Public confused with changes in quarantine rules
Published May 18, 2020 12:00 am
By Raymund Antonio
Confusion over the effectivity of new quarantine levels and guidelines in Metro Manila and other parts of the country left the people more questions than answers.
Vice President Leni Robredo
(Charlie Villegas, OVP / MANILA BULLETIN) Vice President Leni Robredo noted her office received complaints from the public regarding the adjustments made by the government on the different forms of community quarantine. “Ito, talaga naman parang araw-araw nagbabago, araw-araw may dagdag, araw-araw may babaguhin. Iyon talaga iyong pinakareklamo ng marami: “Ano na ba talaga?” Robredo said on her weekly radio show. (This seems to change every day, every day there are additions and changes. That’s the main complaint of many people: What’s really the rule?) A cause of the problem, Robredo said, is the lack of clarity to communicate this to the public amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Tama iyong parang mga phases para hindi bigla-bigla pero iyong parang nagkulang tayo doon sa mas klarong pagpaliwanag,” she said. (It is correct to do these phases so the enforcement is gradual but it looks like we lack in explaining it more clearly.) But despite this, Robredo said the public should keep themselves updated on the changes in quarantine areas. The government’s coronavirus task force has backtracked a few times on imposing quarantine levels and rules in various areas in response to the appeal of local officials. It recalled the lifting of community quarantine in eight regions classified as “low risk” to coronavirus infection and placed them under modified general community quarantine. These regions are Ilocos, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM. The task force also revised the status of some areas supposedly under GCQ to modified ECQ like Bulacan, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, and Pampanga, until the end of May.
Vice President Leni Robredo(Charlie Villegas, OVP / MANILA BULLETIN) Vice President Leni Robredo noted her office received complaints from the public regarding the adjustments made by the government on the different forms of community quarantine. “Ito, talaga naman parang araw-araw nagbabago, araw-araw may dagdag, araw-araw may babaguhin. Iyon talaga iyong pinakareklamo ng marami: “Ano na ba talaga?” Robredo said on her weekly radio show. (This seems to change every day, every day there are additions and changes. That’s the main complaint of many people: What’s really the rule?) A cause of the problem, Robredo said, is the lack of clarity to communicate this to the public amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Tama iyong parang mga phases para hindi bigla-bigla pero iyong parang nagkulang tayo doon sa mas klarong pagpaliwanag,” she said. (It is correct to do these phases so the enforcement is gradual but it looks like we lack in explaining it more clearly.) But despite this, Robredo said the public should keep themselves updated on the changes in quarantine areas. The government’s coronavirus task force has backtracked a few times on imposing quarantine levels and rules in various areas in response to the appeal of local officials. It recalled the lifting of community quarantine in eight regions classified as “low risk” to coronavirus infection and placed them under modified general community quarantine. These regions are Ilocos, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM. The task force also revised the status of some areas supposedly under GCQ to modified ECQ like Bulacan, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, and Pampanga, until the end of May.