The law from Mount Olympus
In Greek mythology, the gods of Mount Olympus rule humanity’s destiny and sometimes directly interfere with human affairs – favorably or otherwise. Events are not for humans to decide. The gods of Fate and Destiny — Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis — dictate the fate of the lowly mortals. With their all-too-human qualities, the Olympian gods could display great kindness and dish out terrible punishments. At Olympus, the gods feasted on ambrosia — the food or drink though to bring long life and immortality — and drank nectar and reveled to the tunes of Apollo’s lyre. But they quarrel too, mostly over the fortunes of mortal beings. (greekmythology.com)
The fate of the lowly mortals from the provinces now lays in the hands of the gods of Mount Olympus as the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases siphons off the powers of the LGU to decide for themselves the appropriate localized response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of just merely exercising the power of supervision, the national government through the IATF now wants to control the LGUs in terms of policies and actions. This would not have been a great deal had the IATF policies been crafted based on the realities from the ground. But these policies were based not on the day-to-day struggles of ordinary citizens but on the recommendations of consultants whose expertise is detached from reality.
The most recent edict from the gods is the order from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to the operators of public utility vehicles to apply for a special permit to operate in the province while the General Community Quarantine is in force. The objective of the policy which is to enforce social distancing inside the PUVs is laudable, but its actual implementation creates more chaos than order.
On the day the policy was enforced in the province, there was a long queue of passengers waiting for PUVs whose drivers and operators had to stop operating for fear of the hefty P1 million fine for buses and P50,000 to P200,000 for multicabs and UV Express. While social distancing can be enforced inside PUVs and in a way accomplishes the objective of the regulation, the scene of passengers who have to wrest their way through just to grab a seat in the bus is proof that the policy creates more problems than solutions.
Although the LTFRB appears to have adapted to the new normal by accepting applications online through Facebook (the most convenient excuse for being online), its dismal record of bureaucratic red tape is an evidence that applicants for special permit will have to wait for approval in perpetuity especially for the small players and single-unit applicants.
Another logic-defying IATF issuance is the ‘No Back-Rider’ Policy that does not exempt married couples for reasons of social distancing while ordering LGU’s to quarantine returning OFWs and locally stranded individuals at home in another policy. A cabinet secretary was quoted as saying that even inside each household, social distancing must be observed.Maybe the good secretary is thinking that he is in Utopia and all his constituents are living like the gods in Mount Olympus. No, Mr. Secretary. The living condition of most of the Filipino people has a close resemblance to a life in hell. If you were with them, you could have questioned even the meaning of life.
When construction workers, sales personnel, taxi drivers, and other persons who live each day with their minimum wage are forced to return to their provinces due to loss of job, they are compelled to immediately join with their families in houses with no bedrooms, thus, exposing all family members to possible infection from the LSI who is possibly a silent carrier. But when people go out on the streets and in other public places, the IATF imposes on them the obligation to pretend a strict adherence to the rule on social distancing under the ‘No Back-Rider’ Policy, but inside their homes, social distancing is a simple luxury they cannot have.
The President ordered local officials to do their jobs in this fight against COVID-19 on pain of incarceration for defiance of his orders.With the passage of the Local Government Code, the Philippines already abandoned centralization and embraces decentralization and local autonomy. Experience shows that this approach in governance proves more effective in responding to disasters and public emergencies since local officials know every nook and cranny of his municipality, city, or province.
The COVID-19 pandemic is just like other disasters where the LGUs are the best frontliners. However, the IATF seems to impress upon us that it is the only source of panacea for all our current sufferings. While the IATF may have all the resources, textbook expertise, and power to dictate how people should behave in this pandemic, its policies and issuances can hardly influence voluntary compliance if its rationale is anchored on the ideal and comfortable life at Mount Olympus. The IATF must consider the realities on the ground. The God’s must hear the lowly mortals and must not dismiss or ignore their complaints as pure noise. As the classic poem Desiderata exhorts us, “Listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.”