‘Excellent’ mismanagement

Two weeks ago, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque stated that the government did an “excellent” job of managing the COVID-19 crisis in the Philippines. Two weeks later and now faced with record breaking numbers of COVID-19 cases, Roque insists that the government was doing an “excellent” job up until the month of March when figures surged. Unfortunately, at the same time that Roque was making these statements, the chief of the PNP Debold Sinas got infected with COVID-19, the head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) General Wilkins Villanueva got infected and, immediately after, it was reported that spokesperson Harry Roque has been infected by COVID-19. If “proof of the pudding is in the eating” then the numerous cases of COVID-19 among government officials is evidence of their failure at managing COVID-19. Even before the March surge, at least three to five high-ranking government officials have died due to complications from COVID-19.  Prior to all of these there are at least a dozen government officials both local and national who’ve been infected by COVID-19, not to mention hundreds if not thousands of government employees that resulted in various levels of closures of government facilities and services.

In August 2020 hospitalization due to COVID were so high that doctors and frontline health workers declared a two-week “time out” after the government refused to heed their pleas and professional recommendations because they could no longer cope with the uncontrolled number of cases.

Much to the irritation of Malacañang, the two-week time out was carried out to address seven key issues raised by the alliance of health workers: overloaded hospitals and ICUs, inefficient case findings and isolation, poor contact tracing and quarantine, outbreaks in offices and factories, inadequate and unsafe transport for workers, low public compliance to safety protocols and worsening economic and medical inequity.

The two-week time-out certainly helped the frontliners control the situation back then; unfortunately we are now in a “Back to the Future” scenario as we once again face the possibility of “time out” for our collective misbehaving. Various testing methods and lower prices have come in for COVID-19 testing but affordability remains limited to the rich or the desperate to work or get out of town. Hundreds of millions was “unnecessarily” invested to build quarantine facilities after people realized that hotels and motels were empty and plentiful enough to meet the need for isolation facilities. Only four out of 13 cities and one municipality in Metro Manila currently meets the WHO standard for number of contact tracers, while politics and patronage has played into the development and acquisition of contact tracing apps. It took more than six months for the IATF to finally put its foot down and tell all LGUs to use the government sanctioned app: Stay Safe.

Opening up the economy has been prioritized in order to help the daily wage earners get back on their feet, but it comes at a cost where the infections have come home to families of workers and employees. But instead of recognizing the collateral damage caused by opening the economy, DOH now highlights the fact that community transmission is now at its worst in families or at home and tells all family members to wear face masks at home to avoid getting infected. Public transport has tripled in cost, remains few and proven to be a major source of infections, particularly in the trains.

Public compliance to health protocols remains low due to the failure of government to launch and sustain non-politicized information campaigns crafted by health and media professionals and presented by non-political popular public figures. This is an indication that policy makers and decision makers fail to appreciate that logic, time and repetition are the essential ingredients of inducing behavior modification or forming healthy habits.

By their own admission, high-ranking government officials admit that the surge in COVID cases also resulted from COVID fatigue and a relaxation of rules and implementation on the part of government. That is a mild admission relative to the fact that government eased up on mass testing, believing that COVID-19 vaccines would soon come to our shores courtesy of Mainland China and openly encouraged the reopening of businesses and public mobility. It was just a few notches short of how Trump pressured governors in the US to relax restrictions and raising constitutional rights to travel and earn a living. In both cases the outcome was disastrous.

Based on all these, the correct statement should be: The government did an excellent job of mismanaging the health crisis at so many levels. To be charitable about the fumble, it can be said that no one in politics was or is equipped to deal with such a pandemic that happens once every 100 years. We will simply have to carry on, pray and persevere.

August 2020 saw a “time out,” we can pick up on that and call for a “Re-start” in April 2021, but this time start with fresh players, several teams and set a goal as ambitious as the eradication of COVID-19. We cannot simply focus on controlling the spread and we need to throw everything at it with EVERYBODY’s HELP!

Before COVID-19 hit Philippine shores, one of the big ideas in the leadership and development game was “Inclusive,” where everyone rich or poor, titled or ordinary, scientific or simple was part of a team that had a role and a goal. Re-Start 2021 must be fresh and not full of tired old men or self-centered individuals who are not team players, do not exhibit humility in leadership and last but not the least self-serving politicians. If the government fails yet again, there will be no politics to talk about. Poverty and casualty will settle the next elections, not excuses.

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