By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Big words on dealing with health protocol violators were dished recently by the biggest people in government. The President’s directive was clear: Arrest the violators and drag along the barangay captains who tolerate them.
If you’re one of those impressed by big words, look again in your barangay and see how that is working out to make public places safer against the transmission of COVID-19. Better yet, check the Thursday to Monday infection caseload released by the Department of Health (DOH) to see if the numbers are spiking again (Tuesday-Wednesday figures reflect the weekend work of COVID testing labs which are stripped down due to lesser personnel).
If they are, then perhaps our cops are not really arresting the violators or maybe doing so is not the real solution. I still believe the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is serious in clamping down on super spreader events and hard-headed promenaders always face-ready for a “groufie.” They might just be looking in the wrong places.
Last week, the Quezon City government released the names per barangay of those missing in the distribution of the second tranche of the social amelioration program or SAP. While a welcome development for many, the claiming of the “ayuda” turned out to be a potential super-spreader event as hundreds of residents from various districts trooped to the lounge of the City Treasurer’s Office last Saturday.
To its defense, the QC government might say there was a schedule: it was set on a Saturday to avoid the weekday crowd, personnel had to work an extra day, and protocols were observed.
But in reality, seats spread across two tents outside the lounge were hardly two feet apart from one another, and there was absolutely no semblance of distancing in the line outside of the tent, especially among senior citizens. Guards and police were not enough or assertive enough to enforce the rules.
That was an absolute super-spreader event if you ask me. But there were no arrests there and there was no lesson to be learned in it. Even those who fell in line complained that the distribution should have been done in their barangays since they were already verified and identified to be on the list, anyway.
They did not want to be pressed in that crowd from multiple districts just to be handed their “ayuda.” What happened, Mayor Joy?
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