Behind the wheel

ON THURSDAY last week, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that the President would address the nation on Monday, Aug. 17, to reveal the new quarantine classifications that will be implemented across the nation starting today.

The decision is especially critical in Metro Manila because according to a research team based in the University of the Philippines (UP-OCTA), lifting the MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine) prematurely in the National Capital Region can usher in “a phase of uncontrolled and very rapid growth” of the outbreak.

As it is, the hospitals in the national capital are running beyond capacity and the healthcare workers themselves are on the verge of dementia trying to contain the spread of the infection even amongst themselves. Six thousand of them have been infected by the virus, even as they continue to struggle against discrimination in their own neighborhoods.

On the other hand, the economic team in the Cabinet is desperate to adrenalize commercial activities after all sectors except agriculture sustained the most jolting financial downturn in recent history. DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said yesterday that he wants Metro Manila and other areas under MECQ to go back to a general community quarantine.

This came in the heels of Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año announcing that he has contracted the coronavirus disease for the second time. He said that starting Aug. 13, he “began experiencing flu-like symptoms including a sore throat and body aches.”

Secretary Año urged individuals he was in close contact with to “go on self-quarantine, observe any symptoms and take appropriate action.”

This advice might as well be directed to President Duterte and the members of Inter-Agency Task Force against COVID. To recall, the group met with the President in Davao City on Aug. 10, the same occasion where he uttered his world-famous declaration that he is willing to be tested first on the Russian vaccine against the COVID virus. The same advice goes for Sen. Lawrence “Bong” Go, who seems to be a regular fixture in these meetings of the executive department.

This presents the bizarre situation of the entire national leadership against COVID suffering from a grave physical handicap while the nation is running out of economic steam, and the less privileged class is teetering on the precipice of famine and disease.

In a televised briefing yesterday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who himself is in isolation, said that President Duterte has been in “perpetual isolation” to keep him safe from COVID-19.

Sensing the inherent ambiguity of the phrase, Roque added that the President “is in perpetual isolation in the sense that the PSG has done a very good job in making sure that no one really comes close to the President,” and that the President undergoes a regular swab test for COVID-19. He assures the people that the President remains safe and healthy in Davao City.

As this is being written, the President has yet to make a public appearance for his weekly updates to the nation. These quarantine announcements have taken on the color of law because they dictate how people should navigate the unruly waters of this pandemic on a weekly basis. In that sense, his word is law.

Is the President in full command of his faculties as he weighs the delicate balance between the health and economic survival of the nation?

 Roque’s description of “perpetual isolation” as presidential guards simply making sure that no one comes close to the President is not responsive to that query. It is hoped that a test will show otherwise, but is coronavirus disease a “serious illness” that the President has a duty to report to the public as required under Article VII, Section 12 of the Constitution?

The same provision states that Cabinet members charged with national security and foreign relations, and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shall not be denied access to the President in case of such illness.

It has always been our view that this provision of the Constitution must be read together with the public’s right to information, and the right of the media to report on matters of public concern.

The people have the right to know whether the designated driver continues to be adept behind the wheel./PN