This is my entry to both @derangedvision's "How are you spending your quarantine? 100 Hive contest!" and @theycallmedan's "#QuarantineLife Initiative". Is this acceptable? I don't know. I just decided to have one big post than to have two posts of almost the same story.
Not a great time for a travel content creator. My Kim's Quest series is on a halt. I should have entries for this month and next month as we had planned to be in Bacolod last March 13 to 15, but we cancelled on the day of our flight. We planned to attend the wedding of my friend and tour around the city at the same time.
With cancelled flights comes cancelled hotel bookings. Good thing the airline allowed the cancellation, but we won't have a refund. It will be on a travel fund that should be used within the next 3 months. I wonder where will I go to use that travel fund once this is all over.
Turned out the decision to cancel our flight two weeks ago was a good decision. There was no quarantine in Cebu yet that time, but things escalated quickly. There were 64 confirmed cases of COVID-19 already, but mostly in Metro Manila. There was no confirmed case in Cebu yet, but the neighboring Island of Negros has one confirmed case. On the afternoon of March 15 (our supposed to be flight back to Cebu), the governor of Cebu decided issued an executive order to restrict passengers from the entire Island of Negros. If we were still in Bacolod, it's either were stuck there or we were able to go back here in Cebu, but would be placed in mandatory 14-day quarantine.
On the midnight March 15, Metro Manila was already under "community quarantine" or partial lockdown. To be honest, I get confused with the terminologies used; there's "voluntary community quarantine", "community quarantine", "enhanced community quarantine", "extreme enhanced community quarantine", "partial lockdown", and "full lockdown". I didn't mind the proper definitions and technicalities of each term. The aim is to limit the movement and interactions of people and the difference is just on the extent or scope of the restrictions. Each local government units (LGUs) have also adopted their own executive orders with detailed implementing rules.
Meanwhile in Cebu, most of the cases are persons under investigation (PUIs) and persons under monitoring (PUMs). There was no confirmed case yet that time because of the lack of testing in Cebu. Samples were still sent to the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) and there's a lot of backlog since all of the hospitals in provinces with suspected COVID-19 case would send the samples to RITM.
I didn't believe that there's no confirmed case in Cebu that time because most of the international tourists would pass by Cebu. First confirmed case in Cebu was announced on March 18 and it was in Mandaue City. My anxiety level spiked that time, but we were still working. Most of us were already anxious because the masks that were provided by our company were already controlled as supplies were running low.
Last week was the most nerve-wracking experience I had in the office. This was still prior to the community quarantine. There was a plan in PEZA that they were planning to close all the other gates except one gate and only two thermal scanners were to be installed. They were advocating for social distancing and yet what they're planning will certainly create a bottle neck considering the population of workers in Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ). Our company said that they will provide exclusive transportation for us employees, but it didn't happen until March 25. Public transportation was already scarce and the number of passengers were limited per vehicle to have that social distancing.
The governor of Cebu and the mayors of the cities were already considering an enhanced community quarantine. This eventually lead to the announcement that starting March 29 (Sunday), all operations were to be suspended (except banks, groceries, pharmacies, hospitals, and money transfers), no public transportation, not allowed to travel inter-city, and 24 hours home quarantine.
This leads to where we are today. NO WORK, NO PAY. I don't know when my funds will last and considering I'm the breadwinner of the family, I don't know where to find money if this will continue to drag on. Although 1/4 of our 13th month pay has been released together with the salary from last quincena, I doubt it will be enough in the coming days.
This is just the second day of the Enhanced Community Quarantine. Last day of our work was on March 28 (Saturday), but I didn't go to work since March 27 (Friday). For the first time in history, Cebu City was cut off from the rest of the province of Cebu. As most of the cases in Central Visayas are from Cebu City, the governor of Cebu decided to restrict movement in and out of the city except for those exempted as stated in the executive order. Other highly urbanized cities, Mandaue City (where I live) and Lapu-Lapu City (where I work) have adopted almost similar measures.
There's one quarantine pass for every household and it's only allowed for essential errands like buying food and medicine, going to the bank, or emergency cases like going to the hospital. This shouldn't have happened if the actions of the government are proactive. From what I see, all the actions are mostly reactive and sometimes drastic that no proper risk assessment was done before implementation.
There's no time for blame game now as it has already became a full-blown shit storm. I'm not complaining while I stayed at home, but I'm worried of what will happen in the coming days. The number of cases in Cebu continues to rise as the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) is now allowed to test and release results. Without mass testing, I think there's no assurance that everything will become normal once the lockdown is lifted.
As for now, I'm thinking of ways to be productive. As @derangedvisions said, "quarantine doesn't have to be boring". I don't usually feel bored when I'm at home because it's either I'm asleep or just scrolling on my phone. As long as I have access to the internet, I think I wouldn't feel bored, at least for now. I have a lot of things that I planned to do, but I don't know where to start.
One thing is for sure, I won't be installing and using tiktok. Not that I'm against those who are using the app, in fact they're cute, it's just that I have two reasons why I won't join the bandwagon. First, I'm not cute enough to make fun of myself and second, I don't have a talent in dancing or whatsoever. I guess I'll find other ways of killing my time while on quarantine.
Yesterday, I went out to see the sunset. Don't worry, I didn't violate any rule. It was just within the vicinity and I brought with me our quarantine pass just to be sure. Maybe I'll study more about photography and stuff. I want my remaining quarantine days to be self-enriching.
This pandemic made me realize a lot of things. It exposed a very rotten system in which the society is founded. In the Philippines, those rich politicians and celebrities are getting tested twice or thrice for COVID-19 even if they are showing no symptoms, while some patients died waiting for their results due to the backlog in the testing center. Those rich, but tone deaf, entitled asses are angry at the people who didn't stay at home. Not everyone has the luxury to stay at home. Before the imposed shutdown, I'm one of those people who chose to go to work even if I'm exposing myself every commute because we would get hungry if I won't work.
Some companies are operating just for profits. Their employees are just disposable tools to achieve their targets. I experienced it first hand. They are always saying that they are doing their best for their employees and yet, their actions are very slow to almost ineffective. The system is very bureaucratic. If anyone in the company would get infected, I doubt there will be enough compensation to cover the hospital bills.
I am actually planning to resign because I can't stand with how the employees are treated anymore, but I won't have any stable source of income if I do so. Global recession is also looming as the aftermath of this pandemic so, it won't be easy to find another job. Now, I'm considering all the options that I have, but I don't have much.
I will be spending more time on weighing things, considering all the factors, and hopefully, I can decide on what to do once the lockdown is over. What I'm worried though is that everyone would get complacent when the lockdown is lifted and one asymptomatic carrier would cause a new wave of infection.
I hope and pray that everyone will just cooperate and the government will help its people during this crisis. Our health workers should be the last line of defense, but we are treating them as frontliners. Based on latest data, 12 out 71 who died due to COVID-19 in the Philippines are doctors. If the burden is always on our medical practitioners, they would get exhausted and would be susceptible to the virus. I hope that something could be done for this.
At the end of this pandemic, as they say, it's not the billionaires who saved us, it's the janitors, security guards, cashiers, nurses, pharmacists, cargo drivers, and doctors. Let's treat them right.
Stay home and stay safe.
Update: I just learned that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) just declared a global economic recession. I guess I'll start to accept that I might have no job to go back to. I don't have to resign if that's the case.
Kim Ybañez
Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines) and the rest of the world even if he's still a poor corporate slave with tons of bills to pay and two siblings to support in college.
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