EDITORIAL - Still valor, nonetheless

On this day, April 9th, in 1942, the last bastion of organized resistance against the Japanese invaders surrendered to the enemy after a long, hard, and lopsided struggle.

The day eventually became known as the Day of Valor or Araw ng Kagitingan to recall the bravery of the soldiers who stood up and fought against impossible odds until they could no longer do so.

Today we celebrate the bravery of a different kind of hero, the healthcare workers who tend to our sick, and the other frontliners who keep our country running.

While we admired the soldiers of yesteryear for going to war, today we admire our healthcare workers and frontliners as they head to the hospitals, clinics, medical centers, police offices, fire stations, groceries, and other places of necessary work. It may not be the battlefield they are going to, but just like one death is always a possibility, not by enemy bullets or artillery, but by COVID infection.

Just recently around 50 healthcare workers from Cebu were fielded to help medical centers in Metro Manila cope with the burgeoning numbers of COVID-19 cases there.

These 35 nurses, five doctors, four barrio doctors, four medical technologists, and two medical officers from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and the Cebu City Health Department, aren’t just taking some risks wading into the thick of the action in the capital, they will also be away from family, friends, and loved ones for a time.

Considering how unpredictable a situation can become, there is always the possibility of catching the dreaded virus, but they are there doing their job anyway.

Not to belittle the sacrifice of others, there are also many who deserve praise for carrying on with their duties in other fields of occupation, despite the very real threat of COVID-19 still lingering.

It may not be the same form of valor the soldiers who gave their lives for our country showed in the battlefield, but it is still valor, nonetheless.

On this Day of Valor, let us not honor just the soldiers who died to defend the country, but also our healthcare workers and other frontliners who still live to serve it.