APOR

The acronym stands for Authorized Persons Outside of Residence. This means that he or she is part of the exemptions set aside by the inter-agency task force, provided that the privilege is granted in the line of duty. Over the weekend, several of these APORs, including doctors, were apprehended for violating quarantine protocols. It sounded so ironic.

Surprisingly, they were on a night out, probably to de-stress after a long day at work. Who wouldn't want to release some toxins when a day's toil has been too hard? It came as a shock and as a pun to see on the headlines that doctors were now being charged for such violations. However, I see this more than their violation but also of the establishments they were in. It’s quite clear that there are operating hours in regulation of the quarantine status and letting them along with several others out late is clearly in violation of that.

I know how we all want to just find a place where we can unwind until the wee hours of the morning. I'm one of those who want to find that kind of place so badly after months of staying at home and ending the day late at our store. But that's just how it is; having to leave because of closing time has become a normal for me and my friends. Sad, but we have to comply, it's the rules we cannot circumvent. I have to admit that I don't get the logic sometimes why the spread of COVID may be prevented by shortened business hours. It only makes sense when there are less people in that certain area.

We are now slowly moving into the picture which we saw last year: military trucks and tanks along the road, policemen circling every corner and the painstaking checkpoints that sometimes take forever to get through. Others are blaming the dawn masses nine days prior to Christmas but it is quite clear --the spike in cases comes from unregulated gatherings. The emergency operations center of Cebu City can attest to that. These are the offspring of negligence just because they were in a festive mood to celebrate the holidays.

With Sinulog already gone, we have no other big event to think of but the daily lives of every Cebuano in this pandemic. An anticipation of the spike in cases is reasonable as well as the rush to scare people off with force. I guess that’s how it’s going to work from now on, making sure everyone is threatened as they try entirely to go over the law.

What I wish for is that APORs would stop using their jobs as an excuse to go out, have fun and be with friends. That isn't part of the reason they were allowed to go out. It isn’t bad to unwind, but maybe with regulation.