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Friday, March 29, 2024

A disaster

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"Amid the inanities, incompetence and corruption in government, what shall we do?"

 

A year ago this month, President Duterte declared what became a severe, and the world’s longest, lockdown this century. The idea was to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus which has caused the world’s deadliest pandemic in 100 years.

The result of Duterte’s lockdown has been an unmitigated disaster. It triggered an economic collapse, the deepest in 500 years, with economic production declining a record – 9.5 percent, -11.1 percent in GNI terms, in 2020. The huge negative rate wiped out nearly all the robust economic gains of the years 2019 and 2018.

About 70 percent of businesses were shut down. Half of the workforce, or more than 20 million workers, went out of work. Poverty and hunger gnawed at 50 percent of the population.

Businesses teetered on bankruptcy and insolvency (no cash to run day-to-day operations and to service debts). The Inquirer reported the other day: “At a Senate hearing last week, legislators were told that more than 1,200 big companies are troubled financially and need up to P625 billion in government funding support to stay afloat and keep some 6.3 million workers from joining the ranks of the unemployed. The problem, as admitted by economic officials, is that the government does not have that money to help all big firms facing solvency issues.”

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“Let’s face it: We completely botched handling the pandemic,” sneered economist Cielito Habito in his Inquirer column. “We are 10 steps back from square one,” scoffed Dr. Esperanza Cabral, a respected health professional and a former Health secretary herself.

Said she:

“Square one was when we had just shut down the economy and people had spare change in their pockets… when the private sector was able to step up, provide financial protection for their employees, and spend billions to help others… when hospitals were full but doctors and health care workers, though scared… were fresh and eager to do battle with this particular enemy….” But, she notes, we don’t have those things this time. “The doctors and health workers are battered and tired like everyone else. Many of them have died. Government coffers are depleted and it is deeper in debt.”

And what did we get for all that economic toll and human suffering? Nothing. The pandemic simply raged on.

COVID killed almost 20,000 Filipinos in 2020 alone, according to official figures of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), although the Department of Health under Secretary Francisco Duque continues to lie.

DOH as of this writing admits to just 12,972 deaths (March 23, 2020) and 671,792 cases—the worst in Asia, next to Indonesia’s 1.456 million cases and 39,711 deaths.

The Philippine deaths per one million people, 117, is also the second worst in Asia, behind Indonesia’s 144 per million. Our ASEAN neighbors have done exceedingly better –Myanmar 59 deaths per million; Malaysai 38; Brunei 7; Singapore 5; Thailand 1; Vietnam 0.4; and Cambodia 0.2. Worldwide, the Philippines is 30th in number of COVID cases, more than the cases of countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh even though they have bigger populations.

Today, the Philippines is derided for having the most number of loans from foreign lenders and yet with the fewest vaccine deliveries in Asia. The Philippines is the most delayed and has the slowest vaccine rollout in the region.

Amid the humbling numbers, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who by training as a lawyer looks at the evidence before making conclusions, simply declared Duterte’s pandemic management a—drum roll, please—“excellent!” A week after making the horrendous claim, my friend Roque got COVID.

Amid the inanities, incompetence and corruption in government, what to do then?

Well, help yourself. Do not rely on the government. Wear a mask, wear face shields. Keep yourself six feet away from other people, including your relatives. Do not visit nor eat inside the malls. Stay or work at home whenever possible. Conserve your cash for what could be worse days ahead.

Meanwhile, Israel, US and UK have reached herd immunity. More than half of their populations have been vaccinated, thanks to the foresight and political will of their leaders. 

In the Philippines, we have what I call is here-ditary immunity, not disease- related but something worse—political clans immune from political setbacks and electoral reversals despite their obvious incompetence, corruption, and rapacity for power. 

So you have Duterte’s daughter, Sara, campaigning in the middle of the pandemic restrictions, her followers staging super spreader events. And Duterte himself is promoting talk of a “President Bong Go” with the latter saying he will run only if Duterte is his VP.

Hey, dynasties: Do you hear the people sing? People will not be slaves again. There is life about to start when tomorrow comes.

biznewsasia@gmail.com

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