Generational bias

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Finally, some officials of government had realized the ridiculous bias, unintended perhaps, of excluding senior citizens for public life. While others, even the unhealthy can go out under the modified quarantine, the seniors are not allowed even to take a ride in a private car.

The news yesterday said that “lawmakers and employers on Wednesday blasted as arbitrary the Department of Health guidelines barring teenagers and senior citizens from going out of their homes even after the easing of quarantine measures in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon, which are currently on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

Even in Negros on General Community Quarantine and Bacolod that refuses to yield from the Enhanced Community Quarantine follow the same generational bias.

“Putting the age bracket of 19 years old and below, plus 60 years old and above to be covered by the extended lockdown period is again typical of the arbitrariness of the DOH which provides the [Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases] inputs,” said 1-Pacman Rep. Enrico Pineda, head of the House of Representatives’ committee on labor and employment.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines said the regulation could lead to workers age 18 to 20 and senior citizens to lose their jobs since only people age 21 to 59 would be allowed to leave their homes.

It is not only the DOH that is to blame for this prejudice but also the IATFEID for believing blindly the DOH without discerning the implications of the “arbitrary” position of the DOH, after all the interagency is the final arbiter.

We accepted this generational exclusion when the pandemic was in full swing because the quarantine is for all but now why discriminate? The only plausible reason presented before is that people at this age are most vulnerable, but the situation has changed considerably especially in Negros where most towns do not have or never had a single incidence of the disease.

“By that simple regulation, you blacklist the 18 to 20 and the senior citizens from work, which can be permanent,” Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., ECOP president told a news media in a phone interview.

The task force overseeing the Duterte administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is preparing guidelines to be followed by businesses when they are allowed to reopen partially on May 1, after the Luzon lockdown ends and the country shifts to what the government calls “general community quarantine.”

The proposed guidelines still include prohibiting teenagers and senior citizens from going out of their homes, which Pineda denounced as “arbitrary” and Kabayan Rep. Ron Salo rejected for being “inhumane at worst or ill-thought of at the least.”

Pineda cited DOH statistics that purportedly show that while the age bracket 60-69 make up 26 percent of coronavirus cases in the country, cases in the 50-59 bracket account for 24 percent.

“Thus, the age bracket 50 to 69 years old represents 50 percent of all cases. Therefore, if the age bracket 50 to 59 is not covered by the extended lockdown, so too should be the 60 to 69,” he said.

With the DOH data also showing that the 70-to-79 age group making up only 14 percent of the coronavirus cases, Pineda said he believed senior citizens belonging to this bracket had stronger defense against the virus because they were usually “bombarded” with maintenance medicines and vitamins.

“What then is the basis of the DOH rule that 19-year-olds and below, [and] 60-year-olds and above must suffer [during] the extended lockdown period? It appears to have no real basis and therefore arbitrary,” he said.

Salo on the other hand said that “protecting teenagers and senior citizens from COVID-19 does not justify complete disregard of their civil liberties as well as their right to gainful employment and practice of their profession.”

Salo pointed out that President Duterte, most members of the Cabinet and justices on the Supreme Court, and heads of most businesses in the country, are senior citizens.

Should they not then be restricted to their homes and just hold teleconferences? If we go by the DOH theory, then these officials are being exposed to near fatalities.

He called on the task force to reconsider the guidelines to ensure that the rights of the elderly are “not unduly curtailed while still ensuring the protection of their health and safety.”

Let us continue tomorrow.