Hoping against hope

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

REVIEWING how things developed in the country over the past week, my hopes for a zero-COVID-19 by end of April were dashed. Seeing pictures of people and motorists in Metro Manila, the epicenter of COVID-19 in Luzon, clearly ignoring and defying government’s protocol for lockdown are indicators of a failed campaign to save lives.

My deep frustration was further aggravated on seeing the quarantine enforcers utterly overwhelmed and helpless. So what’s next?

Then I had to ask myself… where were the mayors and the barangay kapitans? They are supposed to be the government’s lead enforcers at the frontlines of implementation. They have been fully empowered by the Local Government Code to administer to the affairs of their constituents but they, too, seemed to have given up that authority to the national government.

Then my mind turned to Pangasinan, particularly in the cities where population can likely duplicate the catastrophic scenes in Metro Manila.

And just as I feared, my friend Manny Roy commented on my FB post that, indeed, residents in Dagupan have not taken the warning to stay home seriously. People still move around neighborhoods freely with no cares. Geez, aren’t they even aware that the city is already registering the highest number of PUIs and deaths?

But my hopes were raised again last Thursday as I began poring over articles for editing for this week’s issue of The PUNCH.  The reports from the Provincial Health Office were encouraging.

The most significant deduction made from the data collated was the determination that only 5 towns and 2 cities remain COVID-19–infected and with basis: that most of the reported deaths of PUIs were from other causes, not COVID-19!

That could only mean, human transmission has been greatly checked by the controls set in place early on by Guv Pogi and his advisers.

I can only hope and pray that there are no invisible carriers – they who are not even aware that they have the virus in them.

I keep my fingers crossed, hoping against hope that Pangasinan, at least, will win its battle.

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I’ve been watching President Duterte’s body language closely in his recent TV monologues.

I could see and sense the burden on his shoulders as he tried to express his concerns and frustrations in his mixed signature English-Tagalog (with heavy Bisaya accent).         

It’s obvious that the President has been grappling with a number of questions about his April 30 deadline.

 Should he order the lifting of lockdown in Luzon? If he should, will it be total or selective? If selective, for how long and which areas? Will the lifting be the right thing to do if contagion in Metro Manila has not been contained? What should he do with the lazy and corrupt governors, mayors and kapitans?

 If he doesn’t lift the lockdown, how can the government afford to dispense cash aids for the duration of the continued lockdown?  Can his government afford to cancel more projects to be funded by the 2020 General Appropriations Act? How and where will it source another P200 billion? Which of the major infrastructure projects should be canceled? Will he end his term with nothing to show in infra development? Will a continued lockdown finally lead to a flattening of the curve? Will the poor go hungry if government cannot provide funds substantially?

 I’m certain he feels that he will be damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.

 Let the members of the pesky opposition ponder these questions.

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