EDITORIAL - Why the secrecy?

The Department of Health reported last Thursday that an exclusive private school failed to notify authorities that more than 40 of its students have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms. Sadly, there is nothing it can do about the violation, or at least the irresponsibility.

The irresponsible violation of this exclusive private school is only against certain guidelines on how to deal with the swine flu pandemic and is not likely to be actionable. It seems all that the DOH can do is mope and sulk at the transgression.

But still, the DOH itself appears to help feed the intransigence. It could have named the school, for instance. Yet it did not. The DOH is probably scared because the school is an “exclusive private school,” the kind ordinary folk would refer to as “eskwelahan sa dato.”

Well, “dato” or not, the Influenza A(H1N1) virus brooks no distinctions. And when the virus strikes, everyone is under threat, including those outside the gilded gates. So why did the DOH refuse to name names.

The DOH not only withheld the name of the school, it also did not identify the private hospital to which the school secretly ran to. Is there a double standard here? And if so, does it in any way contribute positively to the fight against the pandemic?

If we remember right, there was no attempt to hide the name of the University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu-Mandaue when several of its students were found positive of the virus. Was it because that school is not an exclusive private school? “Kung pobre isulti, kung dato itago?”

Perhaps by this time the DOH shall have identified the school and the hospital. But maybe only because there is really no way to keep a thing such as this a secret for too long. Still it shall have been too late to save the DOH from being questioned about its policies.

At a time like this, openness and transparency, not secrecy, should be the order of the day. It always pays to keep the public informed. The DOH cannot claim fears that people may panic because, hello, news of the pandemic has already circled the globe 64 trillion times.