06/08/2020 STEPHANIE P.

FRONDOSO BSCE-1C ETHICS

The Enhanced Community Quarantine Amidst the Pandemic

By Stephanie Frondoso

Everyone was expecting this year to be the year but who would have thought that
this will be full of chaos? As the Philippines suffers from this pandemic, the Filipino
people are also expecting so much from the government. The COVID-19 outbreak
began in Wuhan, China and now taking lives of many Filipinos. Duterte puts the whole
Luzon into Enhanced Community Quarantine which is one of the mitigation plans that
the government came up that was effective for almost two months.

The Enhanced Community Quarantine prohibits any social gathering and shut
down some of the businesses thus affecting the country's economy and making it
harder to survive the lockdown for people with dwindling resources. Restrictions on the
entrance and exit of the National Capital Region and other nearby provinces were
observed. Men in uniform were positioned at every boundary of the cities inspecting and
regulating the people coming in and out of the city. Moreover, the Local Government
Unit had also implemented of having gate pass and only one in the family is allowed to
go out and buy the necessities - except for the front liners that facilitate the
implementation of lockdown and medical health professionals that cure the COVID-19
patients.

As this year progresses, the positive cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines also
rise, making this nation with high fatality rate across South East Asia, underscoring the
weakness of its increasingly strained public health system. The government had
incurred a debt of over 7.8 trillion pesos in three world banks to provide financial
assistance to the family with low income and no job at all this quarantine period.
However, this economic shock will not only impact Duterte's administration but will echo
in the coming years making the Filipino people and nation's economic status vulnerable.

With the incompetent response and unreadiness of the government in this trying
times, the Filipino people complained and questioned the management of various public
sectors especially the Department of Health. Everyone is asking for the mass testing but
the government is focusing on passing the Anti-Terrorism Bill in the Congress. This
shows that they are trying to divert our attention regarding their incompetencies on
some other matter that is irrelevant. Proper addressing of the pandemic to resolve and
stop the virus from spreading is a must that the government should do rather than
looking for another issue that will not guarantee the safety of the people.

The pandemic showed us what the government can do in times like this, what the
so called leaders can offer for the public good and safety. It is the time where we should
assess and open our eyes if who really have a heart to serve the people. We do not
need a high profile person in the government, what we need is someone who can
properly address the issue and take care of the rights if his people.

Stephanie Pursona Frondoso

B.S. in Civil Engineering – 1C
Bicol University
College of Engineering

Ethics
Prof. Martin Harry Guab