Where are our quarantine passes?
This is the question asked by Dumaguete households who have to share the rare passes with 10 other households, as the City reversed its decision to produce more passes.
In an announcement April 7 on the Lupad Dumaguete Facebook page, the City said every household in Dumaguete will get a quarantine pass before Friday, April 10.
“There is no need for the people to go to the barangays halls or the City Hall,” the announcement said.
Earlier, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines sent a petition to Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo for the production of more Quarantine Passes.
IBP Negros Oriental President Atty. Nerio Bulado, who signed the resolution, said 10 or more households sharing one pass, giving households only one hour to leave their homes, buy their needs, and return home is illogical.
The Resolution added that sharing passes increases the chances of sharing the virus as well.
Another group, called the Consumer Advocates Inc., also wrote the Mayor lamenting the decision of the local government of Dumaguete City on the sharing of quarantine passes among households.
The consumer advocates said the sharing of passes puts the ordinary consumers in the City at a disadvantage.
“The current arrangement of sharing quarantine passes further compromises the ability of ordinary consumers to live their daily lives within an acceptable ‘new normal’ under measures that already restrict mobility for the greater good,” the CAI statement said.
Then on the very same day that Lupad Dumaguete published an announcement on Facebook page assuring that every household in Dumaguete will indeed get a quarantine pass by April 10, the City’s 30 barangay captains signed a Resolution declaring that no additional quarantine passes have to be issued to the barangay residents, as those that were earlier released are already sufficient for the needs of the people’s needs.
In the Resolution, the barangay captains said that while they have been entrusted with the task of distributing the quarantine passes to the households, they must make “painful and unpopular decisions” to be consistent with their mandate to enforce the stay-at-home order of President Duterte.
The barangay heads said households with members numbering “several thousands” of Dumaguetnons do not need a quarantine pass because they are either government workers or categorized under essential businesses.
In the Resolution, the barangays committed to set up 24/7 command centers where their officials or volunteers can be tasked to do errands for households without quarantine passes, like providing access to medical services or buying necessities.
They also set up mobile markets in the barangays to prevent people from crowding in the central business district.
Meanwhile, Mayor Remollo clarified that the quarantine pass is only for those who need to buy food or medicine in the central business district.
He said the City has made more than 29,000 passes available, based on the 2015 census which pegged the number of Dumaguete households at 29,000.
“We have seen that even without the pass, all barangay residents have access to the major groceries or supermarkets, pharmacies, and banks/ATMs,” Remollo said.
“There are a lot of conflicting fake news that people will be arrested if they don’t have a pass. No, you won’t be arrested. You just can’t enter the central business district,” the Mayor said in an interview.
He advised those who have problems with buying their necessities to call the City Mayor’s Office hotline, adding that there are 30 tricycles going around Dumaguete to drive people anywhere for free.
“We have heard your suggestions. Give us until the next two weeks to prove ourselves right,” the Mayor appealed to the public.