Almost everyone is familiar with the characterization we give to people in the way they look at a glass with water. Those who say that such a glass, being not full of water, is half empty are deemed pessimists and those who, on the other hand, claim that the glass is half full are considered optimists. Half empty, half full. I have been rather unabashed to say a number of times in this column that I am an incorrigible optimist because I try to look at the positive side of things. That is my nature. Having said that, I tend to give President Rodrigo Duterte a plus rating in his tackling issues of national concerns.
President Duterte has made our country a plus performer compared to President Xi Jin Ping of the People’s Republic of China in managing this COVID-19 pandemic. Let us consider that there are about 1.4 billion Chinese compared to 110 million Filipinos. Our population is not even one tenth that of China. The coronavirus is reported to have started in Wuhan in December last year and exported (pardon me for the word) to our country about three months later. Yet, the latest figures from the World Health Organization showed that 80,000, in rounded figures, Chinese have been infected by the virus whereas 100,000, again in rounded figures, Filipinos got the disease. Differently said using my optimist paradigm, as a result of the way Duterte managed the coronavirus, more Filipinos than Chinese got the sickness! If we should consider our population equal in absolute terms with China, there would have been roughly one million COVID-19 positive Filipinos.
President Duterte also beat President Joko Widodo of Indonesia in fighting this pandemic. Our President has more plus (half full) than the Indon leader, (half empty). The positive figures show this comparison unmistakably. In terms of proportionate numbers, this Duterte administration produced more COVID-19 positive Filipinos than Indonesians. With about 260 million population in Indonesia, we are not even one half in size. Yet, the number of Indonesians and Filipinos afflicted with the disease are just about even at 100,000. So, for every Indonesian sick with the virus, there are, proportionately speaking, two Filipinos afflicted!
The optimist in me considers not only the numbers reaped by the President in the situations I mentioned above. I consider his gestures too as positive moves. Take the case of the Islands in the West Philippine Sea which an International Arbitral Tribunal ruled to be part of our territorial sovereignty. China has occupied these islands and converted some islets into its military facilities. President Duterte tolerates this Chinese violation of our integrity (half empty) because we cannot afford to compromise his friendly relations (half full) with the Chinese leader.
Finally, I have to include in this article the initial information unraveled the other day by the Senate hearing on the PhilHealth. What did we hear? Upon questioning by the senators, it has begun to unfold that about 15 billion pesos went to corrupt practices although there is yet no evidence that can stand in court to prove anyone’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The top honcho of this government agency is believed to be a presidential protege. If it is true that the PhilHealth, despite the forced contributions given by almost everyone, is operating red, this financial debacle is historical, monumental and unprecedented. Under no administration of the country’s president had there been such a cataclysmic fiscal disaster. This record which an incorrigible optimist, like me, treats as a plus, belongs to President Duterte.