Too little — too late

The government’s response to help LSIs or Locally Stranded Individuals as well as address the mental health threats being experienced by OFWs can be summed up in a classic statement: “Too little, too late”. We now have two more dead persons and it was only after they died and media highlighted their stories along with several hundred others sleeping under an elevated highway, did the government finally do something about the problems they have caused and created because of the government’s extreme and extended quarantine. Yes, the government and the IATF are directly responsible for those two casualties because in spite of repeated calls for government to address the problem of stranded workers and individuals in Metro Manila nothing was done about it. Instead the administration prioritized the “Balik Probinsya” program and milked it for all the PR points they could get until certain defects in their implementation such as false negative individuals started getting tracked and when Governors complained that they were never consulted.

Too little – too late, because they simply herded those highly visible LSIs inside Villamor airbase to hide them from plain site of Netizens who’ve been uploading and sharing the deplorable conditions of those people. Officials say it is the fault of LSIs for showing up at the airport because someone spread rumors that there were free flights to Davao and other parts of the Visayas and Mindanao. But should we blame them? They did not declare the quarantine, they did not get any support because they are non-residents, many lost any and all means of livelihood they used to have as mobile Muslim merchants. In fact, we raised this issue on our program AGENDA when we guested Samira Gutoc the Muslim senatorial candidate last year, who pointed out that there are so many displaced Muslims who left conflict areas such as Marawi City and have now been displaced once again because of COVID-19.

The fact that President Duterte had to intervene for the faster testing and processing of OFWs quarantined for over a month is evidence of the incompetence of those in-charge. The DOLE and the IATF put all their focus on OFWs yet screwed it up and then completely ignored all the reports about thousands of local workers stranded all over Metro Manila that was highlighted in the news and broadcasted by numerous TV stations with one evening report zeroing on workers inside the UP Campus in Diliman. I even made mention early in the lockdown that workers in various barangays were not entitled to relief goods or SAP because they were considered non-residents or migrant workers. As it stands, unless a particular concern is in the budget, or the media gives them grief, someone has to die before certain cabinet officials make it their problem or their concern. A hard working “Bayani Ng Bayan” should not be driven to hopelessness and suicide because a cabinet secretary does not have the sense of urgency and the executive skills or competency to manage a crisis situations because he is for all intents and purposes a Trapo a.k.a Traditional politician. Yes I am angry. I’m angry because no human being, no Filipino should die on the sidewalk of Metro Manila like a stray dog.

How many people need to die before President Duterte realizes that some of his cabinet members need to go? I don’t question President Duterte’s compassion and concern for ordinary people but it is about time that the President stop defending or propping up the trapos and under performers in his cabinet because they will ultimately be the dead weight that will drag the President’s achievements and credibility. What will it take for some of these cabinet members and politicians to have a change of heart so that they would start caring for those who have no voice and no chance? Have you no fear of God that in spite of the deaths all around you, you actually have time to use your power and position to promote your political ambitions for 2022? You know who you are! And for the rest of you who are milking the situation and your position for personal benefit, just like the prophets of old would say: may you reap in your life time the tragedy you have sown upon others.

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Like a voice in the wilderness, I have started calling out on government officials particularly in the National Housing Authority and the DILG to please do something about the zoning and housing in the fire-prone area of Addition Hills in Mandaluyong. Every year the area I refer to, experiences two to three major fires on the average where anything from 600 to 800 home are razed to the ground. The frequency by which these fires occur is beginning to look like a bi-annual bonfire to the god of poverty. Ironically the only thing that ever happens is that people ask for help, NGOs and churches such as ours come in and the victims rebuild homes that in a matter of months if not years will once again burn to the ground. I’m sure the local hardware’s make a killing from the burn out.

And yet after decades of devastation, no one has come in with political will and mental agility to spearhead a total renovation of the area complete with modern day multi-story housing, local resident owned business establishments at ground level or even multi-unit commercial establishments below ground just like in South Korea? It can be done, it should be done, because if people have modern homes, they can invest in them and spend their money on businesses and not rebuilding from fires.

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Please watch AGENDA on Cignal TV channels 8 & 250 as well as via Facebook:  Onenewsph 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Monday to Friday

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