I'm losing my mind. I try to keep a routine so I don't but every day it gets harder and harder to do. When the lockdown started last March 29, I decided to sell the cheese and milk from our farm. I was also selling veggies to some of my friends. The lockdown meant I couldn't deliver anywhere in the city but that's when I discovered Lalamove. I discovered that I can have them do my deliveries for me.
Lately, however, Lalamove, Grab and many other couriers have a much harder time delivering goods to people. The local police have been on patrol and have been apprehending people for breaking the quarantine protocols. I know of some who do abuse this time to go around the city and make unnecessary trips. I, on the hand, have only left the house once to do groceries since the lock down started. And with every report of a quarantine violation or a new COVID case in an area that didn't have COVID before, operating a business (even an essential one) has gotten to almost impossible levels.
Shortly after the Community Quarantine was imposed in Cebu, our farm in Barili had applied for a delivery pass in the municipal hall, which we were able to get rater quickly. We only had one restriction - no transportation of meat. Now, our farm produces milk, vegetables and pigs but somehow this rule affects all three of our produce. Let me begin with the most obvious - the pigs.
How do you sell pigs if you're not allowed to transport meat? Well, as a business, we've never had to deliver pigs. We usually just have them picked up at the farm and that's how we get our sales. But then it dawned on me. We may not need a pass for meat to sell but our buyers need that pass for them to buy! As such, all our buyers have practically left us - not because we don't deliver but because they can't pick it up! Last week, a lady wanted to buy 20 pigs and couldn't since her truck couldn't pass the border.
I think these rules are absolutely crazy. We have delivery truck drivers making trips for pork and this lock down is making it more difficult to even buy and sell pork! I'm not talking about pork sinigang, or lechon, or crispy pata. I'm talking about the pig!
Let's move on to my next gripe - vegetables and milk (non-meat). Remember the pass we got. We could transport those goods into the city without a problem. True enough, our truck driver was able to deliver a lot of milk and cheese and vegetables when they make their weekly trips here. And they were able to do so with little to no hassle. Over the weekend, however, Gov. Garcia decided to revoke all the permits she'd granted originally as some people were apparently abusing them.
Our little farm in Barili was following the guidelines to a tee and somehow, we get penalized. So now, we need to apply for a new pass. We've been on constant communication with the municipality and apparently, the new guidelines have yet to be set. The most I've heard is that our employees may no longer be allowed to go out even to go to work. So our farm, if those kinds of rules were to be put in place, has no way of functioning at all! Our employees cannot go to work, and even if they could, our goods have no way of making it to the city! We'd closed our roadside store weeks ago as no one passes by and so selling in the city is the only way (THE ONLY WAY) our farm can ever make any money. And without the sales, we may not be able to keep our farm employees anymore.
This quarantine is supposed to help us prevent the COVID-19 disease. But if these rules are able to shut down our little farm, it may successfully shut down other farms as well and the Cebuanos may be dying from starvation before they die from a virus.
Let me get this straight. I'm not saying we shouldn't go on lock down or take every possible measure we can to prevent the spread of this virus. I just think we've crossed into unreasonable measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
No comments:
Post a Comment