ECQ Day 4, April 6, 2020 — I’ve said at the beginning of the Enhanced Community Quarantine that I would use my time at home positively, like going back to projects I’ve put on hold.
It’s a good time to get back to a couple of books that I’ve started a while back but were put on ice because of other things. I also said I would start a diary of my daily experiences while in quarantine. That diary may not really contain anything particularly interesting beyond the second day of quarantine, but at least I could document, if anything, my frustrations and anxieties during it, as well as my elation, maybe, at the end of it, whenever that would be.
At the start, I was worried if I ran out of load on my cellphone and other devices, I may not be able to go out to the tech store. That would be a disaster because at this time, my cellphone is my only connection to the outside world.
Be that as it may, I really do not want to break quarantine, for whatever reason. Still, I can’t discount the possibility that I may need to go out for something. After all, that instance is provided for in the Executive Orders issued by both the Provincial and City governments.
As luck would have it, I found a way to get the load. With that out of the way, I’m good to go on the ECQ for a month or more, if it came down to that; save, of course, an emergency.
So on the third of April, at exactly 12:01 am, the ECQ took effect in Negros Oriental.
It will be noted that four days earlier, I went to our barangay hall to ask the barangay captain how exactly we will get our quarantine passes. He advised me they will deliver them to each household. He had no hesitation when he told me that — so what reason would I have to think he made it up? I am used to seeing things done exactly as they’ve been put out, so I thanked him, said I will patiently wait, and bade him a good day.
It is now 7:16 pm (1916 hours), and not a single barangay official has come around yet.
I was glad for the government’s decision to impose the ECQ. The move will certainly curtail the movement of people, minimizing contact, and reduce the chance of contamination among the populace, all in accordance with the overwhelming advice of frontline health professionals, all for the sake of the people. They ought to be lauded for that.
But for the government’s seeming lack of organization and foresight, what’s to be appreciated?
In a way, the ECQ for me has meant totally carefree days, with no schedules to worry about, no appointments–just days of doing nothing and everything.
When I wake up in the morning, first thing I do is watch the news. Except for the CoViD-19 updates, there’s really nothing else new anymore. Even ridiculous incidents in Manila of people getting arrested, harassed, spat on; of Senators spreading the virus; of bigwigs able to get tested first by virtue of being — you guessed it — bigwigs; of the DOH offering advice and more advice but nothing more; of the President admonishing government officials who should know better but don’t; anything at all, no longer carry any significance. Everything now revolves around CoViD-19 and the ECQ that ensued because of it.
While some people offer hope, others portend doom, while others, still, just wait. I let the doomsayers be, because they’re just a waste of time.
Contrary to what the government has said, people do not ask questions just to be a nuisance or because they feel some gratification doing it.
They ask questions because they do not know, and no one has seen to it that they are completely informed.
I wish these City officials would quit thinking of themselves as next to God when it comes to knowledge and abilities — that they are beyond error. Many of them do lack talent, and the only things going for them, at best, are their degrees and titles which, in and of themselves, do not make people intelligent.
To lead people, and to be successful at it, first, you must be a leader. Unfortunately, leaders are born, not made. You’ll know true leaders because you’ll find yourself following them willingly and contentedly. Leaders are the ones who keep you informed, and let you know the direction they’re taking you, and how they are going to take you there. There isn’t a problem they won’t let you know about, and they’ll share with you their ideas on how to overcome it, as well as listen to what you have to say. They will never beat around the bush. In other words, under a good leader, you won’t ever be in the dark.
Sometimes, the current flock of officials we have in this City are unabashedly blatant in their display of apathy toward the people who have put them where they are. The only cure for apathy in this case is to remove the individuals who practice it.
That elections are cyclical is a good thing, indeed, if participated in intelligently. People are again complaining about their elected officials, but it remains to be seen if, in the next elections, they’ll grow some balls, and vote the bad ones out. If they remain fickle as ever, they’ll be giving them yet more time to exercise their kind of political leadership.
ECQ Day 5, April 7, 2020. This morning, I called our barangay hall, and asked to speak with the Kapitan. He wasn’t in the office yet. The lady on the phone volunteered one of the Kagawads to talk to me on the phone.
As usual, they seem to think that knowing your name is essential to finding answers to your question. I think it’s just a delaying tactic while they cook up a good answer up in that space between their ears. I told him my name wasn’t important, but my question was.
I asked him about the quarantine passes. He couldn’t give me a straight, unfettered answer. Well, having waited three days for my pass, no answer coming from them would make sense anymore, anyway. After a couple more minutes on the phone, I felt like I was talking to a rock, so I thanked him and hung up.
Next, I called the City’s Command Center, and as soon as I asked about the quarantine passes, the lady who answered the phone asked me right back if I had already spoken with my barangay. When I said I had, she asked me what they said to me. She was truly trying her best to get on my last nerve. I had to be patient. I took a deep breath, exhaled, and I really thought that worked, because a man came on the phone, and politely introduced himself as the morning shift leader.
I thought I’d hit the jackpot having this guy on the other end. I asked him my question and, wow, was he sly. First, he said that the barangays are all short of passes (something widely-known). When I asked why that was so, he couldn’t elaborate. Then he said the City was still printing the rest of the passes, but when I asked when he thought they’d be finished with that, he couldn’t tell me. So I begged him to level with me–finally, he told me that the Mayor had stopped the printing of passes as a strategy to limit the people allowed to go out. The longer I talked to him, I realized I was just talking to a bigger rock. Thank you. Bye.
They’ve harbored a hidden agenda instead of being transparent. Over a thousand households in our barangay are probably still waiting for the passes that will never come. Then the Mayor rides on the coattails of this unintentional outcome by saying that it was his strategy to regulate the number of passes to limit the number of people allowed to go out at any given time.
I don’t want to bash the people in the City government because they say they’re trying their best, but they have not leveled with their constituents. Their shortcomings are there, in plain sight, for all to see, and still, they deny them.
For once, they should try just being themselves, instead of someone preserving an image for a political future.
Hell, I ‘d say, act naturally, and when the next election comes, just sit back, and be thrilled by whatever the outcome may be. It really shouldn’t matter if you win or lose, should it? Unless the act of running itself was a financial gamble. All of us gamble at one time or another, and we should simply own up to our losses and recoup them without hassling others. Besides, the saying is supposed to be, “May the BEST candidate win.” Then again, some may question what “best” means.
You see, my asking about the quarantine passes is not so much that I’m itching to go out. No! In fact, I probably wouldn’t need one until the ECQ is over.
But when the government tells me that I am supposed to get something, I’d be expecting it. In the case of the quarantine passes, though, I am so disappointed they have lied about it, and wasted my time (and don’t anyone ever say something about their time because they wanted that job).
As you doubtless have read on social media of late, we are in a health crisis–an unprecedented emergency that we think we could tide over by avoiding ways by which the virus may be spread, hence, the ECQ. Now is not the time for bickering, complaining, and blaming. Now is a time for all of us to be forthcoming in our intentions and deeds. We are up against an invisible enemy that doesn’t discriminate, between rich and poor, leaders and followers, the old and the not-so-old. CoViD-19 can kill us all! Our government should be certain and assertive in leading us while being fair and equitable in treating everyone.
So the quarantine passes for all households may as well be hearsay because they really were just for a few selected households, it now seems.
There is nothing more to say about this because as this issue seems important, it now pales against the issue of the daily CHAOS AT THE CHECKPOINTS. They have now become hotspots, where tempers are tested, where blood pressures escalate, and WHERE CoViD-19 IS LIKELY SPREAD.
Oh well, so much for the ENHANCED COMMUNITY QUARANTINE and PHYSICAL DISTANCING.
Lord, we pray that You heal our eyes and ears, that what we hear is what we see. We can say this prayer, or, if they please, the government officials can help us by saying there’s nothing wrong with our senses–that it’s them and they’re sorry. If this, and so many other issues, like the SOCIAL AMELIORATION PROGRAM CONFUSION, is the way it is now that the government still has the means, what will tomorrow bring?
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