‘Let my people go’

If you ever read the cartoon strip “Garfield the Cat,” one of the popular lines from the comics goes: “If you can’t convince people, confuse them.” About a month ago, my friend, Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez, said something that encapsulates the confused state of government communication when he said: “ If you can’t dazzle them with words; baffle them with bulls**t.” As we approach the six months mark of being under house arrest under the guise and various forms of community quarantine, I think we all have to start asking the government, particularly the IATF, if they have anything better in terms of plans or solutions other than the baffling bulls**t we have had to live with? If there is any member of Congress who has enough courage or cojones, he should ask the IATF: Who is in charge and who is responsible. These people have played the public for fools by behaving like the multi-headed snake commonly called the Hydra. Because no one is specifically in charge, no one can be singularly held responsible.

In recent weeks, experts have started floating the concept of co-existing with Covid-19. One would imagine that it is a suggestion for people to try to get on with their lives as best they can while doing everything to avoid being infected by the virus. That is what the rest of the world has been doing for several months now. No less than President Duterte and DOF Secretary Sonny Dominguez have stated that people need to work and we need to get the economy going or things will be much worse. But how is that possible when the government or the IATF’s focus is to keep people under detention and only allow them out to work in the day then lock them down again under a 9-hour curfew in most places. Have we now been transformed into a nation of Citizen-laborers who get to go out of quarantine in exchange for working and keeping the economy alive while the rest of their family stay behind as “prisoners for healths’ sake.”

Duterte and Dominguez will never get their answered prayers for as long as the IATF and Secretary Duque are obsessed with and frightened by statistics and the prevalence of Covid-19. They have placed too much responsibility upon their own shoulders and now they are probably so afraid to fail. Yes, we should be afraid but it should be a healthy fear and not total paralysis that infects an entire nation. We want the economy going, we want people to buy, we want people to spend and be productive; How the bloody hell do we do that under perpetual detention? How can we organize our fight against Covid-19 if there is no proportional representation of affected groups and sectors? Whole of nation approach means that we create a national organization and not just a task force where three or four individuals act in response or react to situations under pressure. Task forces are for temporary situations, not long-term national plans. National plans and strategies require the combined expertise of researchers, scientists, crisis managers, communications experts, civilian and military experts as well as the religious and NGO groups and, in a pandemic, it has to be a full time operation not a loose knit network of consultants.

The IATF strategy of coming up with guidelines then leaving the interpretation and implementation to individual local officials was doomed to failure from the very beginning. Because people are allowed to “interpret” rules and policies government offices have been raped and pillaged with corruption. The same flexibility and privilege to interpret has now transformed governors and mayors and barangay captains to little kings, queens or tyrants, choosing how they will protect their territories against Covid-19, all in the interest of public safety they say. But how far can they go and when do we say, “Enough is enough” or “Show us the science behind your madness!” When you sum it all up the people pay the price, the people suffer the impositions.

Now go figure. The government has allowed workers to go to work so the economy can keep going. But if you talk to business owners, entrepreneurs and employers they will all tell you that it’s not working. There are not enough workers, there are not enough rides, the cost of testing is too high and the customers are not there! YES, the customers are not there. Whether you have a restaurant, a hotel, a spa, resort, coffee shop, store etc. Nobody is there because they are still all under detention! If you have no buyers or consumers or guests, the economy still stays stuck in the rut! The customers are being treated like mindless reckless kids who don’t know better so they are kept home or when allowed out, all the health protocols or safety requirements are so complicated and inconvenient that you will simply opt to stay home.

Co-existing with Covid-19 and keeping the economy alive and healthy can be done and is being done…in other countries where leaders have set aside their politics, their egos, and their ambitions. They have gone past being afraid of the virus and the public relations concerns. Little by little doors are being opened, rules being relaxed by the national governments, not petty potentates. They are actively pursuing plans and strategies and making adjustments as they go along because they have learned that Covid-19 is not their biggest worry. Their biggest worry is if they act too slowly and too weakly,  they could lose the support and cooperation of the people and that will lead to disobedience, protests, and ultimately an even bigger health crisis. It has happened in America, in South America, and other parts of the world. Inform the public; teach them and “Let My People Go.”

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