Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 7) — Transport group Piston has rejected a proposal to hire jeepney drivers as contact tracers while public transportation restrictions are still in place amid community quarantine.
“[S]a bahagi po namin ay hindi ho kami pumapayag. Una, di po yan yung kasanayan ng sektor ng transportasyon. Anong kamalayan ng mga drayber at operator sa usapin ng pagi-interview, sa usapin po ng kalusugan?” Piston president Mody Floranda told CNN Philippines’ Newsroom Weekend.
[Translation: On our end, we are not accepting (the proposal). First of all, (contact tracing) is not the expertise of the transportation sector. What do (jeepney) drivers and operators even know about matters of conducting interviews and health in general?]
This might affect the health of jeepney drivers and operators as well, he added.
“[B]akit kailangan kami yung gamitin na tracer, ano, yung sinasabi nila, tracer na maghahanap ng mga victim of COVID-19, na dapat ang naghahanap po niyan eh yung mga may kasanayan sa usapin po ng kalusugan?” Floranda explained.
[Translation: Why is it us that we need to be utilized as (contact) tracers that will look for COVID-19 victims, when people knowledgeable about health matters should be the ones doing it in the first place?]
Jeepneys are still banned in areas under general community quarantine such as Metro Manila, leaving thousands of drivers without income for months. With this, the national government has been looking into options to help these drivers, which include giving them temporary jobs as contact tracers.
Malacañang said on Thursday that drivers will be included in the third tranche of financial aid for families gravely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. However, there is no clear timetable for this, as the second round of emergency subsidy has yet to be paid out to some four million households.
Earlier, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III proposed hiring workers displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic for contact tracing to aid the Philippines’ COVID-19 response and provide them jobs at the same time.
However, Health Secretary Francisco Duque had raised that contact tracing entails certain communication skills and technology literacy in order to do the job. The Department of Health had also set minimum qualifications local governments shall use in hiring contact tracers last month.
The country aims to hire 95,000 more contact tracers to achieve the ideal one tracer per 800 people ratio for the entire 110 million population.
