‘It doesn’t help people at all if the President says that Sen. Dick Gordon is overweight or Sen. Ping Lacson’s hair is weird, so these midnight ramblings do not contribute much to the leadership that people need.’
BY tomorrow, Metro Manila and its nearby areas are back in General Community Quarantine status until the end of September. At this point, no one can be certain of what movements are allowed under this GCQ status as the authorities have a penchant for tweaking the regulations every time it is imposed. Make no mistake, cases are still rising and the positivity rate is still well above 20 percent, but yes, people can now go back outside. Judging from the data released by the DOH in the past two weeks, the enhanced community quarantine had very little effect on the spread of COVID-19.
All our policy makers had to do was to look at the experience of other countries to learn that a lockdown, by itself, will not be a sufficient measure. But as usual, the lockdown was just a lockdown, without increasing testing and contact tracing capabilities. Coupled with news that we will now accept inbound flights from 10 countries previously on the restricted list, then it seems that our government feels like tempting fate a little bit more. It’s a delicate balance, one has to admit; finally, stranded OFWs from these countries will be able to come back to the Philippines. On the other hand, it is very possible that other travelers might be asymptomatic, and the fact that the implementation of testing and contact-tracing measures does not inspire much confidence is also a valid reason to be against the said policy.
We’ve long let go of the assumption that these policy changes are driven by science, given the dismal performance of the government’s pandemic response. One of the IATF’s advisers even mentioned on social media that for those in the “lower risk groups,” the pandemic is “pretty much over on an individual risk level.” I have no idea what this guy is talking about, as even vaccinated folks I know are not letting their guard down when it comes to this pandemic. At a time where people are expressing their condolences for the death of family, friends, and acquaintances, it is very, very, difficult to accept that the pandemic is over on the individual level.
The statement is quite irresponsible, and downplaying these cases and the overall situation is, in no uncertain terms, criminal. Another fanatic exhorted people to “stop focusing on the negative” when it came to the death toll due to COVID-19, since 1.8 million people recovered anyway. The person promptly faced outraged users whose family members and friends succumbed to the deadly virus. It is perhaps symptomatic of the administration’s attitude towards trying to contain this pandemic and stop the spread; dismissive, “puwede na ‘yan” or worse, just thoughtless. It seems that policy is being driven just by “let’s survive this” without much thought about the rest of the country.
These recent bi-weekly appearances by President Duterte are not much help, seeing that the airtime is used mainly for hitting back at political opponents. It doesn’t help people at all if the President says that Sen. Dick Gordon is overweight or Sen. Ping Lacson’s hair is weird, so these midnight ramblings do not contribute much to the leadership that people need. If anything, they lend to the growing frustration that we are indeed just afloat with no sense of direction, at the mercy of this or that whim when it comes to the responses being made. In a word, if the Philippines were a ship, it would be rudderless.
