Briones: Timing

THIS is really no time to carp.

First of all, we just got through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, days which are usually marked by solemnity and mass showing of religious devotion by the country’s majority Catholic faithful. And yes, the Holy Week isn’t over. There’s still Easter Sunday.

Second, we’re in the middle of an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to prevent the spread of the dreaded coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which arrived on our shores at the end of January when the Department of Health (DOH) reported the first case of the disease.

So picking faults may not be such a good idea.

I mean, what’s the point of calling the attention of Barangay Ermita officials for not enforcing the social distancing policy at the Carbon Public Market on Thursday?

Granted, they couldn’t have possibly managed to rein in all those people who decided it was more important to buy ingredients for a popular “Lenten” dish than to observe Covid-19 protocols.

They could have asked the City’s market administration for help. But then what could the latter have done? Deploying more personnel on the streets would have defeated the purpose.

As for City Hall, well it seems like the mayor is more concerned about maintaining his public persona than actually caring for the welfare of his constituents.

Sure, he recently asked the Department of Social Welfare and Development to add more beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program – am I the only one smirking at the irony of the acronym? – who would receive P6,000 each to mitigate the effects of the ECQ, but what good would the money do them if they all got sick because the City Government has been remiss in its duty to enforce its stay-at-home order?

I see couples and groups of friends roaming the streets like they were out for a stroll. Granted, some of them had clearly gone to the market or the grocery but I thought the quarantine pass only allowed one member of the household to go out for essential errands.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been perfectly okay but, as Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has been pointing out, we are not living in normal times.

With that said, I shouldn’t be too harsh on Mayor Labella. As I’ve said before, he has more important matters to attend to like maybe changing his mind about the liquor ban.

Hey! It could happen.

Anyway, the public should take some responsibility. They don’t heed government orders yet they expect the government to take care of them. They should be so lucky. Let’s face it, they can’t have their cake and eat it too.

Speaking of cake, I heard some barangays have distributed rice, canned goods and noodles to residents.

In Sambag 1, more than half a sack of rice was released to each household several days ago, but there has been no word on when they plan to distribute the rest of the assistance. I guess they’re waiting for people to consume all the rice before they start distributing the rest.

I mean, who’s complaining?

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