EDITORIAL - Even more money and resources gone

An inspection of some Barangay Isolation Centers (BICs) built for COVID-19 patients in some schools in Cebu City showed that some of them had been robbed, defaced, or vandalized.

According to a report by the Cebu City Public School Teachers Association, personnel of the COVID-19 decontamination teams of the Department of Education-Cebu City Division went to check on some of the BICs and found some of them had been victimized by robbers and vandals.

There was no real motive found for the acts committed. Perhaps some dishonest people just thought they needed some of the items in the BICs, or someone resented the idea of that school being used as an isolation center. It may even just have been that some hooligans had too much time on their hands and had nothing to do but willful, wanton, and needless destruction.

Now the sad thing; there will be more victims of this crime than the intended party to be offended.

Vandalism in normal times is already bad enough. But when it is committed in times of a not just a national crisis but a global one when the government has to marshal meager resources to make sure those who need them get them, it becomes even more offensive and affects even more people.

Remember that the stolen items and defaced or vandalized property were already paid for by the government. Because the government has to replace the items that were stolen, or repair the damage and defacement caused by the vandals, this means they have to spend for that item. Again.

In the long run this will drain government coffers of even more money. And this is money that could have otherwise been spent on other items, properties, and causes. Somewhere down the road this can mean less projects, less livelihood assistance, and less cash assistance for people who need them more than others.

And who is usually at the receiving end of all that? The ones who did the vandalizing in the first place.

Let’s hope those thieves and hooligans realize this before engaging in more willful, wanton, and needless destruction.