at the expense of the suffering mass. Health workers continue to languish while establishments as either closed, laborers again entrenched or booted out, or in case of capitalists-seeing the stock market crashed during the announcement. But, this so-called "measure", regardless of what authorities imposed upon doesn't stop people from looking for means of sustenance as new restrictions, not just lockdowns, drives them again into hunger as last year's ECQ. As establishments end either closed or in a limited capacity, people from all walks of life are seeking to sustain aside from relying on government subsidies and aid. The "community pantry" is even monitored by authorities as organisers obliged to coordinate with local government units if not prohibited from conducting on the basis of "not allowing social gatherings" on the duration of this "lockdown".