Solons push review of IATF work, quarantine measures

Bakuna

TO spur economic recovery while protecting the health of the Filipino people, two lawmakers on Monday filed a resolution urging the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) and the Executive to recalibrate their quarantine measures by implementing a more targeted response, including granular lockdowns, and and business bubbles.

In House Resolution 2209, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo and House Committee on Economic Affairs Chairperson Sharon Garin said there is a need for a more consultative pandemic response and recovery policymaking amid this pandemic.

The two lawmakers said the government should immediately implement the granular lockdowns, bakuna and business bubbles in Metro Manila and other metropolitan areas in the country to create a more targeted response in arresting the rapid spread of the virus and avert the losses that the country incur from reliance on enhanced mobility restrictions.

“There is an urgent necessity to lift the IATF-EID’S current policy

on quarantine classifications and in lieu thereof, impose granular lockdowns on high-risk areas on the basis of, and automatically triggered by, epidemiologically determined thresholds on the number of active Covid-19 cases and Covid-19 infection growth rates,” the resolution said.

“Granular lockdowns are necessary to arrest the rapid rise of Covid-19 cases, and must be implemented through government-led efforts in tracing, isolating, and treating infected individuals,” it added.

Also, the solons noted that tourism bubbles have likewise proven to be effective as travel for leisure has been generally safely practiced, thus showing that business bubbles could likewise be successful to attain desired economic outcomes while ensuring protection against any threat to public health by enforcing minimum health standards and ramping up the Covid-19 vaccination program.

Ad hoc committee

MEANWHILE, they also called on the leadership of the House of Representatives to create the Bayanihan Para sa Pagbangon Ad Hoc Committee to review the powers, composition, and functions of the IATF-EID as well as oversee its economic recovery programs and policies.

“[We] need to execute policy reforms to review and enhance the powers, composition, and performance of IATF-EID, including the revision of the enabling law creating IATF-EID by possibly converting it from an Executive task orce to an Executive and Legislative task force,” the resolution said.

Since the declaration of the State of Public Health Emergency, the solons said the National Capital Region has been placed under the strictest lockdown or the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in three different occasions—once in 2020 and twice in 2021.

“Since March 2020, no area in the Philippines has been allowed to completely open up as different jurisdictions have been routinely placed under varying levels of community quarantine ranging from ECQ as the hardest to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ ), thus making the country’s lockdown as one of the longest lockdowns in the world,” the resolution added.

Also, the lawmakers said stricter lockdown measures would mean the closure, temporary or permanent, or the reduction of workforce of businesses deemed non-essential, which translates to decrease in workers’ wages or worse, retrenchment of employees.

“As a result of the protracted lockdown, the economy experienced the worst contraction on record at 9.5 percent in 2020 while the same year also saw the unemployment rate peak at 17.7 percent in April,” the resolution said.

“The devastating effects of strict lockdowns on the economy directly translate to the loss of jobs, shutdown of livelihoods, and hunger for vulnerable workers and their families,” it added.