NATIONWIDE ROUND-UP

Back to 1m distancing in public transport until Duterte decides

PHYSICAL DISTANCING in public transport is reverting to a minimum of one meter after the policy on reduction that started Monday was suspended on Thursday. Palace Spokesperson Harry L. Roque, in a briefing Thursday, said the transport secretary recalled the new protocol while President Rodrigo R. Duterte decides on the issue that has drawn varying positions among Cabinet members themselves as well as medical and other sectoral groups. The Department of Transportation (DoTr), with approval from the national task force on the coronavirus response, started reducing the distance between passengers to 0.75 meters on Monday, and was planning to further decrease this to 0.5 meter by September 28 and 0.3 on October 12.  

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A group of medical experts led by former health secretary Manuel M. Dayrit issued a statement on Wednesday supporting the distance reduction and at the same time recommended “seven commandments” on avoiding the spread of coronavirus while the country reopens the economy. Mr. Dayrit, who was present during the Palace briefing yesterday, said while the one meter distance is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), this is not a “dogma” and countries can make their own adjustments. “You have to apply measures to be sure that if you are below one meter, you are compensating for any loss of protection,” Mr. Dayrit said. The medical group’s position has been backed by business organizations. In a statement, the private sector groups said limiting the capacity of public transportation encourages more crowding and longer lines, which expose the public more to the virus. “People should practice physical distancing where appropriate but be given alternative options to relax this requirement where the risks are manageable,” they said. The “seven commandments” are: wearing of proper face masks, wearing of face shields, no talking and no eating, adequate ventilation, frequent and proper disinfection, no symptomatic passengers, and appropriate social distancing. “Given the above recommendations, we support the Department of Transportation’s plans to gradually relax distancing so long as the 7 Commandments are well communicated and strictly enforced alongside it,” they said. The statement’s signatories are: Bankers Association of the Philippines; Bounce Back PH; Foundation for Economic Freedom; IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines; Management Association of the Philippines; Makati Business Club; Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, Inc.; Philippine Business Education; Restaurant Owners of the Philippines; Semiconductor & Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Inc.; and the American, Canadian, European, and Japanese business chambers. 

AGAINST

On the other hand, a group of civil society organizations led by the Action for Economic Reforms pushed to maintain the one meter protocol. “We believe that the harm that reducing physical distancing poses to commuters undermines its goal of facilitating economic recovery,” they said in a statement.  They also recommended alternatives such as increasing the supply of public utility vehicles and enabling safe bicycling by providing appropriate infrastructure such as protected lanes. — Gillian M. Cortez, Vann Marlo M. Villegas and Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza

PhilHealth investigation continuing; more could be held liable

THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DoJ) is carrying on with the investigation on anomalies in Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) after submitting the report last Monday by an inter-agency task force it led, according to Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra. In a message to reporter via Viber, Mr. Guevarra said they are planning to form more composite teams to probe various aspects of the irregularities. “For discussion pa. We need to prioritize, lest we spread ourselves too thinly,” he said. One team being considered is on financial management for “issues like window dressing of financial managements.” There are so far two composite teams focusing on the information technology and legal departments of PhilHealth, which have been given 30 days to complete their investigation. “Then we’ll prepare the complaints if there’s enough evidentiary basis,” he said on Wednesday. In a separate Malacañang briefing on Thursday, the DoJ chief said he is confident that they have “sufficient evidence” to charge the officials named in the initial report. “For those we have identified, I think we have sufficient evidence so the Ombudsman can consider this as possible finding of probable cause. But we will not preempt the Ombudsman. From my point of view, I am saying we have sufficient evidence,” he said. In the same briefing, Palace Spokesperson Harry L. Roque said the President gave instructions to new PhilHealth President Dante A. Gierran to “clean up” the agency by December. “File all the cases that need to be filed, suspend, terminate, whatever you need to do in order to cleanse the ranks of PhilHealth,” Mr. Roque said, citing President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s order. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas and Gillian M. Cortez