The announcement made by President Rodrigo Duterte about the community quarantine, though worrisome, gave me little time to stress as I have replenished the pantry with household essentials the weekend before. We have just enough for the succeeding weeks and one should never really panic and hoard; something I am totally against and cannot fully comprehend. Thus this looming shutdown, though giving me a little bit of anxiety, is something I psyched myself up by doing some housework, monitoring the social media and sharing relevant information to my friends and loved ones and yes, catching up on my readings.
On this lazy Sunday afternoon that I write this, I meant to do just that. Ensconced in the comforts of my home, I suddenly had this craving to make some soup for dinner and decided to drive around the neighborhood meat shop located just outside the village. The plan was just to swing around the store, get what we need then go back home.
Alas, it was not to be. The meat shop had been replaced by one of the more popular grocery marts and to get there (I was driving on the other side of the highway), I had to drive down the whole stretch of San Mateo-Batasan road to make a U-turn. Being a Sunday, I was confident that the drive would be a breeze until I saw the long stretch of traffic that reached as far back as the boundary of Marikina. And it dawned on me that this was the first day of the shutdown; and that there were military and a few civilian personnel in plastic gear manning the roadblocks to check everyone’s temperature. I knew I had seen this scenario played in one of those sci-fi/ action movies where the protagonists turn clummy and jittery as he approaches the roadblock.
And that is when I felt a little panicky. There was no way I’d be able to make that U-turn as the traffic was bumper-to-bumper and to cut through it, I would have to really drive the car close and inched my way in-between the big delivery trucks, on a standstill traffic with drivers temperatures’ flaring. Instead I drove towards Marikina City so I can use the Tumana shortcut that would take me back to Katipunan, then to our village. But a little farther down, there was a roadblock to Marikina reducing the traffic to a crawl. Motorcyclists were piled on the outer side where they are individually checked for their temperature. The inner lane was for passenger jeepneys, AUV’s and heavy vehicles where passengers inside were checked with thermal thermometers. But I, together with the two other private vehicles ahead of me, were allowed to pass by using the third lane (counter-flow) without being checked. I felt relieved but at the same time confused. Why were we given a free pass? What if I was sick and could have the dreaded COVID-19?
As I was traversing the almost deserted road of Marikina, so many thoughts came into play. Like realizing why people panic not so much of the uncertainties of these times but maybe because there is a lot of confusion in the way the information is being disseminated or miscommunicated to the public. They panic because they see the empty shelves at the stores and supermarkets. They panic because there are just too many news and they do not know what to believe anymore.
Given what I have personally experienced this first day of the shutdown, maybe there should be a lane designated for trucks which carry basic goods and services so that they will be able to smoothly go through all these checkpoints and thus reach their intended destinations on time. That instead of soldiers, armed-to-the teeth, manning the roadblocks, how about allowing the friendly barangay tanods or health workers to hold the fort as they look less intimidating? And perhaps, for the commuters who need to travel outside of Metro Manila — to be ready with your IDs just to expedite the process and please give priority to those supply trucks bringing in our basic essentials. These are not normal times. We may be encumbered by this community quarantine and because we will never know how this virus will play out, as a citizen, we must be ready to comply. Because, really, there is no other way but.