Senators to IATF: Optimize 2-week MECQ by improving strategies

Several senators on Monday expressed the hope that Metro Manila and nearby provinces' shift to a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) will not be in vain, and pressed the government to seize the opportunity to re-strategize.

"Kasama dapat sa pagbabalik ng MECQ ang mas agresibong testing at contact tracing, pagpapalakas ng community-based care at hospital capacity and efficiency, ayuda para sa bulnerable, at kaligtasan sa transportasyon at trabaho. Hindi na bago ang mga panawagang ito," Senator Risa Hontiveros said during a privilege speech.

She pointed out that no lockdown will work unless a clearer health strategy is put in place.

"Malinaw na pumalpak ang gobyerno sa nakaraang lockdown. Huwag natin hayaan masayang ulit ang dalawang linggong pagbabalik-MECQ. Kaya ng Pilipino magtiis, dapat kaya ng pamahalaan mamahala," she added.

Senator Nancy Binay also urged the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to maximize this time to strengthen its information drive.

"Communication is vital in a state of public health emergency, pero hanggang ngayon nangangapa pa rin ang bawat barangay at pamilya kung ano ang tamang protocol: who to contact, what to do, where to go, and how to handle COVID cases that overwhelm them every day," she said in a separate statement.

"Government can optimize the 'timeout' to reassess, recalibrate its strategies, set plans, and treat the interim as an opportunity to correct mistakes and miscues," she added.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian also underscored that the MECQ would be futile if other aspects of pandemic response would not be improved.

"Dapat i-isolate ang lahat ng positive cases, gumamit ng teknolohiya sa contact tracing, at siguraduhin na tama ang impormasyon na nilalabas ng mga ahensya," he said on Twitter.

Metro Manila and other nearby areas will be placed under MECQ once again from August 4 to 18 after health workers appealed for a "time out" to help them recuperate from exhaustion due to almost non-stop admission of COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

Senator Joel Villanueva said he hopes the dialogue between the medical community and the IATF would result in more effective strategies to address the pandemic.

"Umaasa po tayo na ipatutupad ng IATF ang mga mungkahi ng ating medical community. Limang buwan na po tayong nasa ilalim ng quarantine, ngunit hanggang sa ngayon, tila reactive pa rin ang diskarte ng IATF," he lamented.

Villanueva, chair of the Senate committee on labor, said regular and random COVID-19 testing should be implemented for workers.

He likewise urged the Department of Labor and Employment to continue their labor inspections and ensure that minimum health standards are being implemented by employers.

Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe who chairs the committee on public services, focused her concern on the mobility of workers as public transportation would again be suspended under MECQ.

"Shuttle services should be ready to ferry essential employees to their place of work and back home amid limited public transportation," she said.

"We hope private firms can also consider hiring jeepneys as service contractors so they can have a source of income," she added.

Further, the Poe urged the Department of Transportation to extend assistance to public utility drivers who would again lose income for two weeks.

She likewise encouraged employers to provide allowance to "no work, no pay" employees, and urged mall owners to waive the rent of their tenants during the MECQ period.

There are 106,330 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines as of Monday, including 65,821 recoveries and 2,104 deaths. — BM, GMA News