Our finest hour

The feeling of defeat is a cruel one. It stings and it bites, and it leaves a sense of helplessness all the way to the bones, seeping into our very core.

Philippines, I’ve seen you fall many times in the face of tragedies. As a journalist, I’ve documented your despair and heartbreaks.

Political upheavals, economic uncertainties and disasters, the Philippines has seen a lot, yet somehow it always managed to survive.

The coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic, however, is proving to be the most challenging one. How many times have we felt that we might not win this war?

For how can we not feel so helpless? People close to us have been infected with the virus. Some have died. Other losses have been as painful – those trips we missed; the classmates, friends and lovers we couldn’t see; the businesses we had to shut down; the jobs we lost.

But we cannot throw in the towel just yet. There’s still so much work to do.

Let’s keep on doing our part to prevent the spread of the virus. We can help by taking care of ourselves, by simply canceling those non-essential gatherings, by watching out for our loved ones.

Political will and compassion

Of course, we can only do so much. It’s the government that has the resources to keep our health system, our economy and our hearts alive.

Malasakit, or compassion, is this administration’s buzzword. Let it be felt beyond words especially in the most vulnerable sectors – the jeepney drivers who are standing on the roadside begging for food, the locally stranded individuals who are taking shelter in abandoned and decrepit trailers outside North Harbor in Manila.

This administration must recalibrate its response to the pandemic, starting with a cohesive communication plan in place of the discombobulating remarks that only tend to divide our country instead of uniting and inspiring it.

Whiff of corruption

This administration should realize that serving this nation of more than 107 million in this great hour of need is a privilege, not an opportunity to advance one’s interests.

It must then be serious in its promise to address even “just a whiff of corruption” in government. Let the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. be a proof point.

The P15-billion plunder of the state-owned health insurer is one of the gravest sins in this time of pandemic. A full investigation needs to happen and those responsible need to be brought to justice, nothing less.

The economy

We cannot afford losing that P15 billion, not even a peso, when our economy needs swift and critical support.

People are losing jobs. An SWS survey showed that 5.2 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months, the highest since 2014. Yet, many have not received any social amelioration package, either stuck in bureaucratic red tape or pocketed by corrupt local officials.

Fixing the economy requires a multifaceted approach – supporting MSMEs and industries imbued with public interest, resuming infrastructure projects that create jobs, extending loans to businesses and putting up livelihood programs, among others.

Beyond recovery, the government should take this time to prepare for the transformation of the economy to address our perennial problem of poverty. We cannot simply revive and settle with the same, low-value economic activities. We have to modernize our agriculture sector and equip our labor force for higher-productivity and more sophisticated jobs both in industry and services.

An Apollo-13 response

The Philippines is unraveling, brought to its knees by a virus 10,000 times smaller than a grain of salt, even smaller than the shortest wavelength of light our eyes can see. We need to respond in a big way.

The government must learn from the hard lessons of the past five months. We need a more coherent, data-based, corruption-free and more compassionate response to this crisis.

Our leaders – from the mayors, all the way to those in the highest echelons of power – should realize that this pandemic is a chance to serve this country well. It is what great public servants must do, it is how statesmen must act.

The President, most of all, must lead by example and rally his troops – with a good battle plan – to victory.

Never in our lives have we experienced anything of this scale. Nobody was prepared and we’re all overwhelmed. But we can heed success stories from other countries and improvise.

We can’t feel like we’re on a plane with a drunken pilot in the cockpit.

Imagine if our leaders could respond to this crisis in a way that the Apollo 13 team did in 1970.

Faced with a surprise explosion that damaged the Apollo ship and made a moon landing impossible, NASA executives in the Mission Control room in Houston said, “this could be the worst disaster NASA’s ever experienced.”

But Gene Kranz, chief flight director at Mission Control, responded: “With all due respect, sir, I believe this is going to be our finest hour.”

The Apollo 13 team had no manual for the crisis that came, but it improvised and was able to bring the crew back home alive.

It’s not too late for the government to recalibrate our country’s response to COVID-19 and to finally make it right. If and when this happens, this might well be our country’s finest hour.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com