Kinds of public servants in this crisis

A piece of good news greeted us yesterday. The number of active COVID-19 in Cebu City is down to 1,197 as of April 3, according to the Emergency Operations Center. Another indication that Cebu has managed to control its COVID-19 numbers; over a hundred healthcare workers in the region will be deployed to the National Capital Region which has become the new pandemic hotspot in the country.

Cebu may have already managed to strike a balance between keeping the economy open in a limited scale while controlling the spread of the SARS-COV-2 and its variants. But lessons from this pandemic tell us that any mistake can trigger another wave of infections. The situation could change at any time considering that there is still no mass vaccination drive, COVID testing is still too low, and contact tracing is still insufficient.

We still actually don’t have an accurate take on the actual number infections because of the shortage of testing and contact tracing. But a good sign that we have managed to control our numbers is the relatively low critical care occupancy rate in our hospitals, now down to 32.1%.

Meanwhile in Metro Manila and its nearby regions, the real number of infections and deaths can no longer be masked by the deficiency in testing and tracing. Their health system is already overwhelmed and could collapse, if it hasn’t already.

They have been on enhanced community quarantine status for over a week already, and infection cases there should start going down by next week. So what is the government doing and what is its plan to keep the numbers at bay once lockdown restrictions are lifted? Are there SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) goals in place?

For ordinary citizens like us, let’s continue do our part in controlling the spread of infection. It is our attitude about the personal inconveniences we have to endure which determines if we can keep ourselves and the people around us safe.

But while personal responsibility is important, so is social responsibility. Let’s not leave the governance to politicians and bureaucrats alone. Let’s make sure our voices and resources are felt in both the civic and electoral arena.

This pandemic has laid bare all kinds of people in government. There are the perennially corrupt who take advantage of the crisis to advance their personal ambition and fatten their pockets. There are those with oversized egos who take offence at any criticism or contrary suggestion. They think that those plurality of votes that gave them a mandate in a single election day already gave them the right to be careless and to act without any sense of accountability.

There are those indolent and lazy, content with their steady, crisis-proof salary from the public coffers that would be the last to run dry in a time of crisis.

Then there are those well-meaning people in government, those who are competent, bright and honest, but are boring and politically meek. They have neither padrinos nor political base, so their skills and talents, which are much needed at this time, are hidden like treasure underneath the ground – useless.

There are the employees and foot soldiers who quietly do their jobs and serve the people hoping that their superiors will sooner rather than later figure out the right solutions to the crisis. There are, of course, leaders in the periphery who shine in their own turf. But they are not in command of vast resources and machinery that will allow them to turn this grave situation around on a national scale.