To enable citizens to report fixers and poor public service in government offices, the Anti-Red Tape Authority recently launched its first ARTAmbayan outpost in Quezon City.

Interestingly, the outpost stationed in Barangay Pinyahan along Magalang Street near the Land Transportation Office or LTO.

LTO is one of the most graft-ridden agencies of the government. The ARTA satellite office should be welcomed by tons of complaints on its first day.

ARTA director general Jeremiah Belgica said the outpost aims to empower citizens as they make the agency’s services more accessible to the public.

The ARTAmbayan can handle concerns and complaints on-site for citizens who have limited access to technology to file their complaints against fixers and red tape in public offices.

ARTA will be launching more outposts in fixer-prone areas in Metro Manila.

“The ARTAmbayan that you see today is not just the work of a barangay, of an LGU (local government unit), but a collaboration of various government agencies that see the need to take seriously our problem on fixers and red tape,” he said.

Belgica also called on national government agencies and LGUs to pursue better regulations and a whole-of-nation approach in delivering public services.

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Expectations for resurging COVID-19 cases recently gained support from an expert urging Filipinos to continue practicing minimum public health standards like maintaining physical distancing to avoid another wave of infections.

This as the holiday and election seasons are upcoming, and people may relax in practicing social distancing.

The country is “in the whole stretch” but has not yet reached the end of the tunnel in its fight against Covid-19, according to Metro Pacific Hospitals chief operating officer Jeffrey Staples.

“I don’t think that we can let our guard down yet. We anticipate that with the holidays coming up, with the election season coming up, with a lot of mass gatherings and people relaxing the social distancing discipline, we may see another surge or two in cases before we can say that the virus is behind us,” Staples said.

With the nature of the virus, mutation into new variants could be a threat in the future, he said.

The health department earlier said the positivity rate is below five percent, the same level at end-January this year before surges were experienced due to Alpha and Delta variants.

Staples is right. This virus has taught us one thing –not to let our guard down.

We can see what’s happening in other countries as they achieved high vaccination rate, they’ve opened up their economies.

They relaxed social distancing measures, and now they’re seeing a significant surge in cases.

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