I had a phantasmic encounter with a leader strong, wise, and confident. I listened to this stentorian voice assuring our nation of what needs to be done.

His words filled me with hope.

The Leader said: Pardon me, but we took this threat of a pandemic too lightly at the onset. We thought we could manage things with the leadership of our able military generals, as advised well by our health professionals from DOH. We had a lockdown when we thought the timing was right to keep the economy more afloat. We gave subsidies where we could. But these were clearly not enough.

In the process of implementing the quarantines, we also arrested tens of thousands and killed a number of our people while, on the other hand, failing to fully make accountable quite a number of national and local politicians and government officials who breached health protocols under this pandemic. For all these, we can only say mea culpa. We really need these people now and so we have to really give them some slack to be able to do their jobs. Let me make it clear, however, that another breach by any of them would be the proverbial last straw… so…

Moving forward, we look at the figures now and we see that we have already breached the 100,000 mark. That’s but 0.001 of our total population having the virus, with just over two thousand in casualties. However, each life we lose in this war is invaluable, priceless. No one should die. We need to do better. Much, much better. We shed tears for all of them but we carry on. We continue the fight.

We also see that despite having implemented the longest knockdown period among all countries in this pandemic, we are still losing given that we are now tallying 5,000 infections per day, with our total number of the infected possibly ballooning to over 200,000 by the end of August.

Our miserable loss is so stark given that most countries in our region have been able to not just slow down the spread of the disease, but flatten their curves—meaning, they have totally arrested the contagion at some point. We have not been able to notably flatten our “curve,” We are still on our first wave, and what a surging wave it is at this point.

The question now remains then. What needs to be done? Our medical frontliners have spoken and the first step is thus clear. Hearing them, we need to create a condition for a time-out for the health system. We need a two-week hard quarantine in the most infected areas of the country. If properly implemented, this should allow for a sudden drop in the number of infections to allow some period of slack. as it were, for our already extremely burdened hospitals.

Implementing this, however, has certain challenging requisites. First, we need to have a system of providing for the people’s basic sustenance. People, especially in the dense areas of urban poverty in Metro Manila, need to eat. Otherwise, they will continue to have a reason to roam to satisfy their most basic of needs.

Secondly, we need to have free or affordable mass testing to identify as many of the infected—symptomatic or not—as we can. The data generated in this testing will inform many of the decisions that have to be made to fine-tune our fight against Covid 19.

Third, we need to know who have been exposed to the infected and find out if they themselves already have the virus. In short, contact tracing, With this, we will be able to more easily identify and trace those that require the needed interventions to manage the health situation at the level of the individual.

Some of the identified individuals will need to be taken care of to best ensure their survival. They will, however, be isolated even from their own kin, and this needs resources, including time to fully manage the disease at the community level.

In short, we need these three T’s together or all is for naught: testing, tracing, and treatment. We need mass testing, contact tracing, and treatment including isolation of the patient as may be needed. With Filipinos following health protocols in general as they are won to do, these three T’s coupled with a “humane” lockdown where no one gets harassed by government forces or made an unfortunate casualty, we are sure to notably lessen the number of the infected after at least two weeks.

This is what our frontliners are asking for and we will respond accordingly. I am listening to you. And I say, with the most sincere sentiment, mea culpa, and thank you.


I had this dream, and I was filled with hope.

But the sad reality of what my leader actually said has to be confronted. Just a few lines could summarize what he actually said to me. To us: “Next time you can just ask for an audience pero wag kayo magsigaw-sigaw ng revolution… I'm not threatening you pero gusto ko lang subukan ninyo. I dare you to do it... Ang Covid nandiyan. Wala akong kasalanan.”