PH Govt. vs COVID-19: Did we won?

The government once said that "our COVID response is excellent." Now, let me ask you a simple question. How excellent do you think is the action plan of our government have for his pandemic? Did it worked or it failed? How effective and efficient is it for everyone of us?

Photo courtesy of GMA News

It is over a year when the COVID-19 pandemic struck not just the nation but their entire world. It is also over a year when the enforced community quarantine were placed along the country. These past weeks, it seemed like we are back at square one. There are no concrete plans as where will all of these will go, and it is more likely that we will still be stuck in this unforeseen bubble for longer periods of time.

Is PH COVID Response a total mess?

Hindi tayo nagkulang. Right after the WHO advisory, the following day, basta within 48 hours, we already had the task force.

Duterte and his whole administration had been very vocal that "there are no lapses within their actions" and that "the COVID response in the country is doing excellent." Contrary to what they say, manifestations within the society definitely shows the underlying incompetence of the officials we have elected with hopes to be true to us and serve with all their might.

Take the recent trend of community pantries across the nation. For tomorrow, the Maginhawa Community Pantry will be pausing its operations due to different instances of red-tagging by various groups that are pro-administration in social networking sites. Instead of putting their budget over effective and efficient responses—relief operations, nationwide contact tracing and mass testing, mass vaccination, and other feasible activities against the virus—they rather choose to attack different personalities or groups and protect their egos as if it is very essential. (Got the joke?)

The Timeline of the Response

Photo courtesy of Philstar Global

As of January last 2020, the administration isn't that threatened to what the virus has on its extent. January 5th when DOH ordered intensive checks between inbound travelers, while flight ban from Wuhan was implemented January 25th. From the next couple days, there were still no travel ban implemented but visa on arrivals were already suspended. Duterte even said before that "he is not for it because it would not be fair." It is then at January 30th when the country had its first-ever case of the virus.

February 2nd is when the government implemented the travel ban for China, Macau, and Hong Kong. On his press-con on February 3 last year, Duterte even said that "there is nothing to be scared of the said virus." Taiwan was then included eight days after, at February 10. At February 13 last year, he addressed that everyone should stay calm and be more vigilant over the threat of the virus. The day after, February 14, they have lifted the travel ban over Taiwan but implemented a ban over Filipino tourists to South Korea at 26th.

Photo courtesy of Hindustan Times

Exactly March 7, the DOH recorded the first local infection of the virus. Duterte then declared state of public health emergency the day after, March 8. The first recorded death of a Filipino due to COVID-19 was on March 11th, the same day when World Health Organization declares the spread of the virus as a world pandemic. Four days later, on March 15, after debunking such speculations, Duterte imposed a community quarantine at Metro Manila. After two days, he then declared the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.

After a year of roller coaster ride, we are here again. Seemingly going back from square one, having a restart. The NCR+ bubble—Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna—were placed under ECQ for two weeks starting last March 29. As of now, the bubble is at MECQ until April 30. Despite the two-week implementation of ECQ, the government is still planning over what would they do—testing, tracing, and treatment. Another possible solution is the vaccine, but right now, only over a million of the desired 17 million people are vaccinated. The Health Department also clarified that despite having the doses of COVID vaccine, you are still unsafe from the virus.

You can check a more detailed timeline of the government's response over COVID pandemic here. Included in the post are videos that summarize and explain the "excellent COVID response" that Harry Roque is proud of.

Did we won against COVID-19?

Let's go to the main topic. The government once said that "our COVID response is excellent." Now, let me ask you a simple question. How excellent do you think is the action plan of our government have for his pandemic? Did it worked or it failed? How effective and efficient is it for everyone of us?

If I were to answer those questions, I don't think we can already yell for victory. We are very subpar compared to our neighboring countries. A lot of them like Thailand and Vietnam are slowly getting back to the old and usual but still, with different precautions. Meanwhile here, we remained as the country with spikes in cases of COVID-19. Like what I had said repeatedly above, we are back to the square one. We still have the enforced community-wide quarantines as well as its different modifications like localized and granular lockdowns, and home-based quarantines.

Even surveys have showed that the country is lowest amongst neighboring ASEAN countries in terms of COVID-19 response. The ASEAN Studies Center’s “The State of Southeast Asia 2021 survey report” showed that 53.7% of its Filipino respondents are disapproved on how the Duterte administration handles the public health crisis. After hearing this news, many netizens expressed that they are not even surprised over the results. Others even said that “PH, most of the time late ang respond on every issue regarding COVID-19, lagi pong waiting." and that “nauuna kasi yabang bago gawa.” It goes to show now, where only the citizens within the community are the ones who are open to help the others. Take the community pantry initiative that is currently spreading nationwide as an example.

Photo courtesy of SunStar Manila

In the absence of good governance, only the people could help one another. True enough, if our leaders will continue to be incompetent, there would be no room for development and growth. We could not simply get back to the usual normal since the governance that we have seems to have no sense. Let this be a wake-up call for these politicians. You must do something good for your constituents. In layman's term, huwag puro papogi lang. Learn to have sympathy and integrity. You are a public servant, after all. You are tasked to work for the public.

Sources: THREAD: DELETED FACT CHECK REPORT (skamolpaisarn on Twitter); Philippines has lowest-rated COVID-19 response in ASEAN and some are not surprised (Interaksiyon)

Please leave your comments or suggestions below. Thank you!