Backliner: Mark John O. Almase,
Acting Chief of Assessment Customs Portal at NAIA
Mark John O. Almase used to look forward to immediately being welcomed by his kids and his wife after a long day of work at the Customs office at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), but this all changed after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
Whether he is already at home in Imus, Cavite, or at work, Mark needs to wear a mask as he cannot risk getting infected and spreading the virus to anyone, especially not to his most precious family.
“Before the lockdown kasi, pagdating sa bahay, s’yempre sasalubong ’yung mga kids. Ngayon, di na pwede. Di pwedeng dederecho ka sa wife mo di ba, as welcome pag nauwi ka sa bahay [Before the lockdown, your kids usually rushed to greet you. Now, that can’t be. You can’t go straight to your wife when you come home],” said Mark, who used to work as customs examiner for eight years and is currently the Acting Chief of Assessment Customs Portal since November 2019.
Now, Mark takes a long shower first following a few minutes of rest after coming home from work, just to make sure that he did not carry the virus. As a precaution—which has also become the new normal—everyone in their home also wears masks, including his children aged 5 and 2.
Since the lockdown was imposed in Luzon to arrest the pandemic, paralyzing a third of the economy, Mark has been assigned to oversee the one-stop shop for the urgent release of importations in seven different warehouses in NAIA.
Mark oversees the release of shipments, which are now mostly composed of personal protective equipment (PPEs), test kits and medical supplies.
The latest tally from Customs indicates that it is in NAIA where most of PPE shipments are released daily.
Although most workers can afford to do their tasks from the safety and comfort of their homes, work never stops for Mark and the rest of about 30 people who are part of the skeletal workforce at Customs NAIA — even if there is no public transportation.
He concedes that life after the declaration of lockdown was harder than before.
First, of course, there’s the risk of infection, which prompted Customs officials to make an early shout-out for masks and gloves for their inspectors, as they handle tons of stuff from abroad.
“The hardest part is how people get to the worksite. Those with vehicles are privileged but majority of employees at the Bureau of Customs NAIA really just commute so that is one of the challenges,” he said, in a mix of English and Filipino.
“Of course,” he added, there are also the quarantine checkpoints, so everytime they come to work or return home, “we must join the long queue at the quarantine checkpoint just to check our temperature, to make sure one’s ID allows one to pass that particular checkpoint.”
He admitted he, too, is afraid he might get infected with the virus and spread it to other people, but he said duty calls.
“Number one, this is our oath. We are mandated by the government to do this but beyond that, it is also in our heart and in our mind to serve the country, particularly in this situation of the pandemic. And without the Bureau of Customs, particularly at the NAIA where urgent shipments come in … without the Bureau of Customs, no importation can come in, so facilitating the entry of urgent goods is our burden,” he said.
“Kung walang gagawa nito [If no one does this task], who will do it for the country?” he wondered aloud.
No one can say how long this pandemic will last, but Mark John — who happens to bear the names of two of Jesus’ disciples — is praying hard that this will end soon and their life will go back to what it used to be.
Coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic has lately focused — and rightly so — on the invaluable sacrifices of the medical frontliners who go beyond the call of duty to save as many patients as possible.
The difficulties arising from Covid-19 and the extreme measures it has forced authorities to impose, such as the lockdowns, are also being eased, however, by some people whose work may not easily draw attention, but is nonetheless vital to making our lives as normal as possible.
They are the “backliners” — the grocery store staff and market vendors who make sure we can buy basic items; the farmers and fishermen who put food in our markets and groceries; the bank employees; the Customs inspectors who must quickly clear cargo, especially vital equipment and supplies to fight the virus; pharmacists, garbage men, and the engineers and workmen who must rush to build or retrofit off-hospital quarantine centers, among others. They cannot “stay at home” because they have tasks indispensable in this crisis.
In this series, the BusinessMirror pays tribute to them.