Why is the Philippines' COVID Czar a general, not a medical doctor? Why are lawyers, accountants, and military officials usurping the technical work of physicians? Why are non-doctors entrusted with purchasing COVID vaccines and why are politicians taking center stage in the nation's war against this pandemic? Shouldn't they step aside and let the professionals do their jobs? I’m not accusing, just asking questions. And I’m expecting a reasonable response.
The world is facing a crisis and politicians are still calling the shots. The trapos are using the pandemic as a platform to prepare for 2022. Shame on these loudmouths and blabbering family dynasties who take advantage of the current crisis to gain political mileage. They are making it difficult for the professionals to do their jobs. We have a Department of Health but too many structures and supra-structures were created to usurp the functions of duly-constituted authorities. If there’s no trust in the secretary of Health, why not fire him, and let a general take over, if it’s our notion that the only competent public administrators in this country are retired armed forces officials? Do we want the military to run this country like what’s happening in Myanmar?
As of this writing, the WHO reported a global total of 114,140,104 infections, and 2,535,520 confirmed deaths in 223 countries. The top ten based on the number of infections (in millions) are: US, 28M; India, 11.1M; Brazil, 10.6M; Russia, 4.21M; UK, 4.18M; France, 3.7M; Spain, 3.13M, Italy, 2.94M; Turkey, 2.72M, and Germany, 2.46M. In ASEAN, on top is Indonesia but it has a population of 250M. Our population is 110M, and our infection number is 578,000 with 12,322 deaths. Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are performing better than the proud and self-righteous Philippines. Shame on us. We are only good at politics. Our trapos are all NATO; No Action, Talk Only.
Why are some countries managing the crisis better than us? Places not well-known or as sophisticated as the Philippines, like Vietnam and Thailand? Because they approached the problem scientifically. Here, in this land of noble heroes, we do everything politically. Purchasing vaccines is political. The senators, the congressmen and all trapos want to dip their hands into the simple process of buying vaccines. The COA looks at the DOH and the IATF with suspicion. We cannot give an advance payment because those brilliant auditors in COA made very stringent rules based on lack of trust. And so, we are among the last countries in the long line of third-world nations begging to buy. And the shameless trapos are blaming the executives, then the latter are blaming the COA and the brilliant auditors do not give a damn. The COA does not care about thousands dying because they want to insist on stupid traditional rules to solve a non-traditional problem.
Even vaccine distribution and the process of vaccination itself are heavily politicized. Too many people want to be in the limelight. Too many “epals” want to be heard on TV and on the radio. And the commentators have their heyday pontificating and making grandiose suggestions that have no empirical basis. The health frontliners are sick and overworked. They are not heard. They are not listened to. And yet, the solutions are in their hands. The governors, mayors, barangay captains, councilors, congressmen, and senators, they all join a rampage of publicity. Thus, they become parts of the problem and never part of the solution. The simple things are made complicated. The fastest steps are made very bureaucratic, delayed, and made more difficult. Everything in this country is done by a committee, a task force, and ad hoc bodies, bypassing the duly-constituted agencies.
The IATF is a committee. On the national level, there is a committee. In the regional, provincial, city, municipal, and barangay levels, there are too many committees, one on top of another. And what is a committee? It is the group of the unprepared, led by the unqualified and unwilling doing the unnecessary. Too much democracy in implementation and too much autocracy in decision-making. We are a democracy in reverse. Quezon warned us as early as 1935. We do not like a government run like heaven by Americans. Thus we got a government run like hell by Filipinos. My God, have mercy on us. I want to fly to Jupiter or Mars.