Restrictions

So, we were able to believe that there are three reasons why we have to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus.
First is for protection. We must enhance and strengthen our immunity against the virus and the only way to do this is to be vaccinated.
Second is for necessity. We need to be vaccinated so that we can ward off the virus and thereby protect not only ourselves but our friends and loved ones as well. We need to be vaccinated because it is what is required at the moment. Without vaccination, we cannot interact. Without vaccination, we cannot freely move around.
Third is for convenience. Every establishment which caters to the public is requiring the presentation of vaccine cards to allow entry. Even workers are mandated by their employers to be vaccinated. Without vaccination cards, we are isolated. Hence, it becomes convenient to be vaccinated so that there will be no hindrance in what we do and where we want to go.
Okay then. If a person is vaccinated, he or she is supposed to enjoy the perks. He is supposed to be protected; satisfied the need of the society where he belongs and his freedom to move around should be unhampered. There should no longer be any impediments to whatever things a free person wants to do legally. This is supposed to be the life of a vaccinated person – a normal life.
Ironically, there remains to be restrictions on the movements of people who are vaccinated. I am talking about checkpoints. There are checkpoints all over. If majority of our population is already vaccinated, why is it there are still checkpoints in entering or exiting cities and municipalities? Is this not contrary to the policy of vaccination?
Let me cite an example.
The entry and exit points to and from Baguio City is still barricaded with a police checkpoint.
Along the stretch of the Palispis-Aspiras Highway in Badiwan, Tuba, Benguet, the checkpoint is as tight as when the pandemic was at its height. Why are each and every vehicle passing by the highway checked one by one when the fear of transmitting the virus has radically decreased because of the vaccine?
Why will people, resident or not, who are trying to enter Baguio City suffer such long traffic along that route when the vaccination program should have accomplished the purpose of convenience?
Is it to prevent the further spread of the virus or is it for some other agenda?
If it is for health reasons, this issue had already been addressed by the vaccination.
Sure, the virus is still in our midst and its spread is not remote. However, we were made to believe that vaccination prevents serious infection. That by being vaccinated, we are safe. That is why we had ourselves vaccinated in the first place. Thus, by being vaccinated, we should no longer be subjected to suffer the indignity of being accosted every time we enter or leave the city.
But no. A checkpoint no less which, even in the context of military command, is not sufficient to prevent the transmittal of the virus. Only the vaccine can.
To continue allowing the military to establish checkpoints under the guise that it is for health reasons is scaring us away and is justifying the reasons being given by those unvaccinated that, perhaps, the vaccine is useless after all. You get what I mean?
Besides, a checkpoint is a fearsome view even for the innocent. It projects an image of intervention in our private affairs. It makes us angry that they are the cause of traffic jams and add on to the time of travel.
True, they may be under orders but such orders must be modified if we are to live in an atmosphere of the new normal.