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Manila – Broken and unemployed Ruel Damaso sleeps on cardboard and survives thanks to food distributions at Manila airport, where dozens of people were stranded after a partial coronavirus blockade was re-imposed on Tuesday.
More than 27 million people in the capital and 4 surrounding provinces realized 24 hours a day of new restrictions that close many companies, disrupted public transport and blocked flights while the government struggled with an increase in COVID-19.
Struggling to paint part-time at the factory after the first lockout in March paralyzed the economy and stripped millions of their jobs, Damaso made the decision to leave Manila.
With no place to stay, he arrived at the airport on Saturday with two ex-schools and on Tuesday he will return to the southern town of Zamboanga.
Now he is trapped in the terminal, where dressed in white protective suits, masks and mask caters to stranded passengers.
“We’re running out of money. We can’t leave the airport because we don’t have relatives here,” said the terminal intern, 36, with a towel rolled up on his shoulders to warm up in the icy air conditioner.
“We’ll have to stay here for two weeks until our flights resume.”
President Rodrigo Duterte reluctantly re-imposed orders to stay in the house and other measures in reaction to a call from overworked fitness workers, who had noticed that the country was wasted the war opposing the virus.
The number of cases in the Philippines exceeded 100,000, five times more than in June, when the country emerged from one of the world’s longest blockades.
Now reports several thousand new cases every day: Tuesday’s 6,352 were a record.
The government has blamed others who disobey viral protocols for the strong buildup of infections, which have concentrated in Manila and the central city of Cebu.
In an effort to curb endemic local transmission, police have been deployed to force others who tested positive for the virus to isolate itself at home in government-run quarantine facilities.
Now the police are back at checkpoints to make sure only other people with special passes move to get to the paintings or buy pieces.
Everyone intends to go home.
An official in the city of Quezón, who is from the capital, threatened a “policy of shooting to kill” for the offenders, prompting a protest.
He later retracted on Facebook.
The new measures, which affect a quarter of the country’s population, have closed much of the Philippine economy, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said, warning of a “strong drop” in economic activity in the first part of the year.
Beauty salons, cinemas and gyms are closed, while restaurants can prepare takeaways. Other corporations are still allowed to operate with limited capacity.
Many others in the provinces are looking to leave Manila, but mandatory detection of COVID-19 has made it difficult.
After wasting her jobs, Gina Balos and her circle of relatives had planned to fly to the southern city of Butuan, the closest airport to her hometown on Dinagat Island.
They used their savings to buy the tickets, left their home in a slum where they spent five months hired and sold some of their furniture to pay for transportation to the airport.
But they had no cash left to cover the burden of virus testing and were allowed to board their flight On Monday.
Then the lockdown was imposed.
“We have been trapped here ever since because of the need for immediate testing in our province. It’s too expensive for the 11,” said Balos, 45.
“We have nothing left. We also have a pregnant relative waiting in August.”
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