‘…President Duterte should be constantly reminded that time is not on his side in the face of unabated COVID infections.’
MAY I just correct myself in the last column where I mentioned that Congressmen Mike Defensor and Rodante Marcoleta have become the subjects of a possible probe by the Professional Regulations Commission and the Food and Drug Administration for distributing Ivermectin for free at a Quezon City park. The PRC and the FDA are instead targeting the doctors invited as volunteers for issuing “invalid” prescriptions. Defensor promptly put himself up and Marcoleta as the culprits who should face investigation and not the doctors who he said “were just helping our poor people” obtain an inexpensive treatment against the deadly COVID-19.
The substantial number of clinical trials in the United States and in several countries, along with the widespread efficacy of Ivermectin, have convinced people like Defensor and Marcoleta that the government should be zealously saving the lives of its people instead of kowtowing to the big pharma firms, with their PR funding now vigorously blocking an emerging huge competitor.
Instead of applying an iron fist against the opposition and marshaling an already loose coalition, President Duterte should be constantly reminded that time is not on his side in the face of unabated COVID infections. He should by now have recognized a possible fortress of political gains from an otherwise spirited and extensive distribution of inexpensive but proven treatment, and from dropping finally the notable incompetents in the management of the COVID response.
As the national election campaign nears, personal patronage will be subservient to the macro political strategy. The President and the administration party can count on saving so much from the highly-expensive promotions and media budget if the President would put his heart into this particularly wrenching issue.
The virus crisis should irreversibly compel the government to, above all, place the lives and welfare of the citizens over any political agenda and opportunism, and indeed the rewards would turn out to be ultimately political.
***
The West Philippine Sea dispute has assumed an international notoriety for Beijing, with the US and its Western allies moving aggressively to stifle China’s rampant incursions, especially in our EEZ. And yet Duterte’s limp and docile stand seems to be a visible defiance to the open military support and vigilance.
His political fortunes may yet be eroded by the impact on both the political and business elite here and the common man. The President’s advisers may have surmised that that the political and social repercussions would be alien to the vast majority of our people but have since cut deeply into the lives of thousands of displaced fishermen and resonated in millions at society’s fringes.
