he Philippines now appears to be overly concerned about tourists who fly over and skip quarantine to party, have body massages, or do whatever. The question we must ask ourselves is whether these tourists and/or balikbayans were clearly informed that the country is now requiring strict adherence to quarantine procedures. You can't really blame them for trying to skip quarantine. Who wants to be quarantined for days, at one's own expense. In addition, they're likely aware of the fact that in the past, this country has been exceedingly lax in implementing its laws, rules, and regulations. Over decades, we have built a reputation that said "all rules are flexible" as long as you have the right connections or the right amount of cash.

So today, we find ourselves in the midst of a dangerous pandemic. The omicron variant currently ravaging the rest of the world is highly infectious—and given the difficulty to adequately social distance in our extremely overcrowded cities—we must take this pandemic seriously. So yes, foreign travelers need to quarantine. And yes, no one should be allowed to weasel their way out of it. And again yes, there should be consequences for those who insist on breaking the rules.

But first, the government must make it clear to each and every foreign arrival, that we are taking this quarantine requirement very seriously. Each and every arrival should be handed a document that clearly spells out these new rules and requirements, which they must sign or acknowledge. One reason for this is that many balikbayans living abroad still think that rules can easily be bent in this country.

The appropriate government entities such as tourism, immigration, foreign affairs, NAIA, including the hotels that are part of the quarantine program, should all work together to make sure that everyone arriving in the country is made aware of the rules and the consequences for breaking them.

If our public servants, who ought to know better, were doing their jobs, violations would likely not have occurred. In essence, what government officials are now doing is similar to what dishonest cops do to bilk unsuspecting drivers—like the "kotong" cops who patrol a one-way street with a missing sign, or one that is not readily visible to drivers, so they can apprehend those who unsuspectingly drive down the wrong way.

All this is happening because our incompetent public servants, instead of putting rules and protocols in place to make sure that all arrivals into the country are properly informed of the strict new rules, simply sat on their fat behinds and did nothing. And now they are outraged by all the violations taking place.

And if this country wants to revive its tourism industry, it had better learn to start treating its tourists properly. And that starts with making it crystal clear to them what they can and cannot do while they're here. Because, here's the bottom line: these tourists made a conscious choice to come here. They could have gone to hundreds of other—probably better—destinations, to spend their tourist dollars there. Instead, they chose to come here. And so, it should be every Pinoy's job to make sure they are treated fairly.

Published 01/04/2022