No vax, no ride mess: GMA echoes PNP’s one-sided positive assessment

JEERS TO GMA News Online’s story on the controversial “no vax, no ride” policy, which relied solely on the police and their assessment  of the first day of its implementation. 

The policy was announced and issued by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) on January 12 and implemented on Monday, January 17. Intended to curb the spread of COVID-19, the order prohibits unvaccinated individuals from using public transportation within Metro Manila while the capital remains under Alert Level 3. 

The announcement itself  triggered extensive coverage because of the strong public reaction to it. Accounts emphasized the penalties for violators and included differing views expressed by public officials and candidates running for office in the upcoming national elections. Reports also included statements issued by government agencies and advocacy groups.

Department Order (DO) 2022-001 allows the following exemptions from the rule:  

• those with medical conditions preventing vaccination against COVID-19; and 
• people who will “procure essential goods and services”, defined in the DO as the following: “food, water, medicine, medical devices, public utilities, energy, work, and medical and dental necessities.”

The list of items could have been clarified further; but reporters did not ask DOTr to be more specific. Also, if unvaccinated people claim they are out to buy food or any of the listed necessities, how would anyone check whether they are telling the truth? Neither did the DOTr specify what work is considered essential under Alert Level 3. 

With so much more information needed, GMA News Online’s article on January 18 cited only the statements  by Police Colonel Roderick Alba, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during a radio interview. Alba said the first day of the enforcement went well, a conclusion based solely on the lack of “untoward incidents” reported. The report neither questioned nor challenged Alba’s claim. It did not mention the controversy the policy has provoked, nor the early calls to rethink the policy, the backlash it has received from netizens and the consequences suffered by those whose mobility it limits. 

Evening newscasts on Monday night already featured the complaints of riders who were inconvenienced by the policy. Some of them had only received their first doses, or were still waiting to get the second as prescribed by vaccine protocol. 

Without noting any of the problematic context surrounding the policy, the report seemed designed only to spin the policy in the most positive light. Focusing only on the PNP spokesperson’s simplistic assessment, the report was not useful except as a PR piece for the police. 

This shallow treatment was shown up by developments on the second day, January 18. As it turned out, agencies did not even discuss the terms of the policy so that this would be clear to public officials. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III took up the cudgels for “workers” who he said were exempt. But DOTr “clarified” that only essential workers were exempt, listing those who were,  according to its interpretation. So far, media had not yet caught up with how the enforcers were going to apply the exemptions.  

Actually, the first day was a non-story. The real story is the way the administration bungles everything it does by failing to hold internal meetings for the purpose of their own clarification. The different heads of agencies need to get together to discuss the problems before the first day of implementation. The pandemic experience has demonstrated this administrative failure repeatedly. Media should know better than take an official’s word about their success. 

Reminder, a PR story isn’t  journalism.