What being in Code Red means to us

We are now entering a new phase in this pestilence called the Coronavirus or what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the COVID-19. Last Saturday afternoon I received the official word that the Philippines has declared “Code-Red” which is the highest alert level that we can attain. However we are not yet in lockdown mode, which has happened in China and is now happening in Italy where some 16 million people are affected by this declaration by the Italian government.

In response to that lockdown mode, the Vatican has ordered no masses to be held, except for those already inside the churches. Pope Francis will hold a daily mass in Santa Martha where he is staying and this will be televised for those who want to hear the mass in their homes. Let us hope and pray that this situation won’t come to this in the Philippines. I especially believe that going to mass in order to commune with God would not infect the prayerful faithful.

Meanwhile, we learned that an employee of a consulting firm Deloitte Philippines has been receiving treatment for the novel coronavirus, which the accounting/auditing firm announced last Saturday. The firm, which shares a building with other business process outsourcing companies in Taguig’s Bonifacio Global City, itself a central location for many BPO firms. A unit of Deloitte is a member of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, the umbrella organization of BPO companies that also has a presence in Cebu and employs around 750 people.

The firm, which is headquartered in the UK, reported last March 4 that a colleague based in New Street Square office in London tested positive for COVID-19 after a personal trip to Asia.” That particular employee went on self-isolation and is now in the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) last Friday confirmed two new cases of COVID-19, including a 48-year-old male who had returned to the Philippines on Feb. 25 from Japan. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a press briefing, “The DOH wants to clarify that this is a preemptive call to ensure that national and local governments and public and private health care providers can prepare for possible increase in suspected and confirmed cases.”

I went to the Ayala Shopping Mall last Sunday and the first thing that I noticed was, traffic was very light… then upon entering the mall… parking was easy to find, which tells you that most of the people who heard that we are now in Code Red, most probably decided to stay home and not go out.

While trying to get some groceries, I noticed that many items were no longer available, like imported meat products like liver spread and others which give you an idea of things happening here due to the African Swine Flu (ASF). With Italy in lockdown mode, you can expect that products from Italy won’t be available here anymore until this virus disappears. Let’s all hope that this would come sooner than later. The only positive thing happening these days is that the prices of gasoline products have gone down.

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Last Saturday, I learned in my Facebook page that the town of Medellin (110 kms north of Cebu City) was able to recover a World War II US light tank in the Dagusungan River. The photos they showed of this tank were without its turret. I immediately searched for Google on World War II tanks and learned that this was an M5A1 Stuart tank was one of the light tanks of the US Army used during World War II. However this was a surprise to me as my history books on the Americal division that came to liberate Cebu from the Japanese didn’t mention a Stuart tank.

 I have two books given to me by my uncle Capt. Alfredo Segura who now lives in Benecia, California. The first book he gave me was entitled “On the Southern Cross: The Saga of the Americal Division 1942-1945” by Captain Francis D. Cron and the other book was “Orchids in the Mud: A personal account by veterans of the 132 Infantry Regiment” edited by Robert C. Muehrcke.

Upon reading those books about the Americal Division that came to Cebu to fight the Japanese occupiers I knew that they brought along Sherman Tanks, and M3 Lee or Grant medium Tank and there are photographs that support that story.

However books never mentioned that the Americal Division brought along an M5A1 Stuart Tank nor did they write an account that the US Americal Division went as far as north of Cebu. Mind you while I was little, I played in one of the destroyed Sherman Tanks parked along Ibarra St. near my house.

However I’m happy that Medellin Mayor Joven Mondigo Jr. said they would place the remains of the M5A1 Stuart Tank near Dagusungan River where it was unearthed. I also learned that they earlier got hold of its turret. I checked with fellow historian Prof. Jobers Bersales if he had checked the Americal Division to find out if they brought a Stuart tank with them, and he told me that he already contacted the website. They were in Cebu five years ago for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

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