I’ve been here for a few months already and whenever I talk to folks online I always am asked, “So, how is the Philippines handling the pandemic?”. I think the
I live in the Subic Bay area so I can only speak for what I see. There are a lot of Americans where I’m at because of the US Naval Base that used to be in Subic because of the contract they had with the United States. I’ve heard that the US may have another contract with the Philipines regarding this, but that’s a different story altogether.
Going back, I’ve seen many videos online about indifferent Americans not wanting to wear some sort of face coverings to protect themselves and the people around them. Here in the Philippines, people complain but they do so in a funny way. We still regard this place as a free country, but Filipinos are just not a big fan of attracting attention. I think that everyone in the country knows that we should be wearing a mask at this point in order to get into any establishment.
During the beginning of the pandemic, the city I lived in issued quarantine passes. Showing this pass would let us go into groceries stories to get essentials. Only one person per household is issued a pass. The guards were really strict, always wanting to see people’s IDs to match the name of the pass. We were told it was because people borrowed other people’s passes.
Barangays continued to monitor traffic by having checkpoints. As I mentioned in my previous post that business processes differ depending on who’s on duty, some barangay checkpoints were strict while others weren’t. The time of day played a huge role as I’ve observed.
One thing I stress is that Filipino attitudes are a lot more obedient compared to the United States. I always see new videos that show people who are trying to exercise their rights by saying that they have the right to wear a mask.
Just like everyone I know, they’ve been trying to find ways to exercise. I’m learning Muay Thai myself, and I try to go to the gym twice a week. The gym’s procedures require staff to check member’s temperatures while they fill out a form. No person with a temperature higher than 39 C (or 100.4 F) is allowed to enter any business premises.
I don’t think our rules are different compared to what we see in the US. I think most of the rules in the Philippines are very similar to what they have in the US. When this blog post was written, the Philippine government has yet to establish a rule in taking gatherings outdoors. I live in California and Being known for it’s tropicality, I’m not sure how citizens are going to take it if the government comes up with a rule about public gatherings. It was only recently that the Philippines started implementing laws that were normal in the US, like wearing a helmet when driving a motorcycle or scooter. For that I’m not sure how they’re going to take it.