Free and on to full recovery

Freedom, in all its nuances, positive or negative, seems to have descended upon the earth with a vengeance. The sense of it seems all too suddenly everywhere. Outside our borders, half a world away, it is being quickly lost in the Ukraine. In cyberspace, particularly on social media, it is being abused by those who pretend to jealously defend it.

In health and well-being, we are only slowly emerging from our crippling deprivation of it. As our invisible microscopic tormentor slowly yields to stubborn human resilience, the sweetness of freedom regained is exhilarating. At a more personal level, I am gratefully happy my daughters in Cebu City can now at least start to recover what remains of their lives after more than two years of interruption by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While health authorities have not officially announced an end to the health crisis, things have cleared enough to allow government officials room to make prudent decisions quite independently from what the crisis situation would have normally required. And while the decisions may be tougher on account of most officials not being health experts, the opportunities to make wise and balanced decisions are now there for the taking.

One of the very first to quickly seize the moment is no one else but Michael Rama, the mayor of my beloved Cebu City, which I now can only regard from a distance because of duty calls I have had to heed. Mayor Rama just a short while earlier, threw the city wide open. Save for minimum health protocols that now make for the new normal, much of everything pre-pandemic is now allowed within its borders.

"All establishments, persons and activities shall be permitted to operate, work, or be undertaken regardless of age and vaccination status of persons. Provided that minimum public health standards shall be strictly observed at all times," said Rama in an executive order. Businesses are thus now allowed to resume unrestricted activities at full capacity and at normal schedules.

Freedom for the marketplace allows the economy to embark on the long road to full recovery. The opening up of all economic activity spells freedom to recoup, earn, create, profit, invest, rebuild, develop, and move forward. With businesses open comes the return of jobs. That means income, food on the table, medicine for health, tuition for children, upkeep for domiciles, and life relived in general.

Of course return to normalcy is bound to happen. But it is leadership and political will that determine whether the return comes sooner rather than later. Rama chose the former. He has apparently long done his homework, studied his options, weighed the pros and cons and thus, when the time came, quickly decided to act with resolve.

And so I can, right at this very moment, almost taste the sweetness of freedom for most of Cebu City's more than a million residents, especially the adult population from whom the pandemic curfew has been lifted. The lockdown and quarantine culture is practically over. With the pandemic hopefully on the retreat for good and the ravages of super typhoon Odette for the most part surmounted, the city will come alive as it used to be again.

Mayor Rama's handling of the health crisis had been nothing less than superb. Now that he has taken the city toward a new direction for full economic recovery, I would not be surprised if he wins a fresh mandate from a grateful electorate. That is the advantage of getting tested in crisis and adversity. By any measure you emerge stronger, wiser, and, for whatever it means, fresher.