Having been stuck at home for more than six months, I was able to see just what has been happening since the Philippine government decided to declare multiple lockdowns in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. As we can still see, our cases are higher than ever before, as it stands now that we are the only country in Southeast Asia with the most cases with more than 300,000 people infected with the virus which is still continuing to rise.
The saddest part is that all of this could have been prevented, especially when we look at how other countries handled this virus. It just makes me infuriated with how our government responded to this.
For the most part, it took our government a long time to put out travel restrictions when there was already a reported case here in our country. While this was happening, other countries such as Singapore and Taiwan were already doing what they could in measures to protect their citizens from the virus.
Even with the $535 million the government gave out to help with the virus, only 11.4% was going to be used for the efforts in stopping the virus. This is bad considering how a lot of medical workers were lacking the basic needs such as a personal protective equipment (PPE) in handling this virus.
Aside from the lack of PPE, there was also a much needed mass testing during the early days of the virus which the government never gave us. Instead, they focused on testing a number of public officials and their families, never prioritizing their own citizens. Recently, the Supreme Court decided to junk the petition of mass testing when it is needed now than ever due to the continuing rise of our cases.
Because of this, people are only continuing to suffer, especially those who can’t even make a living for them with the extensions of the lockdowns that aren’t even working. The poor and the working classes are the ones who are taking the full brunt of this pandemic, to the point that they had to protest just so that the government would offer them the basic needs to survive which just increases the chances of people getting infected.
As it is right now, it seems the government is easing up some restrictions when it comes to distancing rules in public transportation, and with the country relying heavily on these for going around, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have another spike of cases. If this continues to rise, we won’t be able to flatten the curve at all, not until we finally have a vaccine which can still take until next year.
It’s just so sad how all of this could have been avoided if only our government acted sooner, if we paid attention to the early warnings.
I wouldn’t have to be writing this in the first place. As time goes by, only more will continue to suffer, while others may even end up dying to something that could have been prevented.
By Elisha Rael Ordonez (Spacebar)
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