BY RAYMOND AFRICA and WENDELL VIGILIA
SEVERAL lawmakers on Sunday asked Malacañang to heed the call of medical workers to impose a two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on Metro Manila and areas nearby amid the continuous rise in the number of COVID-19 infections.
Senate President pro tempore Ralph Recto said government must find ways to keep the economy up if it decides to place Mega Manila is under stricter quarantine rules.
“It is a doctor’s prescription with side effects. But if it will cure the patient and prevent medical personnel from falling ill, then there’s no choice but to follow it. It will be the government’s job to manage the side effects — specifically the tremendous whiplash on the livelihood of the people,” he said.
A number of medical organizations and societies on Saturday asked government to reimpose ECQ in Metro Manila for at least two weeks. They said the period will allow the country’s healthcare system to get a brief respite from the deluge of COVID-19 patients while also allowing stakeholders to evaluate and improve the approaches being used in fighting the pandemic.
Recto said a ballooning number of infections will also have an adverse effect on the country’s health system.
“When the number of cases hits 100,000 today, it will sound an emergency alarm that can only be turned off by ringing the timeout bell. Enhanced quarantine that will be borne by the people will only work if there is an enhanced response and help from their government,” he added.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said if Malacañang could not allow a 14-day ECQ for Mega Manila, a 10-day ECQ could be a compromise. He said government could not allow the healthcare system to collapse and for more health workers to die.
Pangilinan reiterated that the country’s COVID-19 situation worsened due to the incompetence of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in handling the pandemic. He called anew for Duque’s relief.
Pangilinan is the only senator who voted against the passage of Bayanihan Act 2 in the Senate as he said he does not agree with entrusting to Duque the billions of pesos in funds for the government COVID-19 response.
Sen. Richard Gordon said while he empathizes with the healthcare workers, it will be hard for the economy if Mega Manila will revert to ECQ.
He said government stands to lose some P392 billion if it places Mega Manila under a 14-day ECQ.
He proposed a “selective lockdown” instead in areas with a spike in cases.
He said local government units must also work double time to stop the spread of the virus.
Gordon said he will file a resolution on Monday to constitute the Senate as a committee of the whole so senators can look into the real state of the country’s healthcare system.
BREATHER
At the House, some lawmakers backed the medical community’s appeal for a return to ECQ, saying the frontliners badly need a breather.
“If our leading doctors are prescribing it, then as good patients, we are all for Mega Manila’s brief return to an ECQ,” said Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Michael Defensor, a vice chair of the House committee on health.
“Our sense is our public health system is on the verge of collapse, and the momentary return to an ECQ will buy everybody more time to gird for a longer battle against the coronavirus disease,” he added.
Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo urged the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to heed the medical workers’ plea.
“Let us listen to them. They are the ones on the frontline. Indeed, after five months of fighting this pandemic, they are exhausted physically, emotionally and mentally,” she said. “Our medical workers are asking for a short time to recuperate. Let us give it to them,” she added.
Speaker Alan Cayetano urged colleagues to speed up the passage of House Bill No. 6096 which seeks to establish Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control (PCDPC).
The agency, which will be attached to the Department of Health, is envisioned to make the country better prepared for “sudden onset health emergencies” or those emergencies whose risk exponential increases over time.
Cayetano’s call came after President Rodrigo Duterte, in his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, urged Congress to create the National Disease Prevention and Management Authority to better respond to future outbreaks.
RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS
Heeding the call of medical frontliners for a “time out,” the Archdiocese of Manila is postponing all public religious gatherings in the next 12 days beginning Monday.
“As a response to the call of our medical people, all the churches and shrines in the Archdiocese of Manila will revert to the period of the ECQ protocols,” said Broderick Pabillo, Manila apostolic administrator, in a pastoral instruction.
“We will not hold public religious activities from August 3 to August 14 but we continue our online religious activities,” he added.
During the period, the archdiocese will also evaluate Church response to the COVID-19 pandemic and see how they can be can improved, Pabillo said..
“We share the compassion of the medical frontliners for the many sick people being brought to our hospitals. We have witnessed their dedicated service to those who come to them. Many among them are tired and even discouraged by their heavy responsibilities,” he said.
On the economic effects of the ECQ, Pabillo urged everybody to help one another anew and for the faithful to pray harder.
“We all suffer from this pandemic economically. However, there are many families who are more badly impacted than others. So we appeal for generosity,” said Pabillo.
“Let us intensify our prayers that our frontliners may be kept safe, that those who are sick may get well soon, and that all our families be protected from the virus,” he also said. — With Gerard Naval
