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https://ph.news.yahoo.com/editorial-why-not-mask-wearing-115800603.html


Editorial: Why not make mask-wearing part of Filipino culture?
Tue, September 6, 2022 at 4:58 AM·3 min read

Wearing of face masks in many parts of Europe and the United States have
been met with resistance from people who viewed it as encroaching on
their personal freedoms. This stubbornness could have contributed to the
high number of Covid-related deaths and infections in the west.

The governments of South Korea and Japan have no problems about
requiring their residents to wear face masks. Even before the arrival of
the coronavirus pandemic in both East Asian countries, Koreans and
Japanese had been wearing face masks.

In the Philippines, one of the government’s responses to the pandemic is
the mandatory wearing of face masks. The enforcement of this policy was criticized as harsh, especially during the first year of the pandemic.

Remember the apprehension of broadcaster Howie Severino? The veteran journalist, a Covid survivor, stopped biking to drink water. A team of
police officers and tanod who happened to pass him by, arrested him and
took him to a stadium for a brief seminar on proper use of the face mask
in public. In Cebu City, the common punishment received by apprehended
maskless people was doing a set of physical exercises at Plaza
Independencia in the sun. Other forms of punishment included attending a seminar on health protocols, rendering community service, and, absurdly, praying the rosary (as if non-wearing of face mask is a mortal sin that
if repeatedly committed would send the violator’s soul to eternal fire).

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has issued Executive Order (EO) 5, which
makes the wearing of it non-obligatory whether in open spaces or not in
the city. He later issued EO 6 after EO 5 was met with resistance from
the national government, particularly the Department of the Interior and
Local Government, and the Department of Health (DOH). The new EO sets a four-month “trial period” of the optional wearing of face masks in Cebu City, starting on Sept. 1, 2022 and ending on Dec. 31.

Some quarters praised Rama and Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, the pioneer
in making mask-wearing not obligatory in open spaces, for moving ahead
of the national government, specifically the Inter-Agency Task Force
(IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The IATF still has to come up with new protocols in dealing with the
pandemic. DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that the mandatory face mask policy can be lifted, particularly in open spaces;
however, she said easing of restrictions must not be done recklessly but
slowly and carefully. But her statement begs a question: how slow the
national government will be in coming up with new protocols.

One can agree with the de facto DOH secretary that wearing a face mask
can protect one from other respiratory infections such as flu and pneumonia.

Why is the IATF hesitant in making the wearing of face masks optional?
It can do so but at the same time, it can ask the DOH to launch an
expansive promotion of mask-wearing to become part of the new normal as
it can help Filipinos have healthier lungs. For sure, there will be
Filipinos who will listen. Perhaps in the near future, wearing a face
mask would become part of Filipino culture just like in Japan and South
Korea.

Despite Mayor Rama’s move on easing the mask-wearing protocol, one can observe that several people in the city—inside modern or traditional jeepneys, malls and in open public spaces—still wear their face masks. Haven’t they read the news? Are they getting comfortable with wearing
face masks to the point that they do not mind the discomfort? Do they
feel incomplete if they are not wearing masks whenever they go outside
their houses?

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