“Everything is well in the country, there’s nothing really to be extra scared of the Coronavirus thing. It has affected a lot of countries, but in one or two cases in any country is not really that fearsome.” said President Duterte.

 

Was there too much complacency or cleanly downplaying?

​

Before the COVID-19 was officially declared as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, it can be recalled that President Duterte actually believed that the public was being hysterical about it. Lest we forget, it took 17 days before he declared a public health emergency in March, despite the recommendation coming from the Department of Health a month earlier.

​

With no concrete plan of action presented and well-thought protocols directly implemented to counter the COVID-19 outbreak, it is a clear indication that the weight of this health crisis we are facing was not gravely taken by the administration. There had been a denial from DOH Sec. Francisco Duque III, to conduct mass testing in the country, which puts more lives at risk.

​

Note that negligence and lack of preparedness caused so much delay in providing help and assistance, particularly in our health sector, which gambled the safety of our medical front liners and healthcare workers for contracting the virus.

​

Although it’s true that there’s no perfect government, don’t we have the right to be mad and blame them with the lives being compromised due to their incompetence?

​

A line detaching the rich from the poor was invisibly drawn; the system of rules employed and vague procedures- bringing panic and confusion to the public- was in favor of the elites.  Ideally, no one is and will be starving, if only our government is rightly doing its job.

​

With no means of transport available, we are all expected to walk the distance; even the persons with disability and the elderly, who live alone, were not given considerations. It is then not fitting and decent to spread optimism in this time for a virus that takes lives, costs people their livelihoods, and amplify the division between the rich and poor.

While the rich could be in panic buying to stock up their fridge, the poor, and many of us, would only be panicking because we don’t have the money to buy. How insensitive and out of touch could our government be, on the plight of many Filipinos daily?

​

Military functions were stipulated in a situation that required medical solutions and a health-centered approach. The presence of force would most likely, and could sometimes bring more mischief than its intended benefit. In instances like these, citizens should be ensured of their safety and not feel neither alarmed nor threatened; sadly it’s the other way around.

​

We’ve been presented with an answer that does not match the real problem we’re dealing with. Human welfare ought to be the concern; thus, people-centered policies should be the focus. But who are they really serving? Is it the people, or their need to exercise control and maintain their power?