Stuck

Crises last for years. History tells us so – World War II, the Spanish flu, the Asian financial crisis, the subprime mortgage meltdown. Even a personal crisis, whether it’s the death of a loved one or the end of a love story, takes years to overcome.

But it’s strange and bizarre if we are not making any progress. If, as we try to crawl out of the bedlam, we find ourselves back in the same place – or further back to where we were at the start.

This is how dreams become nightmares, how nights spiral into a bottomless black hole. Why, oh why, can’t we wake up from this dark night? It’s frustrating, heartbreaking and brutally scary.

This is the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte.

Manila is in crisis and we are sadly, back to square one. Former health secretary Esperanza Cabral says we are even 10 steps back. The numbers indeed are stark and telling – 7,999 cases as of this writing, a record high, beating even the 6,958 infections recorded in August last year.

Most have identified where the problem lies – a delay in the rollout of vaccines, severe failure in contact tracing and testing and misplaced priorities--the war against terrorism and other perceived enemies. How many hours did our lawmakers spend deliberating on a media giant’s franchise instead of economic stimulus measures?

These are aside from our health authorities’s failure to act early on. When our neighbors were already closing their doors to foreigners, we were busy downplaying the impact of COVID-19.

Now, a year after the lockdowns started, here we are again, with curfews, liquor bans and business closures.

Businesses throw in the towel

Some businessmen are heaving heavy sighs of frustration. Imagine how ordinary Filipinos must feel.

Curfews do little to address the problem, if not even aggravate it, says Fruitas president and CEO Lester Yu. With public transportation limited, workers have to rush home and end up crowding in terminals to catch the last ride for the night. Diners opt not to eat out because they have to eat in a hurry, leaving restaurants in a slump. Instead of a strict curfew, dining hours can just be temporarily limited while allowing establishments to operate under normal hours to prevent the familiar scene of crowding when curfew time is near, he says.

Liquor bans are ineffective. People can order online, no problem. What is more important is controlling the size of groups dining together. The restaurants which are just starting to make money are again affected by the imposed curfews and liquor ban, adds Lester. With a slump in revenues, they would have to lay off workers, again.

I agree. The virus does not travel at night. In fact, if we allow people to travel anytime, there will be less crowds and congestion. Also, public transportation should not be limited.

We cannot afford another hard lockdown. Filipinos can’t stop working because the government does not have enough funds to subsidize people’s livelihoods. Ordinary Filipinos have very real, everyday needs.

What I believe to be effective are localized lockdowns and OCTA Research says so.

Vaccines

The vaccines are finally arriving but we are struggling to roll them out. I hope these are jabbed before they expire.

To make things worse, I hear the Department of Health has drafted an order excluding tobacco, alcohol, formula-milk and sugar firms from private-sector procurement of vaccines.

This would be ironic because the DOH, through PhilHealth, is being funded with at least P145 billion in tobacco excise taxes. Allowing some of the country’s biggest to procure vaccines for their employees and some more for donation would mean more Filipinos could receive protection from the virus earlier while the government gets its act together. It’s ‘criminal’ if the DOH does not allow this. Would it rather that people die of COVID-19 than allow tobacco or milk formula companies to procure vaccines or donate milk?

Against this backdrop, the economy is spiraling down, 4.5 million Filipinos are jobless and inflation is at a two-year high of 4.7 percent.

Method to madness

In my favorite Shakespeare play of all time, Hamlet, Lord Polonius said, “Though this be madness, there is method in it.”

I wonder about the madness we’re seeing now. Is there some method to this madness? Are the actions we’re seeing now have a purpose?

It’s a rhetorical question, of course, because we all know this chaos has no purpose for this nation of 110 million. Lives have become severely disrupted. Ordinary folks are struggling to eke out a living. And yet, P16,000 in ayuda for more than a year of uncertainty is a drop in the bucket, if it makes any difference at all.

People need more ayuda but we don’t have enough economic stimulus measures. We need a more targeted economic response as Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo has been pushing for.

What’s happening around us today is madness and I can only hope it teaches us to choose better leaders next year. Otherwise, we shall always find ourselves stuck in the middle of mayhem, in the middle of madness. Again and again.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com