The wrong time to be politicking

For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky”, we finally got a true-blue frontliner who has been fighting COVID-19 since we went into quarantine. We are honored to feature Dr. Steven Alix Seno, the son of my old-time golf mate Dr. Eriberto “Dodong” and Vivian Seno. Dr. Steven has been my talk show host in a show on MyTV called “My Health” which he has done for nearly four years now. It is also the first time for me to feature Dr. Seno and also my first time to talk about COVID-19 with a frontliner.

Mind you, I have already interviewed our top government officials regarding their strategies and plans to combat this invisible enemy and I even tried to request anyone from the Department of Health (DOH) for an interview, although my family has warned me that this was too risky for me, a senior citizen and a kidney transplant. So finally we have Dr. Steven Seno to talk about what we are doing in Cebu to fight this invisible enemy.

So watch this very interesting interview tonight on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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While Cebu City has been thrown back to Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) last week by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) it surprised me when we learned that the chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., was reportedly impressed with the city’s quarantine facility at the North Reclamation Area. Galvez and Dr. Tony Leachon inspected the Cebu City Quarantine Center and other COVID-19 facilities in the city and they lauded the city government for having the CCQC that is equipped with negative pressure and other equipment, which even Manila does not have.

Then something happened last week when the IATF asked Dr. Tony Leachon to resign and that incident clearly showed that there were some internal squabble going on inside the IATF-EID, which will only be known at a later date. I read the official statement from Sec. Galvez that Dr. Leachon was revealing data about what the IATF-EID was doing without passing through their communications committee.

Also last week, we read a report that Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella was confident the city would not revert to ECQ or modified ECQ despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases after Galvez and Leachon said they were impressed with the city’s quarantine facility. But then why we are back in ECQ is a question IATF-EID needs to answer us in Cebu.

Mind you, while we are supposed to stay at home, I do go to my office in MyTV to conduct my television shows. However, when it comes to column writing, I do this in my home. Let me point out that with social media networks and even the mainstream newspapers having their own online streaming, we are very well-apprised with what is happening in Cebu and the rest of the world. We know too damn well the politicians are moving.

I also know that so many people in social media are complaining that Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella is too soft in trying to solve our problem to the point that many such people even asked him to resign. In truth, I know that these complaints come from BOPK followers of former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña. One such BOPK troll even wrote that if Tomas Osmeña were the mayor today, Cebu City would be COVID-free. Honestly, I was appalled by such stupidity printed in social media, which is very misleading. It is crystal clear to me that these people are already preparing for the next elections two and a half years from now. God help them!

Some people are even saying that Michael Dino of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) is playing the role of Cebu City mayor. This is totally false. For instance, some columnists asked what Project Balik Buhay (PBB) is? Who created it? PBB was conceived when the business sectors in the tri-cities of Cebu asked the OPAV to come up with a comprehensive plan to fight COVID-19 and reopen the economy. So what’s wrong with that?