A year and change into the first lockdowns of March 2020, we in the NCR Plus—Metro Manila along with the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna—are again on Enhanced Community Quarantine beginning today.
The surge in cases this month has been alarming, and the vaccine delivery and rollout have been painfully slow. Again, our hospitals are nearing full capacity and our medical frontliners are exhausted.
Something drastic needs to be done to stop this trend.
There are those who say we are back to where we were a year ago. We remember so well the long lines in supermarkets and drugstores, and the frequent sight of cops roaming around, waiting to catch violators of the quarantine.
There is again a curfew: The one imposed two weeks ago has been lengthened—now, with the exception of those with legitimate business to be outside, people should be in their homes between 6 in the evening and 5 in the morning. Last year, the curfew started at 8 p.m..
Others, like the former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, say we are not back to where we were—we are actually worse off.
After all, last year despite our fear of the then-unfamiliar virus, there were only a handful of cases across the country. One year hence, the number has grown exponentially. Hundreds of health professionals have since fallen ill and died.
Then, business came to a halt after successive years of relatively active operations. Today, businesses, jobs and livelihoods have been floundering for a full 12 months—and it does not look like there will be any respite soon.
In 2020, we pinned our hopes on the discovery of a vaccine. Now there are several brands of vaccines already authorized for use—but they come in trickles, and the actual vaccine rollout has not been as fast, or organized, as it should be. Worse, some personalities believe they are entitled to jump the line and get inoculated ahead of everybody else. These kinds of people plague us, along with the virus.
Imagine, then, the gall of the presidential spokesman to proclaim that the government’s pandemic response has been “excellent.” If it were so good, why is there now a need to be on lockdown again, with its consequent devastating consequences on the economy?
It is much the same, but it is much different this time around. Today the stakes are higher, the lessons are tougher. But unlike last year, there is now an opportunity to turn things around and fast. If our leaders play this right, and if we the public continue to abide by the strict health protocol to protect ourselves and be considerate toward our family and others, and if we learn to hold our officials accountable for their actions or inaction, then we just might see results in a few weeks.
This second season of the ECQ should have a new denouement—reveal who in government are working for us and who are interested only in their own gain, and prompt us to drop these liars and losers in the coming elections.