"I do not know what it will take to make the Department of Health act faster."
"I do not know what it will take to make the Department of Health act faster."
In preparation for the President's decision on what to do next when the Luzon lockdown ends on April 30, the Inter-Agency Task Force appear to have decided that local government units will now play a more prominent role on whatever actions will be decided.
This is at least how I read the latest press briefing of Secretary Carlito Galvez. After receiving recommendations from experts in a meeting last Monday, what might happen will be some kind of a modified lockdown which probably will be more localized depending on the degree of infections in a certain geographic area?
This is only an educated guess because the President will only make his decision today. The IATF appears to have come to the realization that it makes more sense for a local government unit to take charge and handle its own problems for the simple reason that local leaders know their areas more intimately than our national officials based in Manila. The IATF will henceforth provide the policy guidelines and local leaders will manage and implement these. Lateral coordination between local leaders will now also be encouraged so that whatever best practices have been developed by a local leader can be shared with others.
This is actually how a crisis management system should work. Each level of government has its own responsibility to perform which goes up the ladder until it reaches the national and highest level of decision making. The national government only takes over local functions under extreme circumstances.
This should have been done right from the start instead of making it difficult for local leaders to innovate and grapple with the fast-developing problems. Still, as they say, it is never too late to change gear. For one, we are fortunate that we have a bunch of local leaders who have demonstrated able and outstanding leadership during these trying times. In the metro area for instance, there appears to be an unintended friendly competition among some of the local mayors in developing new approaches to old problems such as providing cash and food aid to their constituency. It is heartening to see them go about doing their thing more efficiently than the mayors of old. Many of the local government units have become more technical and more scientific in the way they have gone about solving difficult problems like the identification of aid recipients.
Many of them are also young and aggressive regardless of gender and this has made the job of the national government a lot easier. This is not only true in the Metro area but also in many provinces and cities.
Some of course have shown their total incompetence but the vast majority are truly very capable leaders and the national leadership should be thankful because there is still no end in sight for this pandemic.
For one, there is the possibility of a second or third wave if a vaccine is not developed at the shortest possible time. If there is anything that the 1918 flu pandemic teaches us, is that there was a second wave that killed more people than the first and third waves. The chief medical adviser to the US president, Dr Anthony Fauci believes that a second wave is possible which makes the IATF move of cascading operational responsibilities more to the LGUs timely. I hope we will be more prepared if there will be a second wave which I hope will not happen. We have to also bear in mind that even if some restrictions are lifted, there will still be infections. We all must still be on guard and be better prepared.
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When 14 senators demanded that Health Secretary Francisco Duque resign, he refused but promised to work harder and admitted to some missteps. One of these missteps is certainly the issue of mass testing.
The DOH has consistently refused to implement mass testing. It was only recently that it agreed to implement what it termed as an expanded mass testing program. But even this excludes many people because the program includes only about three or four groups of people. One must still have to be referred because no walk-in testing is allowed, when this is what is needed if some restrictions will be gradually lifted.
The slowness of the DOH in appreciating the situation and acting immediately can be frustrating. I do not know what it will take to make this department act faster. Take the case of the Marikina testing laboratory. It was only a few days ago that it was certified and it took a visit by the Health secretary to do it. It seems that the DOH is so secure in its science-based approaches that it is hesitant to venture into the unknown without the prodding of medical colleagues outside the bureaucracy.
When the President announced the order of about one million rapid test kits, DOH should have immediately read this to mean that the President wants universal mass testing. It should have prepared accordingly and moved fast to increase the number of testing centers all over the country. Seventeen testing centers is inadequate for a country of 107 million people. There has to be more.
There may be signs of change. It was reported yesterday that about 30 drive-in testing facilities are being prepared. If true, at least the DOH is beginning to see the point.