Error. Virus detected! Install solutions? Just like how our personal computers and other gadgets can be crashed by a virus, at the beginning of 2020, the world was crashed by the notorious coronavirus known as COVID-19. This coronavirus disease was a nobody before its outbreak started in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Many countries posted immediate responses; it is as if they are this kind of personal computers that are exquisitely programmed with software that instantly goes into action whenever they are alarmed with a notice from the virus. Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea are these top personal computers that have the fastest internet connection to install actions towards the virus. Singapore and Thailand are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and among the circle, the Philippines currently having 210,000 cases, is lagging far behind the rest. Is the Philippines a type of personal computer not competent enough to destroy the virus?
The ASEAN is a regional organization that addresses economic, political, and security issues among its ten members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Thailand’s model healthcare system and its expenditures in health security capacity, particularly in monitoring and tracking cases of infectious disease, epidemiological training, lab testing, and electronic surveillance reporting, safeguarded its borders from the dismantling impact of the pandemic. Despite Cambodia’s slow response to the emerging crisis, it currently contains 273 cases with zero deaths. Mobilization of the frontliners and constructive contact tracing of people and getting them to test greatly controlled the epidemic. Vietnam counted on mobilizing its people and on massive social closures and extensive surveillance of its citizens. Retired doctors and nurses, and medical interns were summoned to build a strong defense against the progressing cases of the virus. Poverty is also reaching its peak but there are some entrepreneurs that developed “rice ATMS” to the poor. Vietnam has also controlled the crisis remarkably well. Singapore greatly counted on extensive temperature-taking, testing, accurate contact tracing, and quarantine measures for confirmed cases, those in contact with the disease, and the return of travelers. The utilization of hi-tech tools to trace the virus, particularly the mobile apps that cooperate in contact tracing, and the development of testing kits and antibody tests were the initial measures that Singapore enacted. Singapore and Vietnam have something in common that molded their responses towards the crisis. These countries were both hardly devastated by the SARs outbreak in 2003. As a reaction to this, their governments were structured in unity, centrality, and coordination. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Vietnam’s “culture of surveillance” and Singapore’s “nanny state” are both exceedingly conducive in supervising and communicating with their people. These countries were one of the victors, accompanying Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, that had the vision of mitigating the outbreak in China before it emerged as a pandemic. They shut down their immigration as immediate as possible, mobilized public health workers to regulate and control contacts of cases, prepared their healthcare facilities, and began disseminating accurate and consistent information and data. They have flattened their curves before the rest of the world realized there would be curves to flatten.
At the other end of the ambit in the matter of convocation and immediate response to the emergence of the coronavirus are countries that includes the Philippines. Duterte’s administration was not only unresponsive, but also naïve for shamelessly underestimating the risks. The initial priority was the country’s close relation with China. While the other neighboring countries were already taking initiatives to border their place through emergency procedures and travel restrictions, the Philippines was evidently wasting urgent time. President Duterte just imposed travel ban only for passengers coming from Wuhan, China, a day after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the country. The problem here is that the Duterte administration underestimated the risks the pandemic holds. President Duterte even mocked Filipinos citizens for asking responses to this crisis, outrightly saying, “You are too scared of this corona epidemic. They are discouraging long meetings and large congregations. Don’t be fools by believing it.” But just a few days later, he appeared on the screen giving out digressional address of lockdown announcement in the entire Luzon. It did not end there as the consistency of unclear and rambling announcements about the details of quarantine protocols and other issues were evident, leading to public confusion and havoc. Furthermore, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, on the day the first case in the Philippines was confirmed, emphasized that the government would not be allocating masks to impoverished communities as they had none to give out. Here is the most infuriating part, days prior to that, the country’s leaders donated a worth of $1.4 million masks to China. One would begin to wonder which nation our leaders are serving to. It was palpable that the people in power were neglecting the real deal in this crisis. It even prioritized the shutdown of the largest network of information in the country, the ABS-CBN, in the time where they are significant and needed the most to deliver the necessary news amid the pandemic. Additionally, the raised voices and concerns of the Filipinos, the criticisms thrown at the Duterte administration, were challenged by the issuing of the Anti-Terror Bill Law, stripping the desperate Filipino people’s basic rights, notably freedom of speech. Instead of facilitating the load that the virus has brought to our nation, they remorselessly bypassed the primary crisis at hand: securing public safety and health. The Philippines’ COVID-19 response kisses incompetence in a militaristic fashion. Duterte has emplaced the military and police to administer the curfews and quarantine protocols, equipped with the orders of “shoot to kill” to anyone who violates the regulations. In addition, from one of his publicized statement to the nation, he expressed a threat of ordering a stricter penance similar to martial law if more people violate the protocols. Instead of solutions and hope, the Duterte administration shamelessly infused fear and danger towards its people. Their initial general response has been accompanied by incompetence; we are indeed a personal computer with the slowest internet connection, not competent enough to install apt solutions.
The Philippines was lagging behind, but despite the continuous flow of the virus emerging in our computer, both the national and local governments have installed software and programs of an assertion of emergency, lockdowns, cessation of schools and workplaces, and other restrictions to halt the visitation of the virus. The first localized transmission on March 7 pushed the administration to formally enunciate public health emergency followed by the authorization of local government units to operate local disaster risk reduction management funds. Panic buying and hoarding came into action, that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) established an order demanding retailers to only allow two bottles of each type of disinfectant per person. An imposition of a 60-day price freeze on basic goods was also assessed. Upon the declaration of a state of calamity, the admin instituted the price control of basic commodities, grants of non-interest loans, allocation of calamity funds, clearance of distribution and receipt of donations, and hazard pay and additional risk allowance for medical and government frontliners, as well as employees, in the areas of science and technology. The implementation of lockdown began on March 15 in Metro Manila and was followed by the imposition of enhance community quarantine within Luzon. Local government units have also enforced their own quarantine measures. The agency that handles the imposition of the national government’s social amelioration program (SAP) is the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in which they aided the impoverished families affected by the crisis with emergency cash subsidy. The office of the Vice President Leni Robredo raised funds to finance sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) to distribute to the frontline health professionals. The office also formed partnerships with clothing businesses for the mass production of PPEs. Mass testing, particularly swabbing centers, eventually began in May 2020 after calls for volunteers were made on social media. Repatriation was as well imposed by the national government on January 18. Citizens from affected countries were repatriated, which was first processed and volunteered by the Philippine Airlines. Upon the returners’ arrival in the country, a mandatory 14-day quarantine was implemented.
The presence of the military and police have become prevalent in this pandemic. Their significance in this crisis is undeniable, but the power abuses originating from their ranks are also vivid. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been declared as frontliners by the national government in containing the pandemic. Their task is to arrest groups or individuals in activities involved in violating quarantine protocols. Additionally, they are deployed in areas with community quarantine to regulate the traffic of people and goods. They also supervise the hoarding of essential commodities, and report if firms violate the directives set out by the DTI regarding the manipulation of prices of basic needs. Their aircraft and vessels, moreover, have been utilized for the delivery of medical supplies, and the transportation of health personnel to their task areas.
The Philippines’ response to the pandemic, headed by Duterte, is as slow as a turtle. We have this slow internet connection that hinders us from installing and activating programs to exterminate the viral stopover in our personal computer. Our government officials were too laggard and incompetent to acknowledge the risks this virus brings. The whole world is anticipating the comeback of normalcy in our daily routines. The consequences of our negligence shall serve as a lesson to the future. Had the people in power acted like a fast internet connection, things would have been different. Are there ways that our personal computer, the Philippines, can do to further elevate our chance to destroy the virus? It is not only an error in the internet connection, our government, and the virus. It is a communal fight for every Filipino. We are part of this. We are the program files: cooperation, responsibilities, allegiance, and the willpower of each of us in complying the ordained preventive measures like staying at home, wearing face masks, social distancing, washing our hands, just like keeping our files cleaned, are in the last resort, the foundation of a great shield against this virus. Warning—virus detected. Ready to install solutions?
