COSTING US

While everyone is counting the days they have been stuck, one way or another, by the coronavirus pandemic, our budget leaders have been counting the money flowing out of the national coffers.

Not that these have been non-essential expenses. Every little centavo counts in the fight against the massive effects of the invisible virus.

Reports say a total of P374.89 billion has been released by the Department of Budget Management as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the Philippine government.

The breakdown of expenses, according to a report from the Presidential Communications’ RTVM, goes as follows:

•P200.98 billion for the Social Amelioration Program

•P51.00 billion for the Small Business Wage Subsidy Program

•P48.23 billion to the Department of Health for its medical supplies

•P37.50 billion released to local government units as grant.

A massive chunk has gone to supplementing the needs of the populace — aid for Filipino households whose livelihoods were halted due to the pandemic.

More funds, as well, are needed for government’s recent push for research and development toward the fight against COVID-19.

In recent reports, presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced that “any Filipino who can design and develop a durable respirator to help coronavirus patients will receive a P20-million incentive from President Duterte.”

A shortage of respirators is among the problems faced by our healthcare system, along with the troubling fact that the expected surge in patients who test positive for COVID-19 could seriously test the capabilities and resources of our hospitals and medical community.

Even the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), the country’s prime reference laboratory for COVID-19, has had to “scale down its operations due to infected personnel and supply shortage,” another news item reveals.

“In

the age of the pandemic, we should learn to stand on our own two feet, isolated but strong.

Its Director Celia Carlos said 31 RITM staff have tested positive for the disease. “Ten remain symptomatic but are in stable condition, while the others are ‘in their recovery state’ and just awaiting the result of their repeat tests,” her report adds.

All efforts are going toward increasing testing centers so that more citizens can be serviced and most people can start going back to their usual activities. As it is, with uncertainty still hanging in the air, the government had to impose another period of general community quarantine for Metro Manila, which has certainly added to the pandemic fatigue people are increasingly experiencing.

Research and development can help the country find its own solutions to the problems we face nowadays. Filipino scientists have proven themselves in this area already, having created the more affordable test kits before a shortage was even foreseen.

So for all talented Filipinos out there, the President has offered a reward of P50 million to anyone who can discover a vaccine for COVID-19. If China, the United States and United Kingdom are working hard to find this elusive vaccine, why not the brilliant minds in our own islands? After all, even if China, for example, develops a vaccine that works, there is no assurance that a supply of these will be made immediately available for the rest of the world. In the age of the pandemic, we should learn to stand on our own two feet, isolated but strong.

“Every little centavo counts in the fight against the massive effects of the invisible virus.