President Rodrigo Duterte announced on March 13 that Metro Manila will be placed in lockdown duie to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country. That didn’t surprise many people, as there was already a leaked copy of the resolution circulating on social media hours before. But many are left thinking after the press conference: What now? Let’s take a look at how the NCR lockdown will really affect our daily lives.
Was the move to lockdown reasonable?
The first thing that will likely come to many people’s minds is whether the lockdown was a reasonable decision. Considering the number of cases has quickly jumped from three in February to 140 now, the likelihood of a lockdown has always been there. As such, the move does feel like a reasonable one to take.
Despite President Duterte’s tendency to go on long-winded rants, he did deliver the important points of the resolution. This is because most of the points were already written for him to read. But given the urgency of the situation, he could have shortened those off-tangent spiels to deliver the points faster.
The biggest concern now is how the government is going to implement the NCR lockdown. Officials only started giving additional details about the measures after the press conference. Some of these details coming from different officials were also contradictory with each other. DILG Secretary Eduardo Ano and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, for instance, had conflicting stances regarding whether workers residing outside Metro Manila will be let in.
The government can avoid such confusion by issuing clearer directives for the implementation. Here, they need a two-pronged approach. The first they need to do is containment. Speed is the key here since they need to do the contact identification and contact tracing of possible patients. It’s unclear whether we can be fast but we’re having some progress. The testing kit kits developed by UP scientists, for instance, can play a big role in making patient diagnosis faster.
This leads to the second important thing the government needs to do, building stronger support systems. They need to encourage groups who are willing to help, such as scientists. The work of the UP researchers is awesome and they can provide more with better support.
How will the NCR lockdown affect our daily lives?
We already have a good idea of how the lockdown will affect people’s daily lives based on what we have seen with other countries like China and Italy. But when you start to think more about it in the Philippine context, it can become really scary.
One of the biggest concerns that is how it will affect workers. While officials already clarified that employees can still come to the NCR for work, they need to present certain requirements to get in. With the number of people who will still be reporting, you can expect the verification process to be slow. This will expectedly have a huge impact on them being on time for work.
This is even more difficult for those who earn on a per-day basis, as their cash flow will likely be significantly limited. Work at home is a great move but not everyone can do it. As a lot of people already joked, pa’no naman yung mga embalsamador? Pano’so sila magwo-work from home?
On the other side of the fence, businesses will also likely be hit hard. With most of their customers staying at home, how will they earn a good profit? They also need to keep paying their employees, which can potentially bankrupt them in the long run. There will be a big challenge ahead on how to marry safety and the need for people to earn a living.
The effects of the NCR lockdown on family lives
As moms, there will be a lot of adjustments on our part. For one, I need to think about how to manage my time between working and overseeing my kids’ home study sessions. Their school sent lesson modules through Viber for the entire quarantine period. It’s amazing how technology can be helpful but it’s also kinda stressful.
As for my kids, they really don’t feel like it’s something of a big deal. To them, it’s just like a super-long weekend. Of course, they are not allowed to get out, so they need to have some form of entertainment. It’s easy with gadgets like TV, cellphones, and tablets but I don’t want them to get too preoccupied with those. Luckily, my kids love the arts and rarely ask to go to the mall, so we have a lot more ways to have fun indoors.
My only sentiment is that my oldest kid will miss the traditional graduation ceremony. I must admit that I was even more excited about her doing the graduation march. It\s a rite of passage that they will sadly not be able to do, so it’s heartbreaking.
So what now?
It’s really hard to say what the new normal would be like. For now, it’s just a one-month community quarantine. But who knows whether the pandemic will die down within that period or if it will just go from bad to worse. All I know is that we need to be level headed in dealing with the situation. I don’t know how to take it if I go outside, get infected and pass the virus to my loved ones.
So for now, we’ll just have to see each other online, my friends. Stay safe and follow all the guidelines to protect yourself from CONVID-19 during the NCR lockdown.