‘Experience has taught us that a loose lockdown is no lockdown at all.’
AS the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) starts in Metro Manila and several provinces composing the bubble, the problem of who are the authorized persons outside residence (APORs) looms large in both the radar of law enforcers and the everyday lives of motorists, workers and health system frontliners.
With the quarantine control points (QCP) placed at strategic points in the National Capital Region (NCR)-plus areas, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) was quick to announce as early as last Sunday the individuals who would qualify as APOR.
The list originated of course from the all-powerful (during the pandemic) Inter-Agency Task Force’s (IATF) which issued omnibus guidelines on personal and community behavior required during the quarantine lockdown.
DILG Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the authorized persons outside of residence (APORs) include health and emergency frontline services and uniformed personnel, government officials and employees on official travel, duly-authorized relief and humanitarian assistance actors, persons travelling for medical or humanitarian reasons, persons going to and from the airport, anyone crossing zones for work in permitted industries, and public utility vehicle operators.
The DILG spokesperson also reminded the police to allow the free movement of cargo/delivery vehicles across all quarantine control points to maintain the stability of the economy. Conscious that the ECQ policy only involved semi-closure of the economy, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año has instructed all those manning checkpoints to allow the unimpeded movement of cargo trucks and delivery vehicles especially those carrying food items.
When the APOR policy was first announced, health workers may leave their homes to work, but their spouses or brothers/sisters cannot drive them to and from the hospitals if they themselves as not APOR. PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar pointed out that allowing non-APOR to bring and fetch workers “will be prone to abuse, for they will use as alibi the errand that they will fetch health frontliners.”
The policy is correct and supports the core objectives of a quarantine lockout. But an indication that this ECQ is not as strict as before was when Eleazar himself backtracked the very next day saying, “Ngayon po ay ia-allow na itong mga non-APOR na magmaneho, maghatid-sundo hindi lamang sa mga healthcare workers kundi pati na rin po sa iba pang worker APOR natin.” Eleazar was referring to essential workers who are employed in banks, restaurants, supermarkets and the like.
Although he revised the rules — of course with clearance from the IATF — the PNP chief has imposed many documents to prove that one’s trip outside the home is essential, such as IDs, employment contract, business permit of employer, vehicle identity papers, etc. Another bureaucratic layer-process has been added, along with another opportunity for mulcters among the police force to line their pockets.
Experience has taught us that a loose lockdown is no lockdown at all. But well, they make the rules, so let us just see afterwards if their way is right or wrong. The important thing is that they should stand by their policy decisions and take responsibility for them.
