A Prayer

(Part of an ongoing account started on March 13, 2020 of how the spread of COVID-19 in our country and our government’s response has affected our lives.)

I do not think I can keep this up.

I read more and more posts about health personnel contracting the virus, the infected dying alone, priests who want to minister the last rites but cannot, the lack of face masks and personal protective equipment for those in the frontlines…

I see the number of COVID-related cases climb, knowing this is not even accurate since there is no mass testing.

I see people ignoring the call for social or physical distancing, still milling around in public areas and forcing government to send more men to implement curfews and other quarantine guidelines.

I read about government leaders demanding that they and their families be tested for COVID-19 before those who display the symptoms of having contracted the virus.

I wait for the President to come out on TV after having been granted emergency powers in the hope he finally says something concrete about what he intends to do with it.  He says “thank you” and … nothing else, which is probably why local government units and agencies are once again scrambling to push for their needs and maximize the granting of those emergency powers.

The lack of direction is disheartening and depressing. I will tune out for a while and feed my soul – whether it’s with a book, a movie or continued conversations with family – all within the confines of home.

I am beginning to highlight what’s wrong at the expense of what’s right. There are many stories of good prospering through the efforts of some enlightened and active government leaders; there are many acts of volunteerism and goodwill from all sectors of society. I must not forget that.

So I will step back, but I will continue praying that health workers be protected, that the infected get well and that the poor be given timely and sustained aid and provisions and that everyone will do their part and stay home for the duration of the lockdown.

And yes, I will also be selfish and pray for myself, my family and the people I know and love, and thank God that He continues to protect us.

I hope you do, too.

A Prayer Amid an Epidemic

By Kerry Weber, executive editor of America

Jesus Christ, you traveled through towns and villages “curing every disease and illness.” At your command, the sick were made well. Come to our aid now, in the midst of the global spread of the coronavirus, that we may experience your healing love.

Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain their strength and health through quality medical care.

Heal us from our fear, which prevents nations from working together and neighbors from helping one another.

Heal us from our pride, which can make us claim invulnerability to a disease that knows no borders.

Jesus Christ, healer of all, stay by our side in this time of uncertainty and sorrow.

Be with those who have died from the virus. May they be at rest with you in your eternal peace.

Be with the families of those who are sick or have died. As they worry and grieve, defend them from illness and despair. May they know your peace.

Be with the doctors, nurses, researchers and all medical professionals who seek to heal and help those affected and who put themselves at risk in the process. May they know your protection and peace.

Be with the leaders of all nations. Give them the foresight to act with charity and true concern for the well-being of the people they are meant to serve. Give them the wisdom to invest in long-term solutions that will help prepare for or prevent future outbreaks. May they know your peace, as they work together to achieve it on earth.

Whether we are home or abroad, surrounded by many people suffering from this illness or only a few, Jesus Christ, stay with us as we endure and mourn, persist and prepare. In place of our anxiety, give us your peace.

Jesus Christ, heal us.

DoH update: As of this writing, the Philippines has reported 636 confirmed corona virus cases, including 26 recoveries and 38 deaths.

Passing through

(Part of an ongoing account started on March 13, 2020 of how the spread of COVID-19 in our country and our government’s response has affected our lives.)

I got my quarantine pass today.

This means that I am the only one in our household authorized to leave the house to buy food and/or medicine during the quarantine.

There are no debates about whose name goes on the pass. My husband is our sole breadwinner and he is working from home. Also, I have always managed the house and run the household.

Feeling relieved that I finally have something to show should I run into a checkpoint, I decide to go on my first supermarket run since the quarantine.

What do you know. I emerge from the village and run smack into a checkpoint set up just outside the gate on a road that has become unrecognizable. Men in military uniform ask to see my pass. “Mag grocery lang po,” I tell them when asked where I am going.

They let me through and I drive very slowly along a deserted road. All the stores and stalls, save for a very few, are closed. This is the same road I pass almost every day. I have never found it deserted, even during the few times I had to return home from work very late at night.

I see the bakeshop is open, although no one is buying. The drugstore at the end of the street, too. There is no sign of activity.  I see another checkpoint where the road intersects the service road and I roll down my window again to show my pass and to tell the men I am going to the supermarket of a mall nearby.

Before they wave me through, I ask them if I would be allowed to pass through later, after doing the groceries. The man’s hesitation deepens my fear. But he tells me that as long as I have a pass and I am wearing a face mask, it would be no problem.

It is the shortest drive I have ever made to the supermarket. There is very little traffic.  The traffic is inside. I am greeted by a spurt of alcohol at the entrance and a temperature reading before I am led to chairs set a meter apart inside the mall. I am sooooo glad it is going to be a comfortable wait.

Batch by batch, we are sent up to the ground level, where the supermarket is located. When my batch is called, I get quite excited. We pass by a guard who sprays our hands yet again then we are led to chairs set a meter apart in front of the row of cashiers.  Again, our hands are sprayed and I am beginning to think I should not have showered before this, when our batch finally gets called in.

I get almost all items on my list and chat up the cashier and the bagger. I learn that the supermarket closes at 7 p.m., giving the workers just an hour to get home before the 8 p.m. curfew. “Almost all of us leave at 7:30 p.m.,” says the bagger.

Wouldn’t it be better if the mall closed at 6 p.m. then? I ask. The cashier says it certainly would, but immediately says it’s ok. “I am just glad to be working,” she says. The bagger agrees, saying that many of their friends working as cashier, merchandiser, promodiser and utility at the mall’s department store are not as lucky.

On the way home, I pass a smaller supermarket where people are standing in line by the side of the road.

The men stop me at the checkpoint but only to direct me to another road to get to our village. Much relieved, I start to drive away then impulsively pull out a pack of biscuits which I leave with the startled man in uniform. He shouts his thanks and I see his fellow soldiers approach him as I pull away.

It is a good feeling, but I am not planning on making another supermarket run anytime soon. I think I will stick close to home.

DoH update: As of this writing, the Philippines has reported 552 confirmed corona virus cases, including 20 recoveries and 35 deaths.

A Question of trust

(Part of an ongoing account started on March 13, 2020 of how the spread of COVID-19 in our country and our government’s response has affected our lives.)

I do not trust Government so I am leery of Malacañang’s request for Congress to grant the President emergency powers.

I do not see the big picture or the basis for the request. I know the needs are many, particularly from healthcare institutions and workers attending to an increasing number of COVID-19 infected persons, persons under investigation and persons under monitoring on top of those suffering from illnesses that will simply not disappear because there is a pandemic.

I know that as we deepen into the lockdown, barangays and local government units will find it increasingly hard to provide for their constituents, particularly the daily wage earners who can no longer feed their families.

I know that giving the President access to and control of more funds and privately-held resources mean more access to goods and services that can help our country minimize the negative impact of this pandemic.

But I do not know if we can trust a presidency where leaders have themselves and their families prioritized for testing, above those who really need it.

This is the same presidency which has broken so many promises regarding the drug war, the traffic situation and the endo, to name a few.

The is the presidency whose immediate act to flatten the curve is to limit the contagion via a lockdown, without provisions for the health sector – the ones who will be attending to those infected and monitoring those who are suspected of having contracted it -  so that transmission can be effectively monitored, treated and contained.

I do not see the big picture because none has been presented. All I am seeing is a day-to-day response and an Inter-agency Task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) that is visible not only during the day, but also late into the night because it is when the President likes to work.

There will be no corruption or abuse, say the sponsors of House Bill 6166 or An Act to Declare the Existence of a National Emergency Arising from the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) Situation. The said bill will be limited in scope and duration, they say.

They say it like they can predict how long we will be under a state of calamity.  They say it like they can speak for the President.  They speak for neither.

DoH update: As of this writing, the Philippines has reported 396 confirmed corona virus cases, including 18 recoveries and 33 deaths.

A frenzied response

(Part of an ongoing account started on March 13, 2020 of how the spread of COVID-19 in our country and our government’s response has affected our lives.)

I swear that if Fedela keeps up her cleaning, I will find myself lining up for cleaning, instead of food, supplies.

Ever since we've been under enhanced community quarantine, our help has leveled up her cleaning. I’ve never complained about how she keeps the house clean because she's great at it. Fedela, on the other hand, shows what she thinks of MY cleaning whenever she comes back from a vacation. She turns the house upside down, re-cleaning everything and then some.

Fedela is the kind who gets restless if she is not doing anything. But before the quarantine, she would slow down after lunch and rest before she goes off again, doing what she thinks she needs to do. Now, after she’s done cleaning, she’s rearranging the cabinets, poking around the ceiling, wiping down the walls and including the light bulbs in their sockets…

She’s offered to do the cooking, which is not part of her duties. It is mine, especially now that we have to be mindful of how much we put on the table so that we can prolong supplies and limit food runs.

I’ve had to stop her from watering the plants twice a day. There’s a shortage of water supply in Manila so once at night is enough. I’ve long drawn up a schedule when we wash the car and do the laundry, and I’ve had to tell her twice to keep to it.

It’s funny. I see to it that my daughter has enough to do, while I have to keep our help in check because she is overdoing things.

I sit down with her and ask her what she understands of the situation. She has it right and understands why we are under quarantine. When I ask her why she seems bent on scrubbing the house bare, she laughs nervously and fumbles in her explanation. She is anxious. She does not know when things can go back to normal, if they go back to normal. So she keeps busy. She cleans.

I try as best as I can to tell her that I am perfectly all right with the cleaning, but to let up because we are in for the long haul. She needs to find a way to slow down because at the rate she is going, she will burn out. I tell her I need her to be all right.

I later overhear her cheerfully talking in the dialect to someone on the phone. She’s still sweeping in the garden and removing our top soil while doing it, but I let it be. At least, she’s laughing.

Just a while ago, she asked to leave for the village store to get personal provisions. She came back much more cheerful like I knew she would. Even if she is able to talk with family and relatives back in Cebu, I know she needs to see that the world out there continues to turn, even if COVID-19 keeps us to our homes and slows down our pace of life.

I think it’s time I limit the watching of the news to certain hours and to our room. 

DoH update: As of this writing, the Philippines has reported 380 confirmed corona virus cases, including 15 recoveries and 25 deaths.

A sense of community

(Part of an ongoing account started on March 13, 2020 of how the spread of COVID-19 in our country and our government’s response has affected our lives.)

I am a resident of Parañaque City.

Previous employment, though, had me reporting to an office in Makati City. My husband also worked there for a long time before his office moved its headquarters elsewhere. My child also goes to a school in Makati, which is why I follow Mayor Abby Binay’s twitter account which tells me when there are class suspensions.

I get my groceries from a supermarket in Makati City because when I was working there, it was on my way home. I continue to patronize it because it is near my child’s school and the goods there are priced lower than in the supermarkets near my residence.

So when government started implementing measures to restrict the movement of people and goods only to the essential, I realized that I follow social media accounts and have access to a government and its agencies in a city where I don't live.

That’s when it hits home. The only time I feel I am a resident of Parañaque City is when I get a community tax certificate, pay the annual real estate tax and conduct other needed transactions at the City Hall.

I go online to get information on the hospital or health center that caters to residents like me should any of us show symptoms of the novel corona virus.

Curious, I check what Mayor Edwin Olivarez is doing. I "like" and follow him on FB and twitter, as well as Councilor Viktor Eriko “Wahoo” Sotto. I also bookmark the Parañaque City Government official website.

Photo taken from the FB Account
of Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez

In all of these accounts, the City’s COVID-19 hotlines are listed. I also learn that the good mayor has been going around, seeing to the disinfection of barangays. Today, the distribution of relief packs starts in barangays located in the city's first district.

I have not experienced any of these efforts yet, but I am sure I will soon. For about a week now, I have been following the news even to the wee hours of the morning, awaiting new guidelines and clarification of issues from the Inter-agency Task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on the implementation of the operational guidelines on the enhanced community quarantine.

I realize that I should also follow news closer to home. The website tells me that as of this writing, there are five (5) confirmed cases in the city (and I know one of them is a resident of the nearby subdivision), and three persons under investigation (PUI) and three persons under monitoring (PUM) in our barangay. 

Now, more than ever, I feel the need to stay home.

Our dog’s frantic barking and an increasingly loud buzzing distracts me. Disinfecting is going on but it is quick. Is it supposed to be that quick?

I run to the gate and stare at the back of the men in blue uniform who are doing the disinfecting and who are already two houses away. I do not think they are from Parañaque, whose men don the City’s signature green uniform. I think they are from the housing association.

Nevertheless, I tell the rest of the household the COVID-19 hotline numbers, which I display near the landline, along with the numbers of the housing association administration, security office and the community care clinic nearby.

I hope we never use them.

DoH update: As of this writing, the Philippines has reported 262 confirmed corona virus cases, including 13 recoveries and 19 deaths.