Paulo Gabriel D.

Loquinario
PSC01104 Sec. 03

The Philippines in response to COVID-19; a case analysis

Currently half a year deep in quarantine, the Philippines experiences its sharpest dip
quarterly in gross domestic product since 1981 essentially plunging the economy into recession
for the first time in almost three decades. What else could have caused this to happen but the
prevalence of the pandemic in which the matter that it has been brought and acted upon initially
is riddled with questionability and deserving of a lengthy discussion all on its own. From the
beginning when we first heard of the virus in Wuhan, China—its ground zero—the Philippine
chief executive tells people not to be hysteric about some mild disease and despite the global
notoriety it has acclaimed in a matter of days simply chose to downplay it with the strongman
character that he has. But, one who talks the talk should also walk the walk and being president
of a third-world country, this administration has done close to nothing worth going back to
positively. Millions of people unemployed, thousands felled by the virus, anomalous occurrences
within public health institutions, distress in the academe, and not to mention, other insignificant
matters being dealt with utmost priority amidst a time of calamity, all in 6 months—and
counting. This paper aims to evaluate major implementations of the government from the outset
of the virus’s impact in the Philippines and try to find the applicable framework/s found in
theories of public administration that could prove relevant with how the implementations have
performed.
The first implementation of the government to be evaluated is the alarming imposition of
the capital’s lockdown shortly followed by the provinces. Indeed, a very rational decision made
by the chief executive in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus into the different regions of
Luzon since public unrest was at an all-time high in every newly recorded case. What came with
the capital’s lockdown is a myriad of authoritative and seemingly punitive rules and regulations.
Within the metro, no one was allowed to go outdoors for anything other than procuring basic
necessities, curfews were imposed within municipalities coupled with the erection of
strategically placed checkpoints manned by either the PNP or the AFP. The effort of the
administration to mitigate the spread of the virus to various parts of Luzon was lauded—in the
preliminary parts, at least—by experts, saying that it has indeed succeeded in slowing down the
spread of the virus claiming that the number of days it took for cases to double doubled from
three days to six (Lontoc, 2020). Weakness of the implementation however can be seen in the
numerous instances of police brutality and the number of displaced inhabitants due to the
demolishing of settlements resulting in them being labeled as de facto curfew violators
(Aspinwall, 2020). The minute movement allowed for by the quarantine also resulted in the
collective state of hunger of the people, thus resulting to more and more people turning up as
violators of the imposed regulations. Strictness of the regulations seemingly double down
towards ordinary citizens but are completely overlooked when violators turn out to be well
known personalities. The implementation of lockdown within the capital with its regulations
afflicting common citizens more is reflective of at least two theories in public administration:
The Pathological Theory under the Bureaucratic Theory, and The prismatic sala model under
Fred Riggs’ Ecological Approach. The imposition of the lockdown which affected countless
citizens rendering them helpless in the face of the pandemic, are reflective of bureaupathology; a
term in the Pathological Theory coined by Victor Thompson that refers to a tendency of an
insecure official to dominate and control others. And when assessing the partiality of the rules
imposed to people of differing social classes, the prismatic sala theory of Riggs can be applied.
In the said sala model, other than the introduction of varying social, political, and economical
sub-systems, the universality of law is disregarded. This is solidified by the occurrences from the
past months pertaining to some public official who garnered flak from the public.
After the implementation of the Luzon-wide lockdown, the bill Bayanihan Heal as one
Act was passed to further enhance the capabilities of the national government to combat the
virus. It was a law that compelled the local government units to follow under the reins of the
national government once more insinuating the apparent on and off again nature of the
democratic endeavor for decentralization. One occurrence that transpired during the early stages
of the proclamation was a predicament that involved a certain local government incumbent
which has allegedly violated the Bayanihan Act by presumably acting on its own volition that
provoked the chief executive to directly order LGUs to “stand down”. In the end, resulting to the
local government incumbent adherence whilst garnering public commendation, the whole
transpiration of events (the passing of the Bayanihan Act included) are evident of the first type of
leadership model according to Rensis Likert which is the Exploitive-Authoritative model. The
events circling the predicament are highly suggestive of a hierarchal structure and centralized
decision-making despite the autonomy of the LGUs which are constitutionally provided for (Art.
II Sec. 25, Art. X Sec. 2 & Sec. 3).
The lapses in the government’s COVID-19 response cannot merely be attributed to poor
leadership or the lack of experience in dealing with a pandemic of this scale. The Philippine
public healthcare system has been, for years a neglected and quite under-funded venture. This
weak public health system is the result of deliberate policy choices, fiscal priorities and
institutional design made over many years up to the present. (Quintos, 2020). Depictive of
discrepancies in decision making along the lines of the Decision Making Theory specifically the
oversimplification and cognitive nearsightedness. Also is it accompanied by the debilitating
qualities of nepotism and cronyism that trumps meritocracy as basis of appointment—another
major flaw of the Philippine Bureaucratic brand.
 References:
Aspinwall, N. (2020, April 03). The Philippines’ Coronavirus Lockdown Is Becoming a
Crackdown. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/the-philippines-coronavirus-
lockdown-is-becoming-a-crackdown/
Lontoc, J. F. (2020). ECQ doing good, ‘graduated activation’ recommended after April
30—UP pandemic response team. University of the Philippines. https://www.up.edu.ph/ecq-
doing-good-graduated-activationrecommended-after-april-30-up-pandemic-responseteam/
Quintos, P. (2020). The Philippines’ COVID-19 Response: Symptoms of Deeper Malaise
in the Philippine Health System. ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342231205