"Let’s look at what really happened beginning January."
"Let’s look at what really happened beginning January."
Rounding into Week Six of the lockdown, I continue to be amazed at the twists and turns that human nature can take amid a calamity.
Comes now, for example, one Erwin Elechicon, president of the Pacific Plaza condominium corporation. In a letter to his fellow residents, this fellow complains about a group of policemen who barged into their hallowed premises, “loudly berated” residents hanging out in the common pool area, and “curtly shouted at them to go away.”
As it turns out, in a subsequent clarification by Taguig Mayor Lino Cayetano, the current lockdown does include “the closure of common areas and spaces in subdivisions and residential condominiums”. I didn’t fact-check his statement, but I have no reason to expect a local mayor to lie about something as important as the lockdown rules.
The idea, of course, is for the Pacific Plaza residents to stay inside their units, period. Evidently, though, they think it would be cruel and unusual punishment for them to be confined to units that cost—what, P50 million each? A hundred million? All those zeros make my head spin.
If they really don’t like it, there’s a dozen families that can easily fit into each of those units, right outside the Fort’s walls in any one of Makati’s teeming urban poor communities. You guys want to contribute to the common good, you should consider doing something like that instead of afflicting the rest of us with your pampered sense of entitlement.
As for the temerity of mere policemen to raise their voices to the residents, I can only offer Mr. Elechicon my sympathies. Sometimes, we benighted masses forget how to behave properly around our social betters.
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This early, the President’s tireless critics are already coming up with a revisionist view of the origins of the epidemic that squarely puts the blame on him. It’s a rising crescendo of fake news, blame game, and leftist agitprop that can only be orchestrated by who knows what malign hand is at work out there.
These critics, with perfect hindsight, want us to believe that Duterte waited too long before cracking down on the virus. Let’s look at what really happened back then, according to several sources I came across, one critical of him and the others not:
January: NY Times first report on coronavirus (6). Global media coverage ramps up (7-20). DOH monitors boy from Wuhan positive for unidentified virus (21). Family of first HK coronavirus case flies to Manila (22). China places Wuhan on lockdown. DOH says no need to quarantine HK family. PH aviation authorities bar flights to/from Wuhan (23). Two patients under virus watch in Palawan hospital (25). Duterte says PH preparing for the worst, but rejects travel ban against China. DOH Sec Duque warns of repercussion from such a ban (29). DOH confirms first case of coronavirus. Filipinos demand travel ban against China (30). Duterte orders travel ban only against Hubei province and plans to meet Cabinet the following week about the virus (31).
February: First coronavirus death in the PH and outside China. Duterte widens travel ban to include all of China, HK and Macau. Timing of ban the same as Korea and New Zealand, but ahead of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia (2). Duterte makes several soothing statements about public fears over virus (3). WHO says it’s wrong to impose travel ban against China (6). DOH includes Taiwan in travel ban. Duterte curses “idiot na coronang ito” (10). Repatriation of Filipinos from China. New Clark City designed quarantine facility for Central Luzon (Late Feb).
March: Declaration of State of Public Emergency (8). With beginnings of localized transmission, Code Red alert issued for virus. Luzon placed under expanded community quarantine – ECQ (12). Congress passes Bayanihan Heal as One Act (23). National Action Plan on Covid-19 is adopted (24).
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So, looking at the above series of events, when should Duterte have declared a lockdown earlier than March 12? Aside from the usual caveat about perfect hindsight as we try to answer this “what if” question, a couple of other caveats bear mentioning:
One: what a president says is not—in fact, should not be– the same as what he does. Speech and action have very different purposes from such an exalted position. A president who cracks down must also soothe public fears. A president who eases up must also scare people into line.
Two: Any action particularly involving another country can never be undertaken in isolation of the totality of the relationship between us and that country. This is especially true for China, whose trade, aid and investment we are wooing while simultaneously trying to hold the line against their maritime expansionism.
The proper question, then, is this: Was the unfolding sequence of official statements and actions consistent with the gradual escalation of the problem as well as the pace of improvement in acquiring the needed information on events? Keep in mind that it’s only this week when we’re expecting to be able to start doing enough testing—around 8 to 10,000 tests per day—to get a reasonably reliable handle on the progress of the virus.
The reader can be the judge.
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As I close this piece, I just learned about the Covid-related death of former Senator Heherson “Sonny” Alvarez. Luckily, he’s been survived by his wife Cecille, whom we’re praying will continue to stay healthy.
Sonny was the perpetually baby-faced campus figure who took his own sweet time to graduate from UP. He stayed on campus for so long that the legends about his amorous nocturnal adventures in the Sunken Garden acquired an inter-generational flavor.
The soul-changing event in his early life was the death during martial law of his younger brother Marsman, who had joined the NPA and perished in an encounter with government forces in their home province of Isabela. This made Sonny much more serious about his causes, and brought him eventually to the U.S. where he became a leading light of the anti-Marcos opposition there.
After martial law, Sonny entered into an active public life back home that saw him rise to the Senate and occupy various positions in the Executive, the last major one as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources under former President Arroyo.
All throughout, he thrived under the steadying influence of Cecille, and never lost his genial good nature especially around former comrades.
He’s back together now with Marsman, who must be enjoying himself catching up with a long and full lifetime’s worth of stories from his older brother. Farewell, old friend.
Readers can write me at gbolivar1952@yahoo.com.
