Editorial

24 hours before the long-run: What’s next?

By Palawan Daily News

June 29, 2022

A day before another 6-year run of another administration, for which the president-elect, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. vowed to continue Duterte’s projects that “were beneficial to the country”, Filipinos may also consider looking into what the country will become for the succeeding months, as the country will be left with a P12.76 trillion debt.

From the previous Aquino administration in 2016, Duterte was left with a feasible amount of a trillion to continue what was left off for the betterment of the country. However, the unforeseeable presence of the COVID-19 pandemic has led the incumbent administration to do whatever it takes to serve its people–through heinous debts to address the medical strain in the facilities all over the country, the large scales of community quarantines which have left Filipinos to stay at home as the world takes it detour due to the biological warfare, means of making ends meet were up to the government, come the issuance of “Ayuda” or food packages, hence, some financial help to survive a week, the government did not have any other choice but to resort in the continuous borrowing of finances from the world bank, as the economy has also stopped its course of work in making money jiggle.

A day before the president-elect takes his oath to do whatever it takes to better the lives of his people, along with his words of promises to fulfill, are the rising of COVID-19 cases, particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR), some, in the other provinces, more from the other areas who have been left untouched due to lack of resources and in “mass testing the public” to determine further cases. Then again, along with his oath, comes the responsibility to “take care” of another spike in the cases of biological warfare. With over P12.76 trillion debt, along with the recently detected infections that have risen by 82% from last week, plus, the approaching full-blown face-to-face classes of educational institutions by August, people are expected to hustle at work, specifically, to commute to places, leaving with no choice but to somehow breach the basic safety health protocols due to the congestion in transportation areas, this leaves us to ponder: how will the incoming president deal with all of these?

Recalling his previous campaign, whenever asked about his platforms or to open up about plans for the country that he aims to rule, we are always left with one word to embrace: unity. In times like this, pandemic speaking, it is best for people to unite with one–to fully survive this hard time by choosing to combat to eradicate the disease by the continuous patronage of the minimum to extensive health safety protocols. However, if one continuously anticipates things to get better, without taking greater heights to alleviate the economic pain–to focus not only on the dilemma of the pandemic but also look into what is going on inside the branches of the country during the pandemic–won’t it create more chaos?

Mr. President-elect, what else do we have to do other than to only “unite”?