Review the differential treatment
of tourists, OFWs, LSIs, APORs, and residents
The province is set to accept tourists by the middle of this month in an effort to resuscitate a once bustling industry that has been adversely affected by the pandemic. Bohol’s offering will be limited to MICE or meetings, incentives, conferencing, and exhibitions, and then later to small groups or individuals.
It was revealed that the province will relax the quarantine requirement as tourists may opt to undergo a swab test upon arrival and undergo quarantine while waiting for the result. Tourists opting to stay for more than five (5) days will be tested on the fifth day, according to reports.
Reports of other tourist destinations that have reopened earlier show a slow pickup. Since it has been almost a year that this vibrant industry has been sleeping, the move now is to shift gears from risk aversion to risk management.
As Bohol relaxes its protocols to accommodate the tourists, it is also hoped that the protocols for OFWs, LSIs, and local residents must be reviewed and harmonized with national policies. There is one account of an OFW whose ordeal in returning home was aggravated by confusing quarantine protocols. Although he completely understood the need for swab tests, he could not comprehend the logic of the LGU when, after getting a negative result for the test performed in Bohol after seven (7) days of quarantine, he was not allowed by the RHU to be fetched by his wife on the 10th day using their private vehicle since allegedly there is still a possibility that he has the virus, but instead he was ordered to take a tricycle in going home to finish his 14-day quarantine. However, when the same LGU experienced a meteoric rise of COVID-19 cases, it allowed those who were found positive to stay in their respective residences and allowed the asymptomatic positive residents to go outside their residence after the lapse of 14 days without conducting any further test. The policy allegedly is based on science. Since the OFW is scheduled to undergo a training in Cebu in only a matter of days after the end of his quarantine as an OFW, he will again undergo another ordeal although in a different category, this time as an LSI, after he comes back from the training.
As the province opens its doors to tourists, another set of protocols is adopted. Since we are badly in need for tourists, we willingly traded off safety protocols, leaving the OFWs, LSIs, APORs, and residents to be treated differently in a variety of ways according to each LGU’s interpretation.
During this pandemic, people have tamely surrendered their constitutionally protected freedoms to the government as the latter leads the battle against COVID-19. However, the people’s submission to policies designed to promote the welfare of the public should not be construed as a license to treat people differently where no reasonable distinction justifies a preferential treatment for one group while the other groups are subjected to more stringent measures. We urge our LGUs to seriously consider whether this differential treatment has caused more harm than good.