PAMALAKAYA warns against “another police lockdown”
Manila, Philippines — “We’ve seen this film before, and we didn’t like the ending. The government does not learn from its blunders that mobilizing police and military, instead of health workers and professionals, during quarantine is futile and literally a waste of manpower and resources,” according to the militant fishers group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) on Monday, in response to what the group has called another “police lockdown” for two weeks starting tomorrow in the Mega Manila.
In a statement, PAMALAKAYA said that a stricter community quarantine is a “conspicuous proof” of the government’s “failure” to directly address the health concerns of the pandemic.
“We’ve literally wasted months for nothing courtesy of President Duterte’s pandemic fiasco. If the government had heeded the calls for free mass testing, contact tracing, supportive isolation, and other pharmaceutical interventions from the very beginning, we would have not reverted to a more strict quarantine,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.
The fisherfolk group called that while the Mega Manila is under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), government subsidy for the affected sectors should be “a must”.
Laslty, PAMALAKAYA commended the frontliners, especially the health workers, who are most at risk of contracting the virus for their “indefatigable” service to contain the pandemic. ###
