The agony of waiting
The Philippines has been placed under different community quarantine measures for almost a year now. As months pass by, the damage caused by the pandemic to the economy and hardship it inflicts on the lives of the Filipinos has become more manifest and fast becoming unbearable not only to individuals but also to businesses that are supposed to survive if only to give the people the opportunity for work.
The pandemic has taken its toll on the tourism industry, which led to closures of well-capitalized hotels that do not expect to experience financial hardships due to deep pockets. Without guests, however, the capital of business establishments eventually vanishes since even during a temporary closure, costs and expenses continue to pile up. Certainly, this situation creates a dent in the wealth of the investors. For an astute businessman, temporary closures are a measure to contain losses and dissipation of capital. But for an ordinary working man, the loss of a job means hunger, sickness, and untold suffering not only to him but also to his family and children. Although considered a basic human need, the education of children is the first to give way for the need for food and shelter. Aside from hotels, private schools are now seeing the effects of the pandemic manifested in the form of an increase in dropouts among students. Some schools have already gone ahead by deciding not to operate temporarily or to cease operations permanently.
While the government has provided some mitigating measures, it has to provide a clear strategy to move the country out of the tribulations caused by the pandemic. During the early stage of the pandemic, the President has always touted the government’s vaccination program as the key to economic recovery. However, the government has never been transparent on its vaccination strategy prompting the Senate to conduct an inquiry. Although tentative dates have been mentioned and the local government units are putting their stake in the program, the government seems to be less transparent by invoking nondisclosure agreements wherein vaccine manufacturers prohibit the disclosure of important information on the specifics of the program.
A few days ago, the Department of Health confirmed the presence of the UK variant of the virus, a more contagious one, while there is an increasing trend again in the daily COVID-19 cases.
The government needs to shape up and act with dispatch not just to save the economy but to provide deliverance of the Filipino people from the state of joblessness, hunger, and sickness. The gloomy economic data of the country may appear to be just an abstraction that only well-educated technocrats fear. However, hunger, sickness, and homelessness are real to ordinary people, and for each day that our government officials have allowed to pass by without a clear strategy for its plans and programs, the agony of waiting becomes unbearable. It becomes even more excruciating when you are facing a blank wall.