"Get ready to sacrifice some more."
"Get ready to sacrifice some more."
After May 15, the Enhanced Community Quarantine in Metro Manila will most likely be extended another two weeks, up to the end of May.
This was the consensus among most of the mayors of Metro Manila, which is still considered a critical area as far as the COVID-19 pandemic is concerned. To what extent the quarantine will be modified, the Inter-Agency Task Force is still studying. We can only guess.
Santa Banana, I can understand the impatience of people who have lost their jobs and their livelihoods to return to what is called the new normal. We can understand the pressure that President Duterte must be under. But this pandemic is not something we can easily brush off. Otherwise, all the previous gains we have had in fighting the disease will be wasted.
This is why I am surprised that the Department of Health is now insisting that we are beginning to flatten the curve. I don’t know how they can say that, when the numbers remain high.
At least we can be thankful that the number of recovering patients is increasing. But until the number of new coronavirus cases plateaus, we can neither rest nor heave a sigh of relief.
It is very likely that we will have two more weeks of sacrifice and distress on the part of the people. The IATF is studying modifications and other options.
There has been speculation that public transportation may resume, although I wonder how social distancing can be observed.
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It’s amazing that comments and remarks against the ABS-CBN shutdown, solicited by the network itself, are straying from the core issues. Most of the arguments are irrelevant and even ridiculous!
It should be clear by now that the core issue is the absence of a franchise. This does not authorize the NTC to give ABS-CBN a provisional authority to operate. This is pursuant to a 2014 decision of the Supreme Court that said the NTC cannot give a public utility firm to operate for a lack of franchise. Otherwise, the commissioners would be committing graft and corruption.
It is for this reason retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio suggested that the company should seek a temporary restraining order and question the decision.
Aside from this, there are many unresolved issues against ABS-CBN like that quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor-General Jose Calida, citing violations of the terms of the franchise, and the issue of Philippine Depositary Receipts to foreigners who bought shares of the network in violation of the constitutional provision that says media should be owned and managed, 100 percent, by Filipinos.
ABS-CBN only has itself to blame for its predicament.
Now it is trying to twist facts, trying to show that the shutdown was illegal. Senator Grace Poe is among those saying this – an obvious conflict of interest, since her family has an exclusive contract with the network to show movies of her late father, Fernando Poe, Jr.
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The Department of Health feared the exodus of health workers because the American Embassy reportedly offered immediate granting of visas to nurses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Consequently, the Department of Foreign Affairs came out with a statement that if health workers in the Philippines want to work abroad, there was nothing it could do because it is the workers’ right to choose where they want to work. This came after the Department of Labor and Employment suggested a ban on health workers seeing employment abroad.
I believe, however, that if President Duterte wants to stop this exodus, he can legally do it using the police powers of the state.
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Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano has a list of no less than 50 local government officials who misused funds intended for social amelioration.
I had warned government that as long as there is human discretion and intervention, the opportunity for corruption will always be there.
Ano says he has the list – I wonder if he will make it public. These local officials need to be held accountable for their misdeeds!
