The great equalizer

How many times have I heard and read that COVID-19 is THE great equalizer.  I’ve repeatedly heard this not just from politicians but also from, of all people, news readers and anchors of radio and TV programs.  I expected the latter to know much better than the former — except one famous news reader who adroitly dabbled in politics, captured the second highest post of the land, came out soiled all over but is so nauseatingly self-righteous and still has the gall to project himself immaculate.

ctto: Queuing for relief goods after Ondoy

This is not the first time though that a hazard has been called great equalizer.  I heard it first in 1991 when it was associated with Mount Pinatubo eruption and the resultant more destructive yearly onslaught of lahar.  Then, it was almost in everyone’s mouth in September 2009 when Typhoon Ondoy (Tropical Cyclone Ketsana) combined with enhanced southwest monsoon to inundate Metro Manila and 23 provinces in record-breaking floods.  In November 2013, it was again the buzzword when Typhoon Yolanda (Tropical Cyclone Haiyan) hit Tacloban and surrounding nearby provinces.   It was one of the most, if not the most, powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded and the deadliest in the country, killing more than 6,000.

I will not fault anyone if they will fall for this fallacy the first time they’ve heard it.  But, I will not be as pardoning if they will repeatedly take this hook, line and sinker without having second thoughts after seeing contrary observable evidences.  The recently captured long queues of daily wage earners in the various quarantine check points in the Metro should have made everyone doubt the veracity of this claim; these are irrefutable evidence against this erroneous belief.

ctto: Resourcefulness to escape

 For people, like this old man, who are assured of their salaries and wages, no convincing is needed to make them stay at home.  A number, in fact, were just too happy to submit as this will give them respite from the daily grind and anxiety of their works.  But not all can acquiesce to the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ). 

Those who are unsure where to get their next food on their tables will certainly insist in going out to eke out a living.  Even if they want to, they cannot just stay at home. This is a no-win situation for them — they face either the devil or the deep blue sea — so to speak.  They simply have to be out to scour for food for their families. 

It should be noted too that even in ordinary times, these people can hardly put decent and healthy meals on their tables. 

ctto: A year after Yolanda

So, is COVID-19 THE great equalizer?  Obviously, it is not.  This situation, like previous emergencies, hazards and disasters, only further highlighted the great divide between the rich and the poor.  While the middle class and the elite can stay at home and can still indulge in some luxuries, the poor cannot. 

In fact, as events now unfold, the poor have been further disadvantaged as they become the favourite whipping boys, the escape goats, in the current efforts to control the spread of the virus.  Over and above previous class-based biases, they now come to personify disobedience and hard-headedness in our government’s war against COVID-19.    

Unwittingly, the government contributed a lot to the development of this perception.  When the Duterte administration targeted the poorest of the poor as the beneficiaries of its Social Amelioration Program (SAP), it did not only put a wedge between poorest and the other poor but also with the middle class, especially ones who were deprived of their sources of income after the imposition of the ECQ.   In times of crisis, the poor and a bigger section of the middle class are normally natural allies.

ctto:  A scene you'll never see in Forbes Park

and nearby Dasmarinas Village

The initial antagonism among the middle class towards the poor was reinforced further as initial recipients of the government amelioration program were caught gambling, drinking and even buying drugs not long after receiving their money.    These however are just a minority and were not the norm.   It was blown out of proportion by the “jealous” and “selfish” section of the middle class, who were disqualified to receive the first wave of amelioration assistance, through their social media posts.  The “unthinking” section of established media, in turn, took them as slant to sell their news stories.

 Although it was not by designed, may be, the bickering among the poor and the not-so-poor middle class has enabled the government to shift public focus away from its sloppy implementation of the ECQ.  It can always point to the poor who insist in going out as the culprit for the continued rise in the number of Filipinos getting infected.

ctto: Different story if these are Ducatis,

Harleys, BMWs and the like.

Many, however, failed to realize that in COVID-19, as in other emergency and disaster situations, the response actions are highly dependent on the preparedness and prevention and mitigation interventions that have to be undertaken before it was declared a pandemic.  True, the government did not have the luxury of time to prepare.  But this is government’s own creation as it failed to read correctly the situation.  This was the reason for the lost of much needed time to undertake even just the most basic preparedness and prevention and mitigation measures.  These, in turn, are the take-offs and building blocks of better response actions.

ctto:  Life goes on.

Early and correct reading of the situation could have accorded the government the much needed time to plan the ECQ as one of the prevention and mitigation measures.  It could have done so with other prevention and mitigation measures, like identification and equipping hospitals and isolation areas to be used, the procurement of PPEs, face masks and testing kits, etc.  The government could have also used this to undertake preparedness measures like systematic and massive information dissemination, training and capacitating not only health care professionals but, more importantly, the real front liners at the grassroots, the barangay governments that will implement equally important response actions outside from those to be undertaken by the health professionals.     

          Given this backdrop, COVID-19 will never be THE great equalizer. There will never be equalizers, much less great, in highly stratified societies, like the Philippines.  The poor will always be the whipping and weeping boys. (30)