Presiding Officer, Dumaguete City Council
I grew up along San Jose Extension in barangay Taclobo, in a small tightly-packed community of houses made of nipa, coco lumber, bamboo, and other light materials. One time, a neighbor accidentally started a fire in her kitchen, and after hearing her panic-stricken shrieks, our neighbors naturally came rushing in through any window, door, or hole in the walls deemed an ingress for the moment, carrying water in pails, cans, in whatever shape or size of canister they could get their hands on. Such was the urgency they felt to douse the flames, that they had also splashed a lot of the water onto themselves before the fire was reduced to dying embers. It was at this time that Nong Juan came rushing in with a banga, an earthenware jar over his shoulder. The neighbors told him not to bother anymore since the fire was about to die but still, Nong Juan slammed the banga-ful of water onto the now-sputtering flame, thus, ending the episode, and breaking his age-old jar in the process.
With CoViD-19, Dumaguete (and Negros Oriental, for that matter) does not have the horrifying statistics of deaths and infections of other places; but considering the uncertainty, and somehow-looming lethality of the virus, shall we address this apparently-small problem with a glass-ful of water, or slam a full load of banga onto it to make really sure it doesn’t stand a chance?
We may not have enough knowledge about CoViD-19 , not enough test kits, no immunity from it, no vaccine available. If we use an incremental approach, it may be reflective of a policy of wishful thinking that we will all be back to normal come April 15. Not very reassuring.
But if we prepare for the worst, we have to develop a different focus using what’s in our toolbox.
Lest we haven’t noticed, what seems to occupy our efforts right now is addressing the effects or the damage wrought by CoViD-19 thus far, using our resources available like hospitals, manpower, money. These efforts can be divided into two: 1) Improving our health care system like doctors, nurses, their equipment, transportation, morale, or how a patient is identified then treated; 2) Addressing the socio-economic impact of the different sectors.
This would include: using the Quick Response Fund of the barangays, the City providing food/financial assistance to indigents and the marginalized sectors [like pedicab drivers, tempura vendors, porters, street vendors, breadwinners whose livelihoods are affected, persons under investigation (PUIs), persons under monitoring (PUMs), senior citizens, persons with disabilities]; requesting the utility companies to give waivers/discounts; using waivers/discounts of fees payable to government, or extensions of deadlines like waivers/discounts of terminal/market stall fees; requesting the private sector to provide leniency/accommodation through waivers/discounts to their obligees like borrowers, tenants; increasing government spending to slow down any recession by increasing the number of infra-projects, thereby increasing employment; or giving/increasing hazard pay, honoraria to the front-liners in combatting the spread of the disease.
Right now, this is simple in concept but tedious. This cuts a big chunk from our financial resources but is expected to alleviate the damage especially to the minimum-wage earners, and inspire confidence in the leadership of our government.
We do not have enough strategic emphasis, however, in addressing the problem on how to effectively stop the transmission of CoViD-19 from person-to-person. There have been initial “attempts” but we lack a good follow-through for us to have an impact on the containment of the disease.
In order to stop the spread of CoViD-19, we must control to a great extent the space and time that it can be transmitted by people, as well as the number of people it can potentially use as carriers.
In effect, we control where and when people can move, as well as who these people are, using the following measures. While people may consider these measures draconian, consider this for a minute: Nations around the world impose travel restrictions to control the movement of people, and in effect, control the spread of CoViD-19. Our President has imposed curfew in Manila and the entire Luzon with the same purpose.
Here in the Visayas region, Cebu, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental have imposed curfews or travel bans to control movement. While I do not question the intention, I raise issues on how effective this really is, considering there’s 1.4 million of us who can infect each other. That is, it is imperative that we have to impose travel restrictions to the lowest level of the city government as soon as possible.
Warning: If we do not do this now that could stop transmissions of the virus, there will come a time when our health care system, if ever we are able to improve it, will be overwhelmed by the sheer number of new cases, and our resources to alleviate the effects and damage of CoViD-19 will never be enough. Meaning, our money would no longer be enough to help those in need, we would no longer be healthy enough to help others, and our people would have become so desperate to even care.
Thus, we have to decide as a City (or as one Province even), and control people’s movement within the next 14 days, by controlling through time, space, and the number of people.
Time. Curfews will be able to limit the time of business operations, as well as that of private individuals. The window to do work outside the home has to be made smaller, whenever applicable. In a general sense, Sec. Michael Lloyd Dino, Presidential assistant for the Visayas, was right about advising a curfew for senior citizens and students.
Space. The movement of people can also be controlled through the closure of certain non-essential business operations; the closure of some streets using barricades to canalize the movement of people and vehicles, and where regular checkpoints can be emplaced 24/7 to monitor the identities of people passing through, and more importantly, to ensure compliance of the use of masks, handwashing, sanitizers, thermal scanner, and quarantine passes signed by the authorities (like the barangay captain, the BHERT or the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team) certifying the person’s health condition or legitimacy of travel (if indeed an emergency or for humanitarian reasons); the regulation/prohibition of the number and types of vehicles; or the regulation of the number of passengers in each vehicle.
Number of people. Monitoring the number of people going around in effect also controls the space within which CoViD thrives. But because of the serious “curtailment of rights” it hereby requires a separate treatment. If the current approach to movement of commodities is focused on the essentials, then I call this as the “movement of essential persons” who can, for the next 14 days, perform the “essential functions” for the family. Per household, we designate one or more persons to buy food and perform other essential activities. There are about 140,000 Dumagueteños distributed among 28,000 households.
We just have to decide what these other essential activities are, but the point is, instead of having 140,000 Dumagueteños out in the streets, without even counting the transients, we would have dramatically lessened the potential virus carriers.
To control the movement of transients, we can only allow them only if they have quarantine passes from their respective local government units that they are in Dumaguete to perform essential activities.
Enforcement. We have to increase number of enforcers like the Police Auxiliary Unit, the barangay tanods, the volunteers. We need to increase/grant them honoraria.
Information. Finally, we manage the flow of information so that we are able to influence people’s behavior and attitudes effectively. We have to make people understand the gravity of the CoViD situation, how it could impact on their lives, and how best we could fight the spread of the disease.
Through my years of public service, I have observed that our people expect especially their political leaders to promptly deal with the effects and damage caused by a calamity, using personal or publicly- appropriated money for food, etc. Such an expectation is understandable…anyway, we usually deal with natural calamities like floods and typhoons, which may be over in a matter of hours. We may build an intricate river-control system to manage a flood but there’s really nothing else we can do to stop the heavens from pouring rain. Generally, a mass evacuation before disaster strikes could prevent or minimize the negative effects of a calamity.
But given the space and time, this CoViD-19 is moving here, unseen among us, and could most likely just kill us.
While current efforts are concentrated on the effects and damage it could bring, I implore a strategic re-orientation towards efforts in stopping the spread and transmission of the virus (without the benefit of immunity and vaccine) by depriving it space and time, even at the risk of seriously depriving some rights of our people.
If we are fighting a war with CoViD as the enemy, then we must take the initiative, and meet it in its battle space head on, rather than be left to deal with its victims later on.
Like my story from years ago of the antique banga in barangay Taclobo, although we may give up something precious (some rights), isn’t it better to “overreact” now rather than live with the horrifying risks of the consequences (of the coronavirus)?
President Duterte has just been granted emergency powers to deal with the pandemic, whatever this means. If we do not do this now, and try to stop the spread/transmission by ourselves, then maybe someday, when we would have cried ourselves dry, and yet the virus is still here, the President will do it for us.
Suggested steps. There has to be a more strategic emphasis on stopping the transmission; that is, through a lockdown starting with the smallest controllable unit of government, using the tools available to us: time, space, resources, information:
Identify vulnerable people (like PUIs, PUMs, PWDs, senior citizens, the marginalized sectors, breadwinners, and indigents).
Extend assistance to our vulnerable sectors.
Identify representatives per household as “essential persons” to perform “essential functions” for themselves and for vulnerable persons; provide exceptions for emergency, humanitarian purposes.
Issue the essential persons with medical clearance/quarantine pass; conduct incessant inspections.
Close/regulate “non-essential businesses”; request the private sector for waivers/discounts, leniency with employees/obliges
Close/regulate certain roads, install barricades, enforce checkpoints, canalize time and movement of people and transportation
Increase/incentivize enforcers to set up checkpoints to ensure compliance (only the essential persons are allowed to travel to do essential functions), ensure home quarantine.
Strengthen efforts to deal with the EFFECTS of the pandemic (improving the healthcare system, poverty alleviation, incentives, peace and order, masks, test kits)
Regularly convey credible information to effectively influence appropriate behavior and attitudes.
Two weeks of strict home quarantine is all we ask while we still have control over available resources, while we are still healthy, while our people are not yet desperate.