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.
Daily COVID-19 infections are at all-time highs: Aug. 20, 17,231; Aug. 21, 16,694; Aug. 22, 16,044; Aug. 23, 18,332. And those are under-reported due to testing lapses.
Duterte admitted in his last State of the Nation Address in July that he doesn’t know what to do. He relies only on advice from aides. That’s expected. But instead of situation update and inspirational chat, he wastes weekly telecasts on tirades against critics, alternative thinkers and presidential contenders of his daughter. Once he scolded doctors, taunting them to revolt, for merely suggesting a time out to reassess strategies. No attention is given to long-festering youth malnutrition, learning crisis and early-teen pregnancy. Pork, poultry, sugar (and soon seafood) are overly imported to appease city consumers, to the detriment of rural producers. Watching the pandemic confusion, international lenders and rating bodies forecast the Philippines to be the last to recover economically among ASEAN states.
The Delta variant inevitably will infect millions, a Duterte adviser says. Its viral load is a thousand-fold higher than the Wuhan original. Contagion occurs within moments, no longer than 15 minutes. Carriers are asymptomatic and infectees are young.
What to do? Masking, handwashing and distancing, as usual. Then vaccinations against severity, hospitalization and death. Plus wider, swifter contact tracing, testing and isolation – the very protocols and programs where brute force and macho populism are failing.
Filipinos vent their dismay online. Duterte’s spokesman responds with distortions and distractions. Infections are surging nationwide but he cites only Metro Manila, rejoicing that hospitals there are not yet fully booked because of more vaccinations. He conveniently forgets that provincial crematoriums are overwhelmed. He then blabbers about the Philippines accepting Afghan refugees. He does not first ascertain if the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and Bureau of Immigration can screen against secret religious fanatics and sleeper terrorists.
Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying
Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying
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