Missing the real normal

By Herbert Vego

 

DURING our radio program “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo last Sunday, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, reiterated his wish that through proper observance of health protocols, we would flatten the COVID-19 curve and return to the real normal.

Well, who wants the impersonal “new normal” where everybody shies away from everybody – social distancing, face-masking/shielding and washing hands frequently – for fear of infection?

And so I told the mayor that a brother, a nephew and I had recently eaten a salubrious buffet lunch at Farm to Table, and that the said restaurant was two-thirds filled to capacity. The dine-out protocol now allows three-fourths or 75 percent of capacity.

Mayor Treñas expressed happiness over that. Why not?  It’s not only because the “recovering” restaurant belongs to Pauline Gorriceta Banusing, a niece of his better half.  It’s more so because he had vowed to “level up” Iloilo City while campaigning for the post that he now occupies.

For fear of scaring the already scared, I have always refrained from writing negatively about the COVID-positive. I look for the bright side. Based on yesterday’s count, for example, the Philippines’ share in the accumulated number of COVID cases in the past six months is 245,143. But when one considers that only 3,986 or 1.6 percent of them have died, it becomes less alarming; it disproves the myth that the disease is incurable.

I fear that six months of lockdown or community quarantine must have harmed humanity more than COVID-19. With the world economy tumbling down, millions would go hungry and catch more diseases. We all wish to return to the true normal.

Well, haven’t we been assured by the World Health Organization (WHO) that — by practicing the mandatory social distancing, face masking/shielding, and frequent handwashing – we would beat COVID?

Things must have gone awry in the implementation of rapid and swab tests, as well as in coordination between the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and local government units, especially as regards quarantine procedures for locally-stranded individuals and overseas foreign workers.

For repeating the same procedures without flattening the curve, here’s a food for thought from Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

-oOo-

 

WHAT has happened to the “show cause” order issued by Capiz Governor Esteban Evan B. Contreras to Roxas City Mayor Ronnie Dadivas?

As this corner revealed in a past column, Governor Contreras had asked Mayor Dadivas to explain why no administrative case should be filed against him for stopping the travel of 53 locally stranded individuals (LSI) who were poised to sail on board vessels of Starlite Ferries and 2Go from the Port of Batangas to Roxas City on August 26, 2020.  They are residents of different Capiz municipalities.

According to Provincial Administrator Edwin Chinel Monares, while the “show cause” was not an administrative case yet, it is a preliminary procedure that could lead to the filing of one in case the governor does not find the mayor’s response justifiable.

 

“He has to explain why the case should not be filed against him for abuse of authority,” Monares said, explaining that the governor under the Local Government Code (RA 7160),  has the imprimatur to either file the administrative case against the mayor or not, thus to ensure that the acts of the component cities and municipalities of the province and of its officials and employees are within the scope of their prescribed powers, duties and functions.

However, only the Office of the President may press sanctions or impose preventive suspension.

The repatriation of the LSIs has the nod of the national government to help the desperate LSIs come home after being stranded somewhere else at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is the local governments’ (LGUs) obligation to accept their returning residents in line with the set protocols.

It is only when the LGUs’ quarantine facilities exceed their capacity that they may refuse the return of their residents.

Alas, if we heard it right from our sources, none of the aforesaid stranded passengers belong to the mayor’s territory,  Roxas City, but to other LGUs of the province.

Assuming that to be so, Dadivas’ only likely explanation to the governor’s order is that the voyage of the bumped-off passengers had not been coordinated with him.

The affected LSI’s, however, had complied with travel requirements and had coordinated with their respective LGU to allow them to go home. They believe that the mayor’s action impeded their constitutional right to travel and violated the directive of the president to allow their repatriation.

Presumably, all of the 53 LSIs have made it home already – but no doubt with misgivings against the city mayor.

 

Well, indi man siguro matuod nga inisnab sila ni yorme because indi sila voters of Roxas City.

-oOo-

“Yes, let the Supreme Court decide!”

That was how President Roel Z. Castro of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) reacted to this writer’s column expressing hope that Panay Electric Co. (PECO) would fulfill its promise to abide by the final decision of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the law (RA 11212) granting the new legislative franchise to MORE Power as the sole power distributor in Iloilo City.

The SC had long ago issued a temporary restraining order against the Mandaluyong City regional trial court branch that had declared certain provisions of MORE Power’s franchise “unconstitutional”.

Sometime in August, SC spokesman Atty. Brian Keith F. Hosaka announced that, within that month, the 15 SC justices would en banc (full court) to rule on MORE Power’s petition seeking to reverse the Mandaluyong-RTC’s restrained decision.

By now, the SC must have decided already. Abangan.

PECO having lost its franchise, would already have nothing to lose.  On the contrary, it stands to gain by haggling for a “just compensation”.  MORE Power has already escrowed an amount of almost P482 million for that purpose, but the final amount would have to be decided by a judge.

Walang lugi. The amount would not only refund what PECO had spent for its lawyers in its long legal battle with MORE; it would also provide PECO with a substantial amount to start another business.