BY MATÉ ESPINA
TEN YEARS ago, I had a short stint in Panay News through my column “Purple Trails” which was about my advocacy on women and children.
This time I am back under “Winds of Sugarlandia” to talk of issues and happenings around Negros Occidental and Bacolod City and this will range from gentle breezes to turbulent storms.
Presently, the tempest is brewing as we started the four-day lockdown to facilitate the testing of 10,000 people in the cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay, Silay and the town of Murcia.
This is under the “OPlan: One Time, Big Time” conceptualized by former Rep. Albee Benitez who is now the provincial consultant on economic affairs. Since local transmission is high in Bacolod, testing started even before the 4-day lockdown to reach their target of 5,000 residents and the rest will be for the four other LGUs which borders Bacolod.
Unfortunately, guidelines came out almost midnight last Wednesday and with just one day to go, panic set in and brought traffic to a standstill as thousands scrambled to purchase their needs for the duration of the lockdown.
It was a one day free-for-all spread of the virus as minimum health protocols like social distancing was disregarded in public markets and groceries.
As the day ended Thursday, the mayors revealed that the request for a 4-day lockdown was not acted upon by the national IATF. So while Bago and Talisay opted to go on with their lockdown measures, Silay and Bacolod announced “no lockdown.”
In Bacolod’s case, Executive Order No. 55 of Mayor Bing Leonardia will still take effect even without a lockdown. And this became more confusing because while a “zero-movement” was announced, it will be business-as-usual for all including mass transport.
Nevertheless, some business establishments opted to close down for four-days and 90 percent of public transport did not operate yesterday. The latter made it difficult for those who volunteered to undergo testing to reach designated testing sites. News reports early in the day said many were seen walking as there were hardly any jeepneys around and this will probably affect their target for mass testing.
In fact, there is a lot of scepticism regarding the 10,000 target and what good will this serve since there was no baseline data to start with. To reach their targets, LGUs called for “volunteers” instead of the recommendation by medical experts to prioritize those who are in existing contact tracing lists (unless there’s none of course) followed by random testing in areas where local transmission is on the rise.
Part of the plan also includes a turn-around test result within 24 hours as all five molecular laboratories agreed to immediately process all swabs so that the LGUs can isolate the positives.
If at all, the only good news so far is the arrival of COVID czar, Gen. Roy Cimatu, credited for bringing the numbers down in Cebu from a daily rate of 300 cases to just 10-15 nowadays.
Bacolod’s average is 30 cases per day and Cimatu is optimistic that if we implement what they did in Cebu, it will be faster to bring down the numbers. To ensure this is followed, Gen. Feliciano will stay on in Negros and will cross to Iloilo every other day to monitor our progress. It was not mentioned though whether this will entail the deployment of soldiers and military tanks as in Cebu.
National IATF chair, Gen. Carlito Galvez is also expected to arrive anytime along with a team of medical health workers to augment dwindling staff of local hospitals as officials admitted that our health system is on the verge of collapsing.
Almost all hospitals announced that they are filled to capacity with COVID cases, prompting the DOH to order an increase in bed allocations. However, the problem is not on bed availability but the reported resignation or AWOL of doctors and nurses as Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia admitted when he sought help from the national government.
The health system issue was highlighted when a frontliner died because he was deprived of emergency care by overwhelmed hospitals. The death of Jesryl Bancaya, a city employee assigned to take care of repatriated OFWs saddened many as it showed how our system failed our frontliners.
A doctor also revealed that among the reasons for the mass resignation of medical workers, especially those in private health institutions, was because management allegedly failed to promise them medical coverage in the performance of their duties. With hazard pay averaging less than P50 per day, who can blame them for resigning?
We are in turbulent times. Yet our city council spent so much time debating the appropriateness of passing a resolution for Bacolodnons to pray instead of providing concrete solutions. Duh!
The sad part is, there are many who still think we have not reached the critical level. But I beg to disagree and if it takes the generals to turn around our situation, I’ll take my chances with them./PN
