Spare us from Duterte’s ‘purgatory’

Attending mass on Palm Sunday, I could not help but count the number of people inside our chapel. There were only 40 of us, including our parish priest, two altar boys and four lectors who read the traditional Passion of Christ marking the start of the Lenten period. Like any other Catholic churches all over the country, this is the time of the year when our village chapel used to overflow with parishioners.

There was no more the usual sight of people from the oldest to the youngest of children flocking the church. But the saddest part was to stand so far away from the celebrant priest Fr. Steve Villanueva (no relation to him) at the blessing of the palms. Before saying his homily, Fr. Villanueva begged for understanding he had to do the solemn rites “from the sanctuary of the altar” instead of him moving around to sprinkle the holy water.

Not even the Holy Week observance this year can bring them back to the churches any time sooner. Especially so after the government implemented again enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The last time we had ECQ was in March last year when the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic first struck us. One year later, the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) re-imposed ECQ all over Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, and Laguna starting last Monday until April 4.

In his address to the people during the IATF meeting last Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte candidly conceded the ECQ is just another term for hard lockdown. “Hay buhay. Kung alam lang ninyo... Para akong dumadaan ng purgatoryo ngayon hanggang hindi matulungan ang lahat ng Pilipino,” the President lamented.

Practically, the weeklong ECQ covers the entire Holy Week ending on Easter Sunday. That is, if the IATF does not extend this amid the continuing resurgence of the pandemic. The Philippines breached on Monday the 10,000-mark on the daily positive cases of COVID-19 infection. The IATF resorted to the ECQ anew when the country logged more than 9,000 new cases daily for the last four days.

With more people getting infected, we have come to understand COVID-19 does not spare anybody. This we have seen from the latest COVID-19 cases who included former president Joseph Estrada, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, just to name some of them.

Getting COVID-19 infection the second time around, Mayor Belmonte has mild symptoms while Andanar is asymptomatic. Both of them are under quarantine. The 83-year old ex-president Estrada, on the other hand, was rushed to the hospital last Sunday night. According to his son ex-Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, his father is now being treated for COVID-related pneumonia.

They are now included in the latest high of daily tally last Monday with total of 10,016 new COVID-19 infections recorded. According to the Department of Health (DOH), this brought the total tally to 731,894 cases reported for the entire country. This was the highest daily case count reported since the pandemic began. In fact, the DOH is recommending the extension of the ECQ over Metro Manila and nearby provinces in a bid to prevent the COVID-19 cases from climbing to 430,000 by the end of April.

Ironically, the resurgence of the contagion notably came even as the Philippines had so far administered more than 650,000 anti-COVID-19 vaccine doses. The anti-COVID vaccination has been going on for almost a month now since the first delivery of 400,000 doses of Coronavax from Sinovac donated by China to the Philippine government. A week later, the Philippine government received another 480,000 doses of anti-COVID vaccines of Astra Zeneca donated under the COVAX Facility of the World Health Organization (WHO). Another donation of 200,000 doses of Sinovac came later.

Of the 1,233,500 total doses of vaccines on hand, the DOH disclosed, 80.85 percent of 1,525,600 available doses have been already distributed in 2,494 vaccination sites in the country’s 17 regions.

Mainly administered to health care workers (HCWs) following the WHO priority list, the government’s vaccination program nearly got stalled when non-priority individuals jumped the line. This included a number of local government executives who got their jabs ahead when the administered vaccines have yet to cover half the estimated number 1.8 million HCWs all over the entire country.

But in the case of Paranaque City, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued show cause order against Mayor Edwin Olivarez under the “command responsibility” principle. Mayor Olivarez got into trouble when city health allowed actor Mark Anthony Fernandez to get AstraZeneca jab. As explained to the Mayor by his City Health officials, the actor was included in the substitution list when one of the HCW-registered vaccinees did not show up.

Being a former Mayor of Davao City, the Chief Executive conceded it is a “gray area” for the Mayors who were hard put in trying to convince their respective constituents to get vaccinated. “After you Mayor,” that’s the usual retort of people hesitant to get the anti-COVID jabs. Realizing these are the realities on the ground, the IATF agreed to allow the simultaneous inoculation of senior citizens and those with comorbidities along with the HCWs in the WHO priority list.

This should hasten the rollout and obviously stop these jockeying and jumping the vaccination queue.

It is really un-Christian to blame people for wanting to get vaccinated knowing this flu-like disease could be fatal, especially for the elderly and with existing medical condition. While waiting for the anti-COVID vaccination, health and medical experts kept reassuring us we could protect ourselves by simply strictly observing the minimum health protocols: wear face masks and shield, wash and disinfect our hands, physical distancing, avoiding crowded enclosed places, among them.

During this Lent, let us pause for a while and pray hard that we be spared from President Duterte’s purgatory.