Shear line, sheer haste, and buzzing confusion
Certainly, we do not want to undergo the same ordeal we experienced at the onset and during the aftermath of Typhoon Odette in 2021. Late last year, the shear line that brought heavy rains and floods left six people injured, 23 individuals missing, 166,357 people affected in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
So, when torrential rains brought about again by a shear line and coupled with a low pressure started to inundate the province, Boholanos were on guard for a potential disaster as floods were expected in identified danger zones. As part of disaster-preparedness, people would always seek for valuable information from various sources such as social media, newspapers, radio, and TV stations as their guide in their preparations.
While we commend the timely response of our LGUs and the report that there were no casualties due to the recent heavy rains, the seemingly premature release by the Provincial Government of Bohol of an advisory on work suspension in both public and private institutions provincewide has caused confusion to the workers in the private establishments.
At around 7:00 o’clock in the morning of January 12, 2023, text messages, phone calls, private messages, and even public posts in social media circulated here and there in a buzzing bewilderment. There was practically no work in the whole province except for essential establishments.
Executive Order No. 66 dated January 9, 2012 issued by the late President Benigno C. Aquino provides that in the absence of typhoon signal warnings from PAGASA, localized cancellation or suspension of classes and work in government offices may be implemented by local chief executives, as chairmen of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (LDRRMC) concerned, in coordination with PAGASA and the NDRRMC, specifically in flood-prone or high risk areas.
Although the E.O. explicitly covers both the public and private schools on cancellation of classes, there is no mention of the power of local chief executives to suspend work in private establishments. When Typhoon Karding made landfall in Quezon province and other adjacent provinces, President Marcos suspended work in government offices but left to the private sector the discretion to suspend work, subject to the employers’ obligation to ensure the security and safety of the workers.
The legally problematic advisory was later withdrawn, and replaced with a revised advisory, this time, emphasizing that the suspension of work in the private sector is discretionary to management. As the advisory circulated in social media, there were several offices in the private establishments that remained closed because no employee reported to work.
The resulting confusion may be simply dismissed as an innocuous error that can be corrected by another advisory. The problem is that workers in the private sector are subject to the “no work, no pay” rule. Although they may not be obliged to work during calamities, employers also are not obliged to pay their daily wage on the day when there is no work.
Government officials may brush aside the damage caused by the advisory as trivial. For a breadwinner who brings food on the table with his P395 wage per day, a day with no wage would mean no food for a family of five or more. Yes, this is trivial for government officials and employees who are now enjoying the blessings of pay increases sourced from people’s money and who get paid even if there is no work. But for a minimum wage earner, it is a disaster his family must deal with. A day with food may come to pass, but people will remember for a lifetime not the mistake but the attempt to hide it.