Where in the world is President Duterte?
Val A. Villanueva
NEarly six months of struggling with the pandemic, the Philippines has yet to get a reprieve from the deadly, unseen microbe.
As early as the start of the month, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared that the country had “been losing its battle with Covid-19.” And to say that the inter-agency task Force has been ably guiding the nation against the onslaught of the pandemic is quite a stretch.
On tuesday, the Department of Health reported 2,965 new cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 197,164, with some 61,730 of them on active status. the number of deaths grew to 3,038 with 34 new fatalities. What has been most worrisome is that the rising cases is putting further severe strain on hospitals in the capital region, where critical care capacity was at 67 percent—or at the “danger zone”—as of August 24.
i don’t want to add fuel to the fire, but if Health Secretary Francisco Duque is to be believed, the pandemic is a “blessing in disguise” as it purportedly advanced the execution of the universal Health Care Law. But as in the case of most government officials being caught with their foot in their mouth, or their pants down, Duque backpedaled and had his undersecretary, Maria rosario Vergeire, do the talking in his behalf: “the health secretary [Duque] was referring to the pandemic as a ‘trigger’ that allowed the speedy implementation of the UHC which aims to ensure that all Filipinos have access to quality and affordable health services.”
But with the frequency of government officials tasked with pandemic related issues speaking without thinking, it is becoming increasingly clear that either the gravity of the Covid-19 situation has not sunk into their heads yet, or they simply have no clear grasp of the enormity of the problem.
the DOH keeps harping on the fact that the pandemic death rate is comparatively low compared with the number of total active cases. But lives and livelihood lost cannot be confined to statistical parameters. We are talking here of flesh and bones, and not mere cold numbers.
Closer to home, i’ve seen countless friends who have lost or are losing their precious jobs, and are now frantically finding ways to cope with depleted savings. Cooped up in their respective homes, apprehensive about their family’s health and future, it is not surprising that many of them are feeling physically, emotionally and mentally drained and distressed. For more than five months now, i’ve not had the pleasure of having my hands dirtied by ink blots from the newsprints of our newspaper subscriptions. Our delivery guy—who had his hair grayed going the rounds of neighborhood for years—has no other source of income. Would we be able to see him again at our gate any time soon? the gym that i go to regularly had to close shop, and the decades of friendship forged there have suddenly been broken. it’s hard to think if i’d be able to see them again.
My cousin-in-law, my wife’s first cousin died of Covid-19 recently, after more than a month alone and confined to the icu, with only his medical team dropping by. no relatives and friends were able to see him, and he died alone, leaving a hospital bill of over P3 million. His body was immediately cremated. there was no proper wake or burial, where relatives and friends could have gathered to salute the life he live so well, and bid him a proper farewell. there were just a nine-day novena, online Eucharistic celebrations, and a short inurnment ceremony over Zoom. Duque calling the pandemic a “blessing in disguise” is like a slap on the faces of all those grieving for lost loved ones, those who are now on hospital beds furiously battling the Wuhan virus, and those who have been
rendered unemployed and anxious about feeding their families.
Our pandemic response clearly lacks the direction from a president who is neither here nor there. President Duterte is reportedly in his hometown of Davao City for more than three weeks now, unable to make it to his scheduled August 17 return to Metro Manila, which is now considered the virus epicenter in the country.
the official statement is that Duterte has been in Davao City since August 3 and has been holding pandemic-related meetings there, including his latest on August 24, tuesday morning, with government officials. For more than a month, the country has not seen him live in any official event, and the people have to make do with watching him deliver his monologue, which has been obviously edited by this administration’s communications staff.
the president’s absence has spawned wild conspiracy theories. He is critically ill, one theory goes, made even more “plausible” with the a sighting of a medical plane parked in Davao’s airstrip. One story that went viral on social media claimed that Duterte was flown to Singapore, and is now under hospice care for pain management. All of these are of course denied by Bong go, whose designation i can no longer distinguish. is he a senator, a caregiver, or a Duterte spokesman?
Duterte is sorely missed not for his dictatorial and iron-gripped leadership. the people simply want to see him in flesh and blood as proof that he is still physically capable to continue being the country’s commander-in-chief.
that he is sick is no longer debatable. it has been officially known that he suffers from myasthenia gravis, a disease which has no known cure. it’s an advancing disease which causes the weakening of the link between nerves and muscles. incapacity is unavoidable. Prior to this, in the 1990s, Duterte was certified as suffering from an “antisocial and narcissistic” disorder.
in Duterte’s absence, we are left with a mostly militaristic approach in dealing with the pandemic, with Department of the interior and Local government Secretary Eduardo Año at the helm. ironically, Año himself has been bitten by the pandemic bug. By and large, many people are skeptical of the photos and videos of Duterte being passed off as current, but which look manipulated.
His supporters are also upping up the ante in defending their idol to the hilt. One comical character who stands out is former sex star Vivian Velez who called Vice President Leni robredo “bobo” (“stupid”) when the latter laid out her recommendations in battling the pandemic. Velez unfortunately has no relevant credentials to show, except for her infamous Betamax sex tape, which i remember became the talk of the town during my formative years. Of course, Velez was just echoing Duterte’s criticism of robredo. Duterte dismisses robredo’s recommendations in containing the pandemic as “adding fuel to the fire,” even if robredo’s plan of action is baked by research and drawn up holding multi-sectoral consultations with experts from various fields.
Personally, i believe that Duterte would be hard put at attaining robredo’s level. the Vice President—whom he had been trying to sideline since 2016—but whose advantage he just could not equal, had laid out what ails the nation and prescribed what needs to be done. On August 24, Monday, in her latest address to the nation, it took only 20 minutes for robredo to prove how not to be “inutile.”