BY MATÉ ESPINA
I THOUGHT I was done with ignorance after the incident with a local businessman here who blamed the Bacolod City government for his travails over his travel.
But I guess feigning ignorance is contagious, or it can be a strategy to get off the hook when one is already caught red-handed.
Unfortunately, as author Donald Miller says, “In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.”
For over a year now, we have been incapacitated by COVID-19. While we don’t want to be held hostage by the fear of contracting the virus, many of us are slowly recovering, following the new normal.
Under lockdown situations, we had to rely on news media and social media for updates. Thus there is no excuse to pretend you have not been informed of standard protocols, particularly those issued by your local government which sometimes differ from that of the national administration.
Thus, it practically irked me to listen to this local businessman ranting on air how he was victimized, by what he deemed was incompetence on the part of the city government, for their failure to properly inform him of the necessary travel documents one needs to present upon their return to Bacolod.
You see, this guy was stopped at the airport upon his return from a week-long trip to Manila, because what he had on him was a rapid test result and not the mandatory RT-PCR negative result with a validity of 72-hours at the time of your flight.
I think that protocol is standard to many local government units (LGUs) in accepting returning residents. Personally, it confounds me as well that only a medical clearance is needed to fly out to Manila but coming back, one has to secure RT-PCR testing. But I agree that the LGU has to take extra precautions because they have to fend themselves from an outbreak with limited resources.
Needless to say, the businessman finally allowed himself to secure an RT-PCR test lest he be placed in one of the schools here which serves as a quarantine facility if he refuses. After all, he cannot allow himself to be subjected to stay in what he described as a filthy facility when he travelled in class – stressing he purchased business class tickets and stay in first-class hotels while in Manila.
The man though had the nerve to continue ignoring the protocol that all returning residents must undergo a five-day home quarantine just to be on the safe side because we have had cases of passengers bearing negative results but when re-tested upon arrival, turned out positive of the virus.
Upon his release by the city enforcement team, he went to a radio station to rant against the city government and vowed to campaign against the administration come election time. Unfortunately, there was very little sympathy for his inconvenience because after all, ignorance of the law excuses no one.
And then there’s the case of Transcom Bacolod, the call center facility that was recently shut down for a couple of days because of an outbreak. They have since reopened after disinfection and agreeing to apply the BacTrac system in their establishment.
The case of Transcom was quite unforgivable because contact tracing could have been faster if they were using the BacTrac among their employees since they signed up for it anyway. But no. While they complied with the city ordinance mandating to register with the BacTrac, they did not use it because they have their own systems in place.
When the outbreak was declared, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) had a hard time tracking down close contacts of the affected employees. They had to field additional manpower to contact-trace manually when the system could have made it much faster to curb the spread.
Fortunately for Transcom management, so far, none of the close contacts in the households of their 41 infected employees, tested positive.
But it all came with a price. Transcom Global English Region chief executive officer, Mark Lyndsell, flew to Bacolod to oversee the situation and pledged full cooperation with the city government. He also pledged to donate P500,000 for the improvement and management of a quarantine facility here.
It was surprising though what Lyndsell revealed which was never in the news until he himself told the media. Apparently, the EOC team was even barred from entering the premises by the guards because of their own protocols.
“In retrospect, that was probably a bit naïve approach and it was not our purpose or intent to antagonize anybody from the local government,” Lyndsell said in interviews.
He further added that while they enrolled in the BacTrac system, they were not aware that it was mandatory but simply voluntary.
Hmmmm. He just dug himself in. BacTrac was enforced through an ordinance and publicized extensively, thus, heads must roll among their local heads for their failure to always be in the know in their area of operation especially during these times.
All’s well that ends well though. Transcom has learned their lesson and their experience serves as a warning to other BPOs as well. Again, at the end of the day, ignorance of the law excuses no one and best to arm yourselves with knowledge than to go asunder and pay a hefty price./PN
