By Maya M. Padillo, Correspondent
and Marifi S. Jara, Mindanao Bureau Chief

When the state of emergency was declared on March 8, the President’s proclamation cited the need for a “whole-of-government” response to the pandemic — a term first used in the Duterte administration’s strategy to end the communist armed movement, which had local governments as the lead envoys.

But coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was a different kind of adversary.

It is an “invisible enemy,” said Mayor Michelle N. Rabat of Mati City, the capital of Davao Oriental which has been recognized as a model province for its reintegration program for former rebels.

“We were fighting blind. And with a weak health system, we had to find ways and be innovative in our approach,” Ms. Rabat said.

One of the innovations launched by the city was a heatmap, a mobile phone application for keeping track of all persons confirmed with COVID-19 as well as those categorized as suspected and under monitoring.

Ms. Rabat said the app was prompted by public clamor for the local government to disclose information on its three confirmed cases, which violates privacy laws.

“So we were in a dilemma as to how to deal with it. Thus, we came up with the heatmap. That way, the public could visualize (where the confirmed and potential patients are)… They would now have the choice which areas to avoid,” she said.

Until May 28, with the province in a more relaxed form of quarantine for almost two weeks, the confirmed cases stayed at three, all of whom recovered.

On May 29, a dozen new cases were recorded. Eight were returning overseas workers and four were residents who were locked out of the province when airports and borders closed.

The 12, all asymptomatic, went straight to isolation facilities across the province, which were set up during the almost three-month lockdown.

“By containing (the returnees), we decrease the chance of local transmission… We did not take chances,” said Reden V. Bersaldo, head of the Davao Oriental Provincial Hospital and lead action officer of the province’s COVID-19 task force.

Local governments around the country have generally taken similar ultra-cautious approaches, driven in part by the knowledge that healthcare facilities will be hard-pressed to handle a surge in cases.

Governors and mayors were often a step ahead of, stricter than, and sometimes in conflict with, the National Government.

They were able to do so as the national health emergency declaration authorized them to issue executive orders, which do not require approval from their councils.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte, in his March 16 speech expanding the Metro Manila lockdown to Luzon, did not spell out what the rest of the country was supposed to do, but granted pretty much blanket authority to local governments.

“Just go ahead and the mayor will do it for us… one line lang ngayon, mayor lang muna (it’s one line for now, just the mayor). And he can come up with any measure to protect public health, public interest, public order, public safety and whatever is needed to make life more livable in your place,” the President said.

The Philippines has 1,634 mayors, leading 146 cities and 1,488 towns.

Of the cities, 38 are highly urbanized or independent while 108 are governed by provinces. All towns are under provincial jurisdiction.

Mayor Oscar S. Moreno of Cagayan de Oro, an independent city, said making the initial decisions and taking the first steps were not easy.

Mr. Moreno noted that it was particularly challenging in his case as he had to take into consideration that the city serves as a regional center and is home to the best-equipped public hospital in Northern Mindanao.

“As the pandemic started, we were totally in the dark… Being in the dark, I decided back on March 13 that we will have our daily briefings… the reason is to inform the people on matters that we feel we need them to know,” he said during a May 15 webinar on Vulnerabilities, Preparedness and Resilience organized by the Ateneo de Manila University’s Institute of Philippine Culture.

The briefings, both internal and open to the public through live streaming on social media, were attended by regional and city health authorities, officials of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, and the police.

The mayor said this constant communication was important because “public health is very elusive, it is like catching mudfish.”

Mr. Moreno said the city also launched an “intensified surveillance program” with teams deployed on a house-to-house mission to collect data, especially for potential COVID-19 patients among those who recently returned to the city.

The data collected will be used in an app being developed by Xavier University for contact tracing and other emergency situations.

As of June 11, the city managed to keep its COVID-19 cases at 15, with six recoveries and six deaths.

“I think the common factor in cases of success at the local level is decisive action from the local chief executive that is principally driven by a real desire to meet the identified needs of the community,” Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, said.

“In fact, I think the chaos at the national level has been a hindrance in some way for some local governments to mobilize efforts to serve their respective constituencies,” he added.

‘NOT AN ENEMY’
One widely reported injured party of the chaotic state of affairs was Marikina City and its initiative early in the outbreak to set up its own testing facility — just as global health experts were starting to stress the value of “test, test, test” to immediately identify and isolate virus carriers.

Marikina’s plan was held hostage by the Department of Health’s inability to expedite the accreditation of facilities in the face of the emergency.

Another instance was when Pasig Mayor Victor N. Sotto wanted to keep tricycles operating in the city to serve frontline workers and those needing medical care, despite the ban on all public transportation. He ended up being threatened by national officials with administrative and criminal charges.

At the same time, a food supply crisis was brewing as local government executives started to impose stringent rules at their borders in an attempt to keep the virus out.

By March 19, Mr. Duterte, who was mayor of Davao City for almost two decades before becoming president, backtracked on his pronouncement three days earlier with a message addressed specifically to local government units (LGUs).

“I know you have the mandate to deal with emergencies affecting your localities. I was a mayor myself, in case you have forgotten. But this is an emergency of national proportions, and therefore it is the National Government that should call the shots,” he said.

“Let us work together to implement this quarantine, and it should all begin with the LGUs making sure that your actions are consistent with the national directives. To do otherwise would sow confusion.”

Things cooled off over the succeeding weeks as LGUs and local health authorities busied themselves attending to the relatively minimal number of COVID-19 cases, contact tracing, preparing isolation facilities and strengthening existing healthcare institutions, ensuring the implementation of quarantine protocols, and distributing aid.

But in the last week of May, tensions between national agencies and local governments again erupted as some 24,000 overseas Filipino workers — who were displaced by the pandemic, with most returning via Manila where they were quarantined for 14 days and then became “locally-stranded individuals” (LSIs) — were suddenly being loaded on to planes and buses bound for the provinces without sufficient notice to local authorities.

The rush was prompted by a directive from Mr. Duterte to various departments to sort out the situation within a week.

“Surprise flights from the National Government” that did not always arrive on schedule was how the South Cotabato provincial government described the repatriation, with teams suddenly needed to be deployed in the wee hours to process and provide further transport to the returnees.

Mayor Richard I. Gomez of Ormoc, an independent city that managed to stay COVID-free prior to the reopening of its borders, unwittingly became the poster boy of the LGUs’ frustration.

Mr. Gomez, a former actor and national athlete, stood up to the President’s chief legal counsel and interior secretary when they accused him of having gone into panic mode by blocking returnees.

“The point being, we are honest enough to disclose kung ilan lang ’yung (what is our) capacity… and we will not pretend to be heroes by accommodating more than that at any given time. Because the system cannot collapse. It will be disastrous,” he said.

The mayor said local governments are ready to follow the President’s orders “because we are the soldiers on the ground,” but the implementation has to be coordinated and organized.

“Hindi po kami kalaban (We are not the enemy),” he said.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn F. Garcia, who locked horns with national officials over such issues as the airport’s closure and the ban on motorcycle back-riding, said in a June 9 briefing, “Sometimes, it is so difficult if there is a national policy that does not seem to consider the realities on the ground and what the people need.”

Mr. Yusingco said while “obviously, the central government must play a robust role in a national emergency,” a more “cooperative and collaborative approach would be a welcome change.”

RECOVERY
Such collaboration will be even more crucial as the country navigates the road to economic recovery with COVID-19 remaining a serious threat.

One National Government initiative — the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program — could put pressure on areas outside the capital as urban migrants take up the offer to start again in their home provinces with promises of decent housing and livelihood prospects.

The government is expecting at least a million people to sign up, according to National Housing Authority General Manager Marcelino P. Escalada, Jr.

These Balik Probinsya beneficiaries will be joining displaced overseas workers who have come home as well as local residents who lost their jobs or closed their businesses.

The program intends to achieve countryside development by supporting micro, small and medium enterprises and rationalizing fiscal incentives to “encourage the transfer of medium and large businesses to provincial economic hubs.”

Economist Cielito F. Habito, a former socioeconomic planning secretary, said attracting investors to trigger job creation in rural areas would require not just the usual tax breaks and other financial stimulus but infrastructure.

Mr. Habito noted that the current lineup of the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program is still dominated by “mega projects” in Metro Manila and Luzon.

“So are we really putting our money where our mouth is in terms of Balik Probinsya and dispersing economic activity when our BBB program is still inordinately focused on Metro Manila and Luzon,” he said during a May 29 webinar on the Mindanao economy organized by the European Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In the 10 years to 2018, Luzon accounted for an average of 73% of the country’s economic output as measured by gross domestic product (GDP).

Of this, 63% was generated by the National Capital Region and the surrounding regions — Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon provinces) and Central Luzon.

The central islands comprising the Visayas account for 12.5% of GDP while Mindanao generates 14.5%.

Mr. Habito noted that infrastructure development does not just involve roads, bridges and transportation, but online connectivity — an asset that has become even more valuable in the COVID era.

“These are the important magnets for investment and unless we put these in place, it will not be easy attracting investors,” he said.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vice-President for Mindanao Ma. Teresa R. Alegrio, in the same webinar, said apart from infrastructure, local governments should be ready to market their areas with “hard facts.”

“We should be able to give hard facts like the availability of land or special economic zones, and apart from the incentives that they will get is the cost and ease of doing business itself,” Ms. Alegrio said.

She added that the private sector must also strengthen collaboration with LGUs and provide inputs to create a fertile business environment.

“The private sector must have a very active role in ensuring that it gives the right perspective and context as to how we can do business in a better, organized and systematic way.”

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), designated the coordinating body for the Balik Probinsya implementation in the south, has come up with a formula.

A MinDA team led by its chairman, Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, has been going around the Mindanao mainland to connect directly with local officials, and he has received commitments from at least three for the establishment of pilot sites.

In the discussions, they identified land for resettlement areas and agricultural ventures, including a complete value chain that will also involve residents outside the returnees’ new village.

“With the needed funding and support in place… the first resettlement area will be ready by September this year,” Mr. Piñol said in May.

As of June 11, clearing was ongoing at a 6.3-hectare site in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte where an initial 200 returnees from Manila will resettle and produce organic broiler chickens and vegetables.

Mr. Piñol said the land was donated by GNPower Kauswagan Ltd. Co., a subsidiary of the Ayala Group’s AC Energy.

A project management office is also being organized, with Kauswagan Mayor Rommel C. Arnado in the lead and representatives from MinDA and national agencies involved in the program.

“MinDA, under my leadership, will see to it that it (Balik Probinsya program) will succeed in Mindanao and we hope that by doing this, we will be able to provide a template for Balik Probinsya communities in other parts of the country,” Mr. Piñol said.

The COVID-19 economic recovery plan and its immediate implementation are in the hands of current leaders as local and national elections won’t be happening until May 2022.

What they do in the next 24 months will determine how fast the country emerges from the crisis, and whether the recovery heads in the direction of a more equitable development nationwide.

“It is very difficult to identify particular strengths and weaknesses exhibited by local executives in this crisis. Some have risen to the occasion for sure. And I’m sure there are a lot more local officials who are performing well but are not getting media coverage. But I think it is pretty clear that the success or failure of a local government unit depends highly on who is the local executive,” said Mr. Yusingco, “Pretty much the same way the country’s success or failure depends on the person holding the office of President.”

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