WORKPLACES can now allow the voluntary wearing of face masks among its personnel, Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma yesterday announced.
Labor Advisory No. 22-2022 of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) declares the wearing of face masks in work areas is no longer mandatory.
“This Advisory shall cover all workers and workplaces in the private sector,” Laguesma said.
Laguesma said healthcare facilities, such as clinics, hospitals, laboratories, nursing homes, and dialysis clinics; medical transport vehicles, such as ambulance and paramedic rescue vehicles; and public transportation by land, air, or sea are excluded from the directive.
He said employers and their workers may opt to implement a policy requiring the wearing of face masks after taking into account hazards and risks (such as enclosed space and poor ventilation), industry requirements (like food safety), and incidence of other communicable diseases (examples include flu and tuberculosis).
Finally, the advisory said the elderly, immunocompromised, unvaccinated, COVID-19 symptomatic individuals, individuals with comorbidities, and pregnant women are highly encouraged to wear face masks in workplaces.
“Employers and their workers have a shared responsibility to ensure safe and healthful working conditions,” Laguesma said.
The easing of the face mask policy in workplaces is in accordance with Executive Order No. 07 issued by President Marcos last October 28, which allows the optional wearing of face masks in indoor settings.
Last Tuesday, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced that the wearing of face masks inside classrooms will already be optional. After more than two years of online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, full face-to-face classes resumed in all public schools on Wednesday.
‘LIABLE’
Former National Task Force Against COVID-19 special adviser Dr. Anthony Leachon yesterday slammed the insistence of President Marcos and the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infections Diseases (IATF) to ease the masking mandate amid the continued threat of COVID-19.
In a series of social media posts, Leachon said there will be no one else to blame but the IATF and the President if a new surge in COVID cases emerges.
“The blood will be in the hands of the Executive Office with surge in COVID-19 cases. The DOH (Department of Health) has warned IATF-EID and Marcos to continue to wear face masks,” said Leachon.
“The DOH has repeatedly urged the wearing of face masks to protect people from getting COVID-19… but was overruled by the IATF and by the executive order of Marcos,” he added.
The former president of the Philippine College of Physicians said indoor establishments are not yet prepared to have face masks removed because “ventilation is not yet well established in schools and some business offices.”
“We are not yet ready to live with the virus,” Leachon stressed as he urged the general public to continue wearing face masks when they are either in schools or workplaces.
“If employers and employees as well as educators and teachers value and love their families, they better mask up,” he said.
The National Parent-Teacher Association of the Philippines (NPTA) said the DepEd policy allowing the optional use of face masks in schools should undergo further studies.
NPTA executive vice president Lito Senieto said that while they have always been supportive of programs and policies of the DepEd, the new directive to allow optional wearing of face masks inside classrooms is dangerous considering the congestion in many public schools and the fact that the COVID-19 virus is still a threat.
He explained the student classroom ratio in elementary schools stands at 40:1, while in secondary schools, there are from 50, 60 or even 80 students crammed in a single classroom.
“Dapat po talaga pag aralan ito ng mabuti. Pag isipan ng Mabuti, lalo na kulang sa ventilation, although may electric fan pero mainit pa din sa loob. So sana pag-isipan pa mabuti,” Senieto told ABS-CBN News Channel.
“Dyan natin makikita na dikit dikit ang mga bata sa isang klasrum,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Reynaldo Chua Jr., president of the Federation of Association of Private Schools and Administrators in the National Capital Region, said they have encouraged private school owners and administrators to still ask students and teachers to wear face masks inside classrooms.
“We will still enforce the use of face masks in our private schools since we are after the safety of our students and teachers. So, ‘yan ang papairalin namin,’” Chua said.
He said that while the wearing of face masks is now optional, it is still better to make students and teachers wear one inside the classroom for their own protection.
Teachers Dignity Coalition national chair Benjo Basas has earlier urged the DepEd to reconsider the policy.
Basas, a public school teacher in Caloocan City, said he would still encourage his students to wear face masks in the classrooms since it is their last protection against the COVID-19 virus.
He also said most public schools, particularly in urban areas, are congested and not well-ventilated, making physical distancing nearly impossible, while others lack water and sanitation facilities.
Alliance of Concerned Teachers secretary general Raymond Basillo also said face mask is the teachers’ and students’ last line of defense against the COVID-19 virus considering that most public schools in the country are not well-ventilated and lack proper sanitation facilities.
“It is very irresponsible for the government to leave our schools in such a state, and even more thoughtless to strip our students and teachers of the last protection that we have, however insufficient it is,” Basilio said.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Tan Poa said allowing students the freedom to choose whether they will use face masks on campus-even indoors is in line with Marcos’ EO 7.
Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list Rep. France Castro also slammed the DepEd decision, saying the government should not let minimum health standards be optional in schools since the pandemic is still ongoing.
“Allowing the optional wearing of facemasks in schools does not provide teachers and students the safe reopening of classes. We are still under the COVID pandemic and data on positive cases may be underreported. Allowing optional wearing of facemasks in schools may put many lives of children and teachers in danger,” Castro said.
The militant lawmaker said the DepEd should at least implement minimum health standards in schools, especially wearing facemasks, “since it cannot even provide adequate facilities to implement proper social distancing.”
“Cramped classrooms also fail to provide proper ventilation,” Castro warned. “The government refuses to provide teachers and students adequate funds for free treatment in case of positive cases of COVID-19 in schools, it refuses to provide weekly testing for teachers and school personnel, there are no school nurses or adequate clinics in schools, now it allows the optional wearing of facemasks in schools, removing the bare minimum of health standards in schools to protect teachers and students from the COVID pandemic.”
Castro, who is a member of the Makabayan bloc, said the government must first address the overcrowding in classrooms, the lack of school health facilities and school nurses, the poor ventilation in classrooms, and the lack of a medical fund for infected teachers and personnel before doing away with facemasks.
She said ensuring a safe school environment “not only protects teachers and students from diseases, but it also improves the quality of education our students receive and a safer work environment for teachers and school personnel.” — Ashzel Hachero and Wendell Vigilia
