Choke Points, Street Crowds Mar First Monday Of MM Community Quarantine

March 16, Monday, was the first regular workday in Metro Manila while under community quarantine to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As expected, the fact that many workers live in the suburbs of the National Capital Region only led to choke points at the borders.

The Department of Labor and Employment had allowed employees living outside Metro Manila to report for work as long as they could present an identification card and a certificate of employment at the checkpoints.

At the boundary, quarantine enforcers check the temperatures of passengers seeking to cross the checkpoints. This resulted in long lines that authorities anticipated but still became a nightmare for them.

Among the local government units that saw large throngs of stranded commuters was the city of San Jose del Monte in Bulacan province, which borders the northern part of Caloocan City.  San Jose del Monte itself was placed under community quarantine after recording two cases of COVID-19.

On top of this, the enforcement of “social distancing” measures in an already strained public transportation system only led to crowds of people seeking to hail jeepneys and buses out in the streets, as well as long queues at the Metro and Light Rail Transit stations.

Read more: Buwis-buhay: Commuting in the time of social distancing

Drivers have exerted efforts to comply with the “social distancing” directive. The Philippine STAR photographer Edd Gumban captured images of a driver taping carton boxes to the seats of his jeepney to keep passengers away from each other, although such narrow dividers fall below the one-meter prescribed distance.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary-general Renato Reyes noted that the public health emergency unfortunately had to coincide with a “mass transport crisis.”

“Mas nagiging malaki ang risk ng transmission dahil naiipon ang tao o nagsisiksikan sa mga limitadong sasakyan. Hindi madali ang social distancing ’pag ganito limitado ang modes of transport (There is a bigger risk of transmission when people gather and crowd the limited number of vehicles. Social distancing is not easy when modes of transport are this limited),” Reyes said in a Twitter post.

“We failed at quarantine when the mass exodus from Metro Manila happened during the weekend. We failed at social distancing when the mass transport crisis wasn't considered and when checkpoints caused even more congestion in the streets,” Reyes added.

Former solicitor general Florin Hilbay, an opposition candidate for senator in the 2019 elections also said on Twitter: “Hindi sila naghahanap ng sakit, sila ay nagha-hanapbuhay (They are not looking for illness, they are earning a living). Without economic safety nets, social distancing will remain a privilege.”

The STAR photographer Russell Palma managed to take videos of commuters catching an elusive ride at the corner of Gil Puyat and Taft avenues in Pasay City, defeating the purpose of making them stay away from each other either when they jostle or get stranded due to lack of PUVs.

Jedd Ugay, chief mobility officer of commuter advocacy group AltMobility PH, argued that the number of people inside vehicles should not be limited as announced by the Department of Transportation since it would prove useless when stranded commuters end up forming crowds while waiting for a ride.

Instead, he said the number of public utility vehicles should be increased to assure commuters of a ride and get them out of the crowd quicker.

Perhaps overlooked is the plight of homeless people in the streets, including those who sleep on Recto Avenue in Manila as captured by The STAR photographer Miguel de Guzman.

 Compounding the problem was the documented shortages and failures of equipment used in caring for patients and enforcing the community quarantine, Ateneo de Manila University School of Government dean Ronald Mendoza said.

There were some reports of thermal scanners used by quarantine enforcers malfunctioning.

“Nasa peligro ang pulis, militar at lalo na ang mga medical first responders kung kulang ang kagamitan nila panglaban sa COVID-19. Pinadala sila sa (giyera) na mali ang gamit. Siguradong talo (The police, military and especially the medical first responders are in danger if they lack equipment to combat COVID-19. They were sent to war with the wrong weapons. They will certainly lose),” Mendoza said in a Twitter post.

“Dapat itama ito. Baka hindi lang napaliwanag sa Presidente. Dapat ulit-ulitin para marinig (This should be corrected. Maybe it was not explained to the President. It should be repeated so it can be heard),” he added.

Some celebrities reflected on how the poor have been the hardest hit by the drastic measures.

Actor and spoken word artist Juan Miguel Severo noted that people were only forced by economic circumstances to work despite being told by the government to stay home. He was commenting on a video of pedestrians pleading with authorities after being shut out of the checkpoint along the road connecting Quezon City to San Mateo, Rizal.

“Bakit nila gugustuhing lumabas pa ng bahay kung hindi naman kailangan (Why would they want to leave home if they did not have to)?” Severo said.

Antoinette Jadaone, director of romance movies “That Thing Called Tadhana” and “Alone/Together,” said: “Make no mistake about it: social distancing is a privilege. Kung kaya nating lumagi sa bahay, kumain pa rin nang tama, mag-Tiktok pa nga minsan, (masuwerte) tayo. Ipagpasalamat natin ang pribilehiyong ito (If we can afford to stay at home, eat well, go on Tiktok sometimes, we’re lucky. We will be thankful for the privilege).”

 “Pero ganu’n na lang ba talaga? ’Pag OK tayo, OK na? Paano naman sila? (But is that all there is to it? If we’re OK, it’s OK? What about them?)” Jadaone said.