The world is still at a time where society still allows men to hold power and make decisions that subconsciously programs the people they lead to fail. These men (or so-called leaders) are in their grand offices in historical buildings that have witnessed the downfall and triumph of the people they lead, the land they harvest, the water they sail on, and the words they have spoken among those territories to make the impossible possible.
In this pandemic, no one can deny that the world has been tumbled upside down. It brought peace and disturbance at the same time. This crisis knows no man. It inflicts who it wants and it takes all it can get. For the first time in ages, these men feared something. They chickened out like roosters in the middle of a cockfight with a rival bigger than they are.
Nothing good has ever come out since the spread of the pandemic. The events that took place in the country resulted into a giant cacophony of complete disarray and disturbance. The fragility of the systems the Philippines upholds has been unduly exposed. Within that disarray, there lies the juggled safety of Filipinos, the prolonged crisis of the country, and the ever-loyal service of the administration to the people it wants to serve – the elitists.
An example of this disarray is the neglect and fear of this administration towards mass testing. As of April 14, there was supposed to be a progressive mass testing to determine the number of cases in the Philippines. It promised the country that it will have conducted “8,000 tests per day” as it plans to extend its coverage on the country’s population. The health department wanted to conduct at least 4,400 to 9,800 tests daily and even hoped to reach 13,000 to 20,000 tests by April 27.
These seem promising and fulfilling however, where did these tests go? Last May 21, health secretary Francisco Duque III admitted that no mass testing was conducted despite the prevalence of the outbreak. As of present time, there are about 17,974 active cases, most of which cannot be exactly verified as there are suspicions that the health department hides the real numbers because of the peculiar increase and the apparent backlog that it has.
One should not shy away from the reality that this pandemic not only disparages those who have become victims of the virus but most especially those who belong in the slums and other underdeveloped parts of the country.
This is also to take in the fact that the country’s poor communities once more became a living death bed of the corruption and injustice that halted the Filipinos’ right to be treated as a human as he is. Instead, there are more and more deaths not only taking place in hospitals but in innocent streets where children used to play. Now, the streets have become a manchild’s fantasy playground where they are allowed to finish off lives as if those were just nothing.
Millions of lives are affected and almost lost because of the lack of support from the government, the education system which was supposedly an empathetic system found to be elitist and forceful, the militarization of the a supposedly healthcare problem, and businesses uncovering every inch of its filth just to serve those who own it.
This kind of performance can be considered world-class quality: a world-class embarrassment. The problems that the country faces right now are not issues that can be set aside in the state’s current agenda. There is no escape from here but death not for this country but because of these so-called leaders.
The administration embarrassingly failed to show face and to be resilient: a trait this country is known for. It is aggravating to bear the administration’s lapdog loyalty to the Asian giant, the disregard for the safety of the working class, and the blatant disrespect for human rights. It all comes down to people in the high chair – those who we must hold accountable for those selfish and insurmountable crimes and most especially, the dictator himself, Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
It seems like Duterte and his cronies have forgotten that Filipinos ousted leaders like him who prey on the freedom of the country. The crimes this administration has committed are nothing but cowardly, treacherous, and aggravating. The people of this Philippines will rise again, with or without his permission. Most importantly, with or without that bill.
But yet again, let us work on this goal we have first: to rise from the coronavirus. Then, we shall conquer, like the children we are of the heroes who fought for this country.
There’s nothing else that these men shall fear but their rightful doom.
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