By Nimfa Estrellado Straight Talk July 14, 2020 Staying at home, working from home, and avoiding the outdoors has become the new norma...
Straight Talk
July 14, 2020
Staying at home, working from home, and avoiding the outdoors has become the new normal for us. I'm kind of worried that the borders will be reopened in the Philippines next month. It scares me that the flights are going to resume. It would be selfish to ask people in Luzon not to travel to the provinces. But how can we contain it if we allow it to move again? I hope everyone will be able to travel to the Philippines when the vaccine is invented.
The new normal is not an easy one. The effects of this pandemic will be with us for some time. Life has changed enormously. Adjusting to the new normal and moving on. This will require that we transform the way we do things.
But this kind of life right now? We don't have to live! You don't have to say, "This is the New Normal!" "And just as it is, accept it? No! We 're supposed to fighting this pandemic! So we can get back to our normal lives. Let's help each other out. Let's all be responsible for that. God doesn't want us to live a life of fear! I can't live online. This is not me.
Lockdown started in March and still, we're on Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ). Some people can't go to work with no transportation. Duterte believes vaccine, medicine vs. COVID19 will be available by December. Will the world have a COVID19 vaccine before December?
In the midst of the pandemic, President Rodrigo R. Duterte urged Filipinos to strictly follow to the conditions put on non-essential travels abroad.
Duterte made a statement at a taped public address released during the state-run PTV-4 early Wednesday, July 8, 2020, after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) lifted the suspension on Monday, July 6, 2020, of the Filipinos' insignificant outbound journey.
“Suspension of non-essential travel by Filipinos is now lifted. All exit travel restrictions are also lifted. Conditions for outbound travel of Filipinos, ‘yung Pilipinong gustong lumabas sa bayan niya, ito lang ang tandaan ninyo (should be remembered by Filipinos who want to go out of the country),” the President said.
President Duterte also said he believes a vaccine or medicine against COVID19 will be available by December. If the “vaccine is happening’ quickly” then why not wait for the vaccine to send kids back to school?
Russia is confirmed to have been the first country to complete clinical trials of a vaccine candidate with a possible distribution from around mid-August.
If they've already had a vaccine, why don't they distribute it to the civilian population? Another question is, why can't the government allow the jeepneys to operate?
Small business owners opened shop as soon as the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) was declared, but many workers were unable to get to work because most public transports were still inaccessible, they had to walk to work without a motorcycle or a bike and many lost their jobs.
The government wants people to go back to work by announcing MGCQ and believing that everybody has a ride of their own? Then you're going to blame them for overcrowding the trucks when no other form of public transport is available? You seem to have lost your sense and your empathy, sir.
As workers struggle to travel to their workplaces, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade says the national government has not promised that it would be able to offer rides to all employees during the GCQ. He 's aiming for more public understanding. So why did you not allow accessible Public Utility Vehicle or PUV's to operate if you can't provide free rides in the first place And didn't they just allow non-essential travel now?
Now, Filipinos must only fulfill the following conditions to be allowed foreign travel: Submission of confirmed round-trip tickets for those traveling on tourist visas Adequate travel health insurance to cover rebooking and accommodation expenses, should they end up stranded abroad. The Department of Tourism has yet to provide a specific amount. They are allowed entry by the destination country, in accordance with their travel, health, and quarantine restrictions. In other words, Filipinos are not banned from entering the country of destination. Execution of a “declaration” acknowledging the risks involved in traveling
The government should postpone the PUV modernization program to allow drivers and operators more legroom, says Mar Valbuena, chairman of Samahang Manibela, Mananakay at Nagkaisang Terminal ng Transportasyon.PUV drivers also ask the government to allow more jeepneys to operate.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan urges the government to immediately allow the jeepney and UV Express drivers back on the road, adding that modernization at this time of the pandemic is "insensitive and ill-timed."
I've obeyed every word of strict health protocols from the government, but enough is enough. I can't live this way of new normal waiting for old normal! I can't manage just living in the social media world. I hope the government will allow us to feel a tad more normal, businesses to operate a tad more efficiently, some could even operate that just can't.
President Duterte signed the Terror Law on the day PH recorded the highest number of cases of COVID19. It says a lot about the government's priorities. Shut down TV channels, sign draconian law, instill fear, silence critics. What about mass testing, social welfare reform?
If we lived in a world where COVID19 is owned by the Lopezes, managed by Maria Ressa, and renamed after the Aquinos, will Duterte finally prioritize putting proper actions to address it?
In spite of this, we all have to work, some outdoors, some indoors; in offices, laboratories, hospitals, gas stations, stores, at home or away from home. Preventing the COVID19 is not a question of asking; it is a statement of doing. This is action. We could beat the COVID19. We can go back to normal life. Fight on!
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