Celebrating the unheralded

As we remember Mama Mary’s Assumption on this day, August 15, we ask her intercession for peace and protection for all, here and throughout the rest of the Philippines and the world.

As we laud the valiant efforts of all those committed to save lives and contain the virus, let us also always remember and be assured that God is our Savior Who will put an end to this pandemic, in his time and through his grace. Amen.

Let us also pray for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit for those who will decide the next quarantine protocol – that the decision balances the needs of all sectors, is evidence-based and inclusive, reflective of the participation of various sectors in the decision-making.

We join Police Regional Office-7 chief Albert Ignatius Ferro in his recommendation for “an intensified assessment” to be done to guide the pending decision about the next quarantine level for Cebu City to sustain gains.

Lessons from comprehensive reviews of the present, temporary COVID organization, policies, practices should be stepping stones leading to sustainable and resilient disaster/pandemic management systems from hereon.

Emergencies, like this present pandemic, should be adequately and promptly prepared for and managed not only for the short but for the medium and long term as well.

Also, we hope that the IMPEG model (inclusive, multidisciplinal/, multisectoral/participative, evidence-based, eco-friendly, God-centered governance) be seriously considered and adopted.

While praying that statistics are truthful and cases genuinely decreasing, it is fitting to mention the many unheralded who deserve to be thanked and lauded now for their low-profile but valuable contribution for the containment of the virus and for the protection of people and communities.

IATF-Visayas Deputy chief implementer, retired general Melquiades Feliciano deserves to be commended for first consulting the Cebu City Council then promptly implementing contact tracing and a clear multi-level flowchart guiding those with COVID symptoms to go to appropriate clinics/facilities for timely response.

Thank you also to the contact tracers and the barangay health workers.

More than gratitude and applause, all health and medical frontliners deserve better work terms/conditions and support for their laudable work. So do the guards, the drivers and the cleaners, among others, in the hospitals, clinics and facility centers.

Among more of the unheralded who deserve to be commended are:

- The delivery staff, the security guards, the workers and employees in private and public offices required to report and work these days.

- The maintenance and cleaning staff in these offices, shopping malls, other locations.

- The police and military fielded out in the streets, communities for the genuine mission to contain the virus and protect the people they vowed to serve.

- Committed local officials, including those in pro-active barangays, who, aside from cooperating with contact tracing, have diligently monitored the cases in their communities and have devised internal policies to reach out to and serve their constituents for their health and economic needs. Their diligence and vigilance and close coordination with their constituents have helped in decreasing COVID cases in barangays.

- The diligent, young volunteer COVID data-trackers (students, faculty, other professionals) who partnered with the RCE-Cebu and the RCE-Cebu/STEP Philippine volunteer network and shared their precious time to look out for and encode data, so that partner analysts in Cebu, NCR, and Japan can check where the virus is, how fast or slow it is reproducing in various Philippine barangay, city/municipality, province.

Proudly showcasing the power of volunteerism, please check the resultant data dashboards for COVID data tracking: https://jcb-spatial.com/cebcovid19/ and https://bit.ly/3hZNU6p. Please also visit the FB page of Regional Center of Expertise Cebu for more COVID data from volunteer local/global data tracking partners.

To all other deserving unheralded not yet mentioned here, thank you sincerely!