Government’s brute-force approach to the pandemic is failing. Ex-generals’ wide-scale lockdowns and curfews net thousands of violators everyday. Machinegun-mounted armored personnel carriers deploy in street corners. Yet people keep sneaking out – to work or just for a whiff of fresh air away from their cramped, humid shanties. President Duterte’s threat to have recalcitrants “shot on sight” goes unheeded. The hungry hear only the grumbling stomachs of crying children. State “ayuda” is delayed and insufficient. Charitable activists who organize community pantries are red-tagged as “communist party.”
Macho populism isn’t working. Duterte’s displays of manly protectiveness – “Ako ang bahala sa inyo, maniwala kayo” – don’t jibe with “wala nang pera pang-ayuda.” “Tell me where the vee-rus lives so I can slap it” negates efforts to inform that the enemy is microscopic yet deadly. The ex-generals are slow to procure, store and distribute vaccines. Cussing skeptics and the un-injected only makes people desperate. Malacañang hoots down the “pasaway.” Yet it’s OK when they crowd unmasked to ogle the ex-generals’ wasteful multibillion-peso fake Manila Bay white beach.
Faulty pandemic response breeds fund misuse. Deficiencies mar DOH’s documentation of P67.3-billion COVID-19 spending. Billions of pesos more in expiring medicines remain undistributed. Special risk allowances of pandemic frontline nurses remain unpaid. So are tens of billions in reimbursements of private hospitals’ cash advances for COVID-19 treatment. The impression is that universal health care is collapsing.
For all that, Duterte blames state auditors. He wants them to lie that there is no corruption in the questioned spending. Yet papers can show otherwise. Behind DOH’s P29-billion purchase of pricey face masks and shields is a cautionary limit from budget officials to only two percent of the amount. Duterte prematurely exonerates the health secretary, preempting ongoing investigations by his Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.
Other agencies are as wasteful. Land transport regulators released only 1.07 percent of P5.58 billion to hire displaced jitney drivers as shuttle service. To earn a living back in their old routes, the drivers resort to 100-percent passenger loading instead of only half for safe distancing. Others turn to begging in the streets. The overseas workers’ fund purchased overpriced feminine napkins from a construction supplies store that can no longer be located. Education officials underspent for online teaching equipment and materials. State auditors also flagged the Departments of Information and Communication Technology, Social Welfare and Development, Labor and Employment, Interior and Local Government, and Environment and Natural Resources. Duterte tells his Cabinet to ignore the auditors.
Meanwhile, his 2016 campaign contributors quietly are bagging lucrative government deals. Congress allies are busy crafting self-serving laws, if not disenfranchising critical broadcasters and politicizing epidemiology. Vaccine procurement is being used to suck up to Beijing. The ex-general in charge even wants Philippine maritime jurisdiction set aside for Sinovac donations. No protection is accorded Filipino fishers to increase food supply against Chinese poachers.
A subplot was the ruling PDP-Laban’s endorsement of Duterte as vice presidential candidate with choice of standard bearer. As backdrop, Duterte loyalists first wrested the party leadership from another “presidentiable,” Senator Manny Pacquiao.
Duterte used his weekly pandemic broadcasts as teleserye. One episode he devoted to advising Sara to spare herself the headaches of a gruelling presidency. Another time he said the vice presidency interested him. Then he floated Go’s name for president. This week he firmed up his VP intention. On cue, PDP-Laban top officers endorsed Go as presidential candidate.
Sara must be watching intently. PDP-Laban has announced five of 12 senatorial candidates. Sara supposedly detests two loudmouths among them.
Who Sara will pick as runningmate is now subject of murmurs. Bongbong Marcos of Ilocos and cousin Martin Romualdez of Leyte are possibilities, as is Gilbert Teodoro of Tarlac. Then again she might not need one. The 2016 election showed that a presidential wannabe can run without a VP and vice-versa. The mismatched presidential multiparty system makes that possible.
Intriguers spice up the storyline. They convinced Duterte to become VP to continue enjoying immunity from suit. They forget that a VP has no such privilege. In 2019 the police charged VP Leni Robredo with sedition. It’s the intriguers who need protection by keeping Duterte in power. When Duterte is gone, they will go to jail while on trial for plunder.
Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying
Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying
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