EDITORIAL - Good the Phl has come to its senses

It is good that the Philippines has decided not to send Filipino medical professionals to West Africa to help in the fight against Ebola, the deadly disease with no known cure that has already killed thousands there. For a while there, no less than Health Secretary Enrique Ona gave everyone a scare when he volunteered to send Filipino medical professionals there.

Ona's ill-advised offer was promptly shot down by almost everyone, and for good reason. There is hardly anything anybody knows about the Ebola. No less than the Centers for Disease Control of the United States has admitted so. The only means of fighting the disease as of the moment is simply to contain it. There is a drug that is still in the experimental stage, but is has been given sparingly, with no clear results.

Given the fact that nobody knows anything about Ebola, it was the height of mindless chivalry for Ona to volunteer Filipino medical professionals. While nobody is really safe from Ebola, the Philippines has remained free of the disease so far and it would be tempting fate to go looking for it in West Africa. If Ona wants to go, he is free to do so. But once he does, he should stay there until the disease is licked.

To try and help is a wonderful virtue. The Philippines itself has on numerous occasions been the recepient of valuable foreign assistance in times of great need, most especially right after supertyphoon Yolanda hit. Had it not been for the quick, massive and efficient response of the global community, the Philippine government would be hard-pressed to respond to the needs of the ravaged communities.

But it is one thing to help and to just get in the way. To be able to help, one must have the resources and the capability to do something meaningfully and efficiently, things that the Philippines clearly does not have. In other words, we do not have what it takes to meet the needs of the moment in West Africa. Rather than being of help, we might only prove to be a nuisance.

Besides, there is a little insensitivity in the call by the United Nations and a few other western nations for the Philippines to send volunteers. Why did the "usefulness" of Filipino medical professionals suddenly occur to these nations? Aren't these the very same nations that are giving Filipino medical professionals such a hard time when all they ask is the opportunity to work honestly in their territories? How perspectives can change with the circumstances.

Admittedly, a global effort is needed to fight Ebola, but it does not follow that every nation in the globe has to send medical professionals to West Africa. Each and every nation can make a sensible contribution to the effort without necessarily being physically present on ground zero. By simply keeping a very tight watch on each one's respective borders, every nation can help contain the spread of the disease.