THE Joint Task Force COVID Shield said the distribution of financial assistance to Metro Manila residents affected by the enhanced community quarantine started smoothly yesterday.
“No untoward incident. The (operations) of the distribution centers were smooth and they were well-secured by the PNP,” JTF COVID Shield commander Lt. Gen. Israel Ehpraim Dickson said.
Dickson accompanied PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar in inspecting several distribution points in Quezon City, Manila, San Juan and Mandaluyong.
Dickson said the PNP coordinated with barangay officials to ensure peaceful and orderly distribution, adding the task force did not receive any report of violation of physical distancing.
“Policemen were deployed (at the distribution points) so the areas are well-managed and controlled,” he said.
The PNP said the inspection “aims to ensure that the police strictly enforce the existing laws and regulations on minimum public health protocols amid the surge of the Delta variant COVID-19 cases in the country.”
Eleazar told police commanders to ensure the distribution of cash assistance would not become “super spreader events.”
“My primary instruction to our policemen is to make sure the distribution of the assistance to our countrymen will not turn into super spreader events. We know residents need this assistance during ECQ so it’s not far-fetched people will flock (to distribution points),” said Eleazar.
Senate president pro tempore Ralph Recto said “nationalizing” the distribution of “ayuda” or financial assistance to low-income families affected by ECQ is not good for the people and the national government.
Recto issued this statement after President Duterte on Monday stripped a “disorganized” city in Metro Manila of the authority to distribute the cash aid and gave the task to the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Although Duterte did not identify the mayor, netizens claimed it was Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.
Recto said the City of Manila has “boots on the ground and the muscle memory” to conduct the large-scale distribution of aid that “understaffed national agencies may find hard to do on their own.”
He said it is irrational for the national government to “nationalize an activity” which is best done with the participation of the local governments since the latter has the warm bodies and the command structure to bring aid to as many people as quickly as possible.
“Big cities and provinces have division-size personnel and then you will replace it with a platoon of clueless people who don’t know the terrain. People in City Hall know every nook and cranny of their respective locality compared to those bureaucrats in central offices,” Recto said.
He said the national government can save time and money if it would allow local government units to do the job and it “saves the national government from embarrassment if the job it has assumed to do on its own will end up a flop.”
He said the City of Manila has been competent in bringing basic services to its people especially at this time of the pandemic.
“The City of Manila has been delivering almost a million boxes of food to homes of their residents for some months. This is not air dropped. It is organized, it has a method, then you want the system changed?” he said.
He added Manila has even built a 344-bed field hospital in just seven weeks “and I do not know of a comparable feat done by DOH.”
The San Juan government started its “Ayuda plus Bakuna” drive, which gives financial assistance from the government and inoculate those who haven’t received their jabs yet.
Mayor Abby Binay said the Makati City government is distributing home care packages to COVID-positive residents with mild symptoms who are on home quarantine.
Binay said each home care package contains a COVID-19 Home Care Handbook, alcohol, oral antiseptic, sore throat spray, fever pad, thermometer, washable and disposable face masks, pulse oximeter, vitamins and medicine for fever. — With Raymond Africa, Christian Oineza, and Noel Talacay
