Forced to good

Today’s column title comes from the card game “21” that we played back in college where the best score you can get from two cards would be a total score of 21. But if a player ends up with a low score anywhere from 10 to 15, you could make a gamble and draw your third and final card to get as close to 21. However, many players who get anything from 16 to 18 total sum would often call out “force to good” rather than score more than 21 and go bust.

I was reminded of the term while thinking about the government’s decision to shift from MECQ to GCQ. President Duterte and some of his officials have time and again suggested that shifting to GCQ was something they did not want but had to do in order to restart the economy and because of extreme pressure from the Business sector. In the vernacular: “Napilitan.” It is the paradox best said as: “Damned if you do – Damned if you don’t.” There are no right answers and no right decisions. But there are right strategies, but unfortunately simply opening up Metro Manila and the NCR to working individuals aged 21 to 59 based on an expected date, June 1, was the worst thing the IATF and the Duterte administration could have done. Yes I have the benefit of hindsight at the expense of IATF officials and that may seem unfair. But here’s my take on how the IATF could have done it better.

About a month ago, guys like Presidential Adviser Joey Concepcion was already talking about doing things at the barangay level. Whether it was monitoring and dealing with COVID cases or opening businesses, Concepcion said that it would be best to start at the barangays where everybody knew each other and was easier to control. That was a good idea although it’s now too late, I think. In my opinion, instead of opening up the entirety of Metro Manila or the NCR, what should have been done was to open up clusters of barangays, small cities or halve big cities into two or three areas and allow residents to work and move around within that area only. By doing so, containment would be in effect; contact tracing would be easier, even mobility would be manageable. Cities have an assortment of transportation options from in-city buses such as Pasig City, TNVS, FX, tricycles, padyak, and bicycles are all pre-existing and does not require re-inventing the wheel.

Many Mom & Pop stores, companies and corporations are located in these places and many of their employees also live within the area. In fact a number of big corporations in the Ortigas, Makati and Pasay areas have employees who’ve taken up weekday residence within walking distance from the offices. These LGUs also have the necessary medical facilities and frontliners to respond to any reported cases arising from the shift to GCQ. By limiting the initial opening within or inside cities and not the entire NCR, we would be able to continue monitoring and tracking possible cases, while testing locally. It would also stop the hordes going into a few malls. The cluster-based or city-based reopening would have also given local officials the chance to study and profile how many percent of the employees in those business establishments are local residents.

Given the impact of COVID-19, we should really start studying this and come up with policies if not laws that give LGUs the right to offer incentives to companies to first employ local residents of the city they are doing business in. Many LGUs don’t find this incentive programs attractive but if you think in terms of less traffic, less parking problems, less pollution, less day time population and your constituents saving money to spend on their locality, it is clear that every city in the NCR would benefit more than just taxes or revenues. I sympathize with DOTr Secretary Tugade and MMDA GM Jojo Garcia who are both in a no-win situation concerning the lack of transportation. It is unfair to make them the whipping boys of GCQ for the simple reason that the mandatory social distancing policy and health protocols immediately knocked out 80 percent of the usual number of transport vehicles of every type. It was safety first, service second. It was also unrealistic to send out thousands if not hundreds of thousands knowing the statistics. As I said “Napilitan” or “Forced to good” but got busted.

That was a bad gamble on the part of the IATF because now we find hundreds of people climbing on anything that has wheels, and rolls. In fact the AFP, which has sent out their trucks to help, may unwittingly have created the perfect storm for a second wave of COVID-19 infections as people piled up on their trucks forgetting social distancing. Today is our fifth day under GCQ. It might be a good idea for the IATF and the Duterte administration to figure out if we can afford to push our luck or is there enough reason and risks on the ground to reconsider the present strategy? If people continue to walk to work, if people continue to pile up on trucks, if people have to carry on traveling further just to go to work, shouldn’t we start considering going local, doing localized job-matching, giving companies incentive to hire local first? This can be the new normal when Filipinos can all walk to work, bike to work and be proud of their city and the community they belong to.

Remember John Lennon’s song “Imagine”? Don’t sing it, just “Imagine”….

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