THE discovery of the COVID-Beta variant in Mangaldan should serve as a wake-up call to provincial and local governments in Pangasinan.

Our local governments must review and correct their established priorities in their campaign to flatten the curve. The discovery of the Beta variant, already considered a “concern” of the World Health Organization in addition to its determination that the Delta variant is the deadliest variant so far, should tell them that the enforcement and implementation of strategies can no longer proceed on their present course.

Our provincial and local governments should go back to the drawing board and carefully assess how it can better proceed to protect the populace from further and worse infection.

The data clearly shows that while the number of recovery cases are increasing, meaning the established protocol is working, and the local citizenry is assured that COVID-19 infection is no longer fatal if detected early on.

But the battle to keep the number of new active cases low is far from being won. The objective to stop new active cases is what the battle for the curve is all about. It’s time for difficult questions to be asked.

To the provincial IATF: Are the mayors and kapitan being made to account for the spike of cases in their communities? Are the enforcers at the control border checkpoints lax? Are city and town officials mindful of the enforcement of their pandemic-related ordinances?

To the town and city IATFs: Are the health and distance protocols being strictly enforced by the police and barangay kapitan? Are the kapitan being made to account for failed contact-tracing in their communities? Are public areas being closely monitored for level of enforcement of health and distancing protocols?

Misplaced thinking

ANTONIO Trillanes almost does things the bizarre way.  Each time he opens his mouth, he always almost comes up with a shocker that always almost cheapens his now-sullied stature.  The latest is his assessment of Leni Robredo’s still unannounced shot at the presidency in the May 2022 polls.  Trillanes said he and his Magdalo party will only support Robredo if Robredo will not ally with Senators Ping Lacson and Dick Gordon.  Crazy.  Isn’t politics addition?  Suddenly, Trillanes has become the exact opposite of it because his stance has become absolutely the politics of subtraction.  Crazier still is Trillanes’ misplaced thinking accusing Lacson and Gordon, two of the Senate’s most upright lawmakers, as “collaborators of the Duterte administration.” A totally absurd statement that even Senate Minority leader Frankie Drilon had scoffed at derisively. Simply, Trillanes has lost his touch.  Totally.

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