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Finances have nothing to do with me liking Dumaguete. I am lucky in that I am still mobile. I like Dumaguete because it offers just about everything and maybe some more than other cities do, and I can get anywhere within the City by walking for 30 minutes or less. I don't have to drive and fight traffic. I get to walk, get my exercise, see what is going on and watch people going to and fro making a living. I get to do what I want to, not what I have to. I look at the traffic, people going back and forth to work, picking up or dropping children for school, sip some wine, read some chapters of the current book, smile and think, I am one lucky person not to be doing that anymore.

 

As a side issue - I along with others have been quite critical of the provincial government here, on this forum, on the way they have handled things. In particular, the clear danger in allowing OFWs and SLIs into the province from infected areas, which predictably has lead to the recent positive cases and potential wider virus spread.

I commented on this yesterday on their fb page and late last night received a reply. I was commenting on their belated plea to the NIATF in Manila to be allowed to impose stricter testing and quarantine measures on incoming citizens and I was critical of them for not foreseeing the problem until too late. I received replies from two individuals, neither of whom stated they were provincial government officials, but both seemed remarkably informed and used very good English for locals. Their defence was that the conditions on entry were dictated by the NIATF (hence the plea to them) and also that Manila had effectively 'deceived' the local officials by claiming that some OFWs were LSIs and this lead to them not being properly prepared for their receipt. They also accused NIATF of effectively just playing a game with numbers. After all, it matters not to officials in Manila whether an infected individual potentially spreads virus in Manila or the provinces.

Whilst I struggle to understand what the difference is between a potential virus carrying OFW or LSI is on entering the province, this does look like a more complex situation than I understood it to be. I thanked them for their honesty and wished them success for their plans.