One of the less funny issues that blew up last week was the ugly spat between the government officials of Bacolod City and the province of Negros Occidental over the S-PaSS requirement.
The trouble stemmed from conflicting policies regarding the S-PaSS that inbound travelers were required to have. The Bacolod City government dispensed of that particular requirement when its Alert Level was lowered while the NegOcc provincial government chose not to.
As we have experienced over the past 6 years, conflicting policies and flip flopping is normal under our current form of governance and instead of being annoyed, we have accepted our fate and usually just make light of the rule changes that come with absolute lack of coordination among everyone involved. The face shield, which I personally feel is the symbol of the Philippines’ brand of pandemic response, is proof of this often unnecessary confusion.
Anyway, back to the S-PaSS brouhaha.
There would be absolutely no problem if the airport were located in Bacolod City but unfortunately for travelers, ours is in Silay City, which falls under the realm of the provincial government. This was where the conflicting policy on S-PaSS somehow turned into a warzone.
The city didn’t require an S-PaSS for Bacolod residents but the province did. This was not a problem if arriving via boat because the port is in Bacolod however, those who took an airplane thinking no S-PaSS would be required because they were going to a city that didn’t ask for it, were in for a surprise because the airport isn’t in Bacolod.
In summary, travelers suffered the confusion and inconvenience while the proud officials of our city and province dug down and engaged in a word war instead of privately coordinating, aligning their policies and settling their differences over a peace pipe or a cup of coffee.
Despite the impact on Negrense travelers, the conflict wasn’t resolved and in the end, both the city and the province ran to the national government for help and clarity. And what did the Department of Interior and Local Government dude say in response? He added to the confusion by saying that both the city and the province were well within their rights to set whatever policy they want.
In the end, the provincial government stuck to its S-PaSS guns and didn’t back down to the Bacolod people. Anyone passing through the airport that is not located in Bacolod City must present an S-Pass because that is the rule that they fought for. Bacolod may not require an S-PaSS but until it can get its old airport reactivated, offer helicopter shuttle services from the tarmac to the city, or install a teleportation device; anyone passing through the airport screeners will have to cough one up.
All this could’ve been avoided if only the officials concerned bothered communicating and coordinating with each other. They talked of respect and disrespect and held a pissing contest while confusion among travelers ensued. It would seem that the officials involved valued their pride more than the concerns of their constituents.
But, if you come to think of it, the root cause of all this is the lack of a clear rules and guidelines from national government, which has been a problem even before the pandemic struck. Aside from the S-PaSS brouhaha, which obviously occurred because there is no proper instruction manual, there was the community quarantine alphabet soup. We’ve been doing this for almost two years but does anybody even know the difference between ECQ, MECQ, GCQ, and MGCQ? If the answer is no, the explanation is that we were just starting to get it when they changed it to an Alert Level system that up to now, only the silly rule makers understand. With all that confusion and lack of coordination, it is no wonder that the Negros-Bacolod S-PaSS conflict of 2021 broke out.
When National Government has no idea what it is doing, how can we expect local government units to coordinate properly? Aside from the quarantine status mess and the S-PaSS confusion, the vaccination rollout inequality is also proof of this lack of coordination. While some areas, such as Bacolod City, are doing very well in terms of vaccination, others are not. The officials involved could be and should be sharing best practices in order to improve their efforts but, as the S-PaSS brouhaha has shown, pride is very important for these public officials who are supposed to deliver the services we need, whether a pandemic is raging or not.
The S-PaSS conflict is just a symptom of a sickness in the system. Until our government officials can recognize that something needs to be done and take their medicine, it will only get worse. The problem is that this sickness does not bother them, only us, the people that they supposedly serve.*
