Down to the countless issuance of alert level whatnots, the continuous rise of cases prevailed. About 3.2 million of confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported to reside in our dark green pastures and about 52,929 of these fell into mortality, as of today. The pandemic did not just reap the souls of those who have weakened from the cytokine but have also garnered the mental welfare and well-being of those who are left behind. Several protests fueled by the cries of humanity have been heard, but is it really heard?
Had the government issued its efficient closure of the borders in the early February of 2020 when the first case was actively known in our neighboring Southeast Asian countries, then we would not be this swamped with more deadly mutated variants that fetched numerous lives of people from known relatives and such. By the middle of March 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency and then placed the entire country on its first implementation of the strictest mode of community quarantine, the “Enhanced Community Quarantine”. Under this probation, the community is expected to stay at home for 2 weeks, believed 14-day incubation period of the virus to develop into one’s immune system, to control the spread of the virus as the local government officials conduct its contact tracing for the patient x.
As weeks passed, people grew more into famine and hopelessness as the lockdown prevailed. This in return has made people to question the government’s plans in combating the virus, as the public noted that they are more than willing to stay at home only if “ayuda” will be circulated daily.
Surely, several mayors in different provinces and barangays have made this possible, but on April 1, 2020, the 2nd week mark of the first implementation of the ECQ was an enough edge for the community to halt in protest as to demand the government of what they were promised—the issuance of enough rice and canned goods to suffice their livelihood interference due to the lockdown. Then again, had the government firstly prioritized the closeup of the borders, then we would not have to live under a sudden and dreadful lineage of scarcity.
What was really “enhanced” by the lockdowns was the poverty that the Filipinos had to deal with even today. Add to that are the lives of their loved ones that were lost due to the lack of concrete planning in contact tracing and the lack of future-oriented buildup of plans in case a major biohazard warfare occurs. Nevertheless, people were urged to believe whatever the government has been stirring up. Just trust, they say.
Several contact tracings were then implemented, but this did not stop the disease from spreading into humanity. To recall, the Philippine government issued flights for stranded residents all over the world and in the country, making sure that they can come home but with the restriction of undergoing a 14-day quarantine with swab tests (RT-PCR and rapid antigen test) to secure that they are not carriers of the said virus upon entering their hometown.
Even after this meticulous guarding, they were still people who did not care about the existence of the disease. Thus, it birthed several parties conducted by locals, celebrities, and even government officials who are supposedly expected to be the first ones to abolish these kinds of practices. Anyway, we will never know how it feels like to grasp for fresh air when we are retracted with intubation kits up against our throats till it closely happens to us, right?
By the end of July of 2020, after several late-night state of the nation (during pandemic) addresses of President Duterte, he promised that by December of the same year, we would be running free to our holiday events, mask-less, and caution-less. However, in the same year, by the month of November, a circular memorandum was given for the people to abide by: the monitored pairing of face shields to our everyday outdoor outfit.
Due to the fear of people from contracting the virus, it was then glorified to wear seemingly PVC-sheet like shields aimed for additional points against the deadly cytokine—although it was never proven by science that these face shields add up to one’s protection. In fact, a double-filtered mask will do. By the end of the year, with the undeniable fact that the virus has indeed paved its way to humanity, President Duterte swore that the only salvation that the Filipinos would have to wait for are the vaccines.
By the start of the following year, January 2021, the presence of several vaccines was called into recognition: Sinovac, Sinopharm, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sputnik-V, and the likes. Vaccine hesitancy of the people have risen due to the fake news circulated in social media platforms.
Surely, one would really be skeptical in terms of substances that go into the body, plus, one’s anxiety from contracting the virus itself had also been taking a toll on one’s well-being. However, researchers and scientists promoted proofs and other materials that could aid the community’s fears. Shortly after that, the number of people who are enticed to take whatever vaccine that is available have risen.
The vaccine rollout became prominent in the next few months, but the existing greed of those who are in power and those who are of wealth were also one of the country’s biggest dilemmas in catering the best for all. Vaccine slots were then also sold in bulk and at great prices, aiming to milk more underground money from the community who have long suffered from the loss of jobs and income. After all, corruption has always been the main red flag in one’s race. This begs us to conclude that greed might always be the communicable disease that one will never get rid of—it lurks till the end of time.
After a year of much anticipation by the community to the government’s concrete layout of plans, it is as if everyone has suddenly grown tired of hearing the same statements of “Just trust us,” to seemingly back-and-forth of “We have a lot of funds to cover the whole health care system,” to another load of “We no longer have money,”. If that is the case, then what are those speculations or active cases of losing track in the missing funds of PhilHealth’s 15 billion and DOH’s 67.3 billion? Had the government issued a list of breakdowns to clarify their names, then we would not be here questioning where the supposed hazard pays went and where are materials to aid the cries of the health care workers who have been our Day 1 heroes up until today.
The main dilemma here is not just about those people who are seen lurking in the streets, but more about what is the government up to. It is more about the concrete solutions and abiding of those deadlines that they have firstly presented to the public. It is about the surfacing of what is really important and to no longer sway the public into different segues that aims to shift the interest of people who are only looking for answers.
There are not enough words to describe how the Filipinos are suffering from the hands of the fiery virus but the scenario that one encounters each day sums it all. It is no longer inevitable for one to not know someone whom they have lost due to the pandemic. The numbers are adding up to the kind of system that we are abiding to. Just recently, the healthcare workers are showing signs of neglect and awful exhaustion from the way they are exploited in working each day to combat the virus. Bound with anxiety, hunger, angst, and below the minimum wage of additional hazardous pay, the frontliners are fired up to come in union and protest towards the government.
One may interview a regular citizen about their emotions and experiences from the past year and a half under the pandemic, with many stories would also come from their grievance from losing a loved one, but if one may desire to extract a knowingly powerful and authentic face of the biological warfare, the healthcare workers carry the weight of it all.
If these modern-day heroes choose to strike to weigh down their true importance in this kind of system that we are suffering from, to see if the government really does pay attention to the matricular system on the other half of the community triangle, the system will also fall through.
Healthcare workers, if lost to fatality, would take 5 years to almost 2 decades to be replaced. If the government’s only purpose is to serve its people, then why does it feel like we must cut through our throats just to be heard? If it pays to live, do we really have to shed innocent bloods to get through to triumph?
It is easy for them to just leave their jobs and come home to take care of their families, but these people are choosing between life and death each day to save the lives of hundreds of people daily.
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