Michelle Silvertino and the forgotten LSIs

BEFORE her death at a lonely footbridge in Pasay City on June 5L Michelle Silvertino answered to the general classification of an LSI or locally stranded individual. Around 90 percent of LSIs are from remote provinces caught by the lockdown in work places in the three regions that turn out 60 percent or so of the country’s gross domestic product (GDPIL and these are the National Capital Region (Metro ManilaIL Calabarzon and Central Luzon.

The LSIs are trapped in their work places by the lockdown and consumed by the desire to return to their home provinces — to be with their next of kinL the hometowns they consider as their

Silvertino, just 33 and a single mother, longed for home and that was Calabanga, Camarines Sur. Her employers took her to Cubao, Quezon City, in late May, hoping against hope that buses will be there at the start of the current month for her ride home. Cubao, preCovid, was a major base of buses bound for various provinces of Luzon and the provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao served by the Roll-on/Roll-off bus carriers. All the bus stations have been cordoned off, however.

The secondary base of bus terminals, pre-Covid, was Pasay City. So, with the Cubao stations cordoned off, Silvertino made the long walk from Cubao to Pasay. Again, hoping against hope that buses for Calabanga were already operational in the Pasay City area. She found the stations with idle buses and yawning security personnel, fenced with ropes to indicate inactivity.

With nowhere to go and with no buses for the long ride home, Silvertino, who had four kids aged 3 to 11, was literally placed between a rock and a hard place. So she decided to make a temporary home at a footbridge — for the long wait for the buses home.

She was on her fifth day of her hopeless wait when she died, possibly of the virus — at the same Pasay City footbridge where she parked herself for the long and fruitless wait. At the Pasay City General Hospital, doctors said she had the virus. On June 3, two days before her death, a sidewalk clearing operative who had befriended the stranded Silvertino, posted her plight on social media.

The hard truth is this. Even if some Good Samaritans responded to the social media post and had the resources and the will to bring Silvertino home to Calabanga — even via private vehicle — that will and the good heart will not be enough. She had no authority to travel. And without that authority to travel, she could not leave Metro Manila for the province and hurdle the checkpoints.

The authority to travel starts with a barangay (village) certification and an endorsement from the barangay’s rural health unit. This certifies that the LSI who wants to go home is Covid-free and is neither a PUM (person under monitoring) nor a PUI (person under investigation). Those with no valid IDs have to request barangay IDs for the travel authority.

The next step is the municipal health office of the place of origin. The LSI is thoroughly checked by the doctors. Only after that can the doctors issue a health clearance.

The health certification from the municipal health officer (a doctorI is the basis for the application for a travel authority, which is granted by the regional/provincial police units. The application is filed at the municipal police stations and entered into a database. The provincial and regional commands are so swamped with LSI applications that it takes time to process and approve the travel authority sought.

If the LSI is to originate from the provinces, not Metro Manila, the driver of the vehicle and the vehicle that will take the LSI to Metro Manila have to be stated in the application for a travel authority, including the make and the model of the vehicle.

The truth is this. The wait of Silvertino at the footbridge where she died was for nothing. The happy thought of her for four kids and Calabanga might have preoccupied her during those tortured five days at the footbridge. But given the clearances required of her to travel home, which she failed to get, her wait was for nothing.

Senseless death. Nowadays, the hope for a reunion with family has to start with a clearance. There is no room for a minor omission. There is no room for humanitarian grounds even if the paper requirements are 99 percent complete and 1 percent is missing. I will tell you my own story .

I have three LSIs in the province, members of one family and natives of Jiabong, Samar. With the farm idle, and with the three obsessed with the idea of home, I started the paper applications in late May so the three could return home to Samar. I secured the barangay clearances (the barangay is Covid-freeI, the health clearances from the municipal doctors, then the travel authority from the Philippine National Police (PNPI.

On humanitarian grounds, I just cannot leave the three to the AUVs that book passengers for Catbalogan after securing permits and authority to move passengers to Samar. Despite the clearances, the land trip will definitely be long and hard. Every provincial boundary has a checkpoint, from Cavite to Sorsogon, then the Samar areas.

Despite my state of poverty, I asked a friend to book the three online on the June 10 PAL flight to Tacloban City, which was canceled, then moved the next day, June 11. (I am too old and too Luddite to do online bookings.I

I saw the three LSIs off early morning on Thursday, June 11 (they were so eager to see home that they left Quezon City before 5 a.m. for the airport even if they had to take the noon flight), in a big AUV for Terminal 2. With all the expectations that they could go home — after clearing the hurdles in Tacloban. Why not? They had in their possession their complete papers.

At 11 a.m., the frantic calls to me started. One was without an ID and the two did not want to leave the ID-less traveling companion. I pleaded with the PNP Aviation Group at the airport. Then requested the only Waray friend I have, former journalist and now Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, to please, please inform the PNP at the airport that the three were Covid-free and just LSIs with an overpowering desire to return home.

The PNP, after listening to my pleas and the appeal of Governor Evardone, considered the human factor and even helped the speedy movement of the three into the PAL clearing line.

PAL said no despite Gov. Evardone’s impassioned appeal. One had no ID — the rule is the rule.

I just hope that PAL, after rejecting the LSIs (were they terrified by the looks of farm workers?) on a very minor omission, will refund my ticket payment, ASAP. When people pay you to give them rides and you refuse to give them rides on very shaky grounds, you have the obligation to return the money they paid for the fares. PAL, please. Please. I don’t know what your rules on refund are, but you have to return my money. That is the money of a small farmer who tried his damn best to help three LSIs, whom PAL refused to seat.