One of the striking statements I read on social media about the pandemic was that of Rolando Tolentino, a professor of film and literature at UP. “Hindi sinira ng COVID19 ang Sistema, ipinakita ng COVID19 na sira ang Sistema,” Tolentino wrote. (COVID19 did not break the System, it rather exposed that already broken System.)
In Cebu City and in places similarly situated in the Philippines, such broken system is shown in many aspects. Among them is the lack of a deep network of grassroots organizing in the communities. And the pandemic totally exposed that lack.
I had a chat online recently with a former colleague of mine at the university who is now based in Vietnam. Jona Branzuela Bering is a Tuburan, Cebu native who now works as a social science teacher in one of the established and reputable schools in Hanoi. She didn’t mention the grassroots approach but I will connect that later to the key strategies she shared about Vietnam’s success in battling COVID-19.
Jona said that Vietnam was one of the earliest countries to take action against the novel coronavirus threat. “I think its shared unforgotten memory of SARS and its distrust towards China contribute to the government's quick and effective action. The government mandated the closure of all schools for three months,” she said.
“The government was transparent about the affected areas. The affected areas were inaccessible for non-residents, while the residents received provisions directly from the local government. There were four field hospitals built in case there is a spike. For us working in the education industry, we went from blended learning to distance learning. We're lucky the country has a reliable Internet connection.”
“The government announced a nationwide lockdown from mid-March until April. Everything was closed except for supermarkets, hospitals, banks, and government offices. No one was allowed entry in these establishments without wearing a mask.”
By May, there were no new local transmissions. And businesses started operating again. Jona concluded: “As a non-local, I won't deny there are comforts knowing I live in a place with a functional and an effective, efficient government.”
Based on Jona’s account, there is surprisingly no major difference between Vietnam’s key actions in dealing with the pandemic and those adopted by the Philippines, except for the part on transparency and early action. Our government also implemented strict lockdowns starting last March. This even extended to June in some places like Cebu City. We also built quarantine centers and mobilized huge resources for social amelioration.
For context, Vietnam has a population of 95 million while the Philippines has a little over 100 million. Its land area is 10% slightly larger than the Philippines, but the Philippines has a larger economy with a 20% edge over Vietnam in GDP per capita.
Vietnam’s number of recorded coronavirus cases as of June 22 is 349 with zero deaths, while that of the Philippines is 30,052 with 1,169 deaths. Vietnam had conducted a total of more than 275,000 tests by mid-May while the Philippines began to ramp up its testing capacity that month with 8,000 to 9,000 tests per day (I could not find the data on total number of tests conducted in the Philippines.)
So what made Vietnam excel and the Philippines fall behind in dealing with the pandemic? Despite being a single-party socialist republic, a militaristic approach never figured prominently in Vietnam’s pandemic response. Its strong grassroots health system does, and I will discuss that in my next column together with a study done 20 years ago about Cebu City’s own civil society participation in governance.