Almario, Armelia Bea BSA 1F

Morente, Karen Mrs. Godinez

Sioson, Samantha Shayla Editorial
Valdez, Jennifer M9 Assessment
Vallejos, Rafael

The 4Ps of Covid: People in Power and Positions in the Philippines

Power and position are indeed necessary to have the capacity to influence, control and even own an organization, a business,
a sector of government, a group of people and even its entire country. In times of global crisis due of the Covid-19, it can be seen by
deep observation the force of incompetence, incredibility and corruption of government officials in worsening the pandemic in
local and international countries. Also the role and presence of capitalism in dealing with the disease. In fact here in the Philippines,
last year, different instances where political and corporate interests were prioritized instead of preventions and solutions to the plague

January 30, 2020 was the time of the first case of Covid-19 in the Philippines. From this point in time, the administration did
not consider imposing a travel ban immediately from all of the countries immigrating herein. This was not specifically keen to country
China in which the pandemic originated. The Health Secretary Francisco Duque and even President Rodrigo Duterte were both
reluctant in recommending banning Chinese nationals from entering the country. This shows the Philippines’ maldevelopment and
inadequate institutional capacity to respond to the epidemic without considering the interest of other neighboring powerful country.

Second, the Philippines is also in the middle of a corruption scandal. The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
(PhilHealth) has been rocked with allegations of fund mismanagement and overpricing. Lawmakers found irregularities in the
implementation of the corporation’s interim reimbursement mechanism and questioning that some institutions that are non-COVID-19
health facilities, or reported few COVID-19 cases, received large amounts of funding and received payments within just a few days
compared to others.

In addition to this, as of February 2021, the Philippines has borrowed and loaned, budgeted, and allocated the grand total of
one trillion pesos in the name of the corona where in fact, it will only need up to 6 hundred billion pesos for all the Filipino to be
vaccinated. It was found also that there are irregularities in the disbursement of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP). SAP funds
came from government coffers intended for those who need them most and those who lost their livelihoods amid the crisis. However,
the government officials pocketed the SAP funds by not giving the correct amount, splitting of cash aid, falsification of the master list
of beneficiaries, and taking a “cut” or “tara” from SAP beneficiaries. This shows a weak merit culture. Corruption is an endemic,
deep-seated, and deep-rooted virus that has afflicted the country. It has become the norm rather than the exception, and this sad state
of affairs has become even more apparent against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another subject of concern under Duterte’s administration is the militarized nature imposed by President Duterte that has
failed to appreciate the critical public health and human security dimensions of the pandemic. On April 1, 2020, twenty-one of the
hungry protesters from Sitio San Roque were beaten and arrested by the police. Duterte quoted them as “pasaways” where in fact
those are the poverty-stricken community, like many others, who demand for food and had found it near impossible to deal with
having no livelihood. Arrests have also extended to anyone caught criticizing the administration’s perceived failures during the
pandemic and even people posting unflattering opinions about Duterte online. The biggest single haul of the crackdown came on
Labor Day, May 1. Ninety-two individuals across five cities were imprisoned while either engaging in feeding programs or joining
online protests.

This makes the Philippine government one of the worst examples of handling the pandemic is its government official’s
incompetence married with militarism threaded throughout its responses. Using the pandemic as a reason for increasingly flexing
authoritarian power and heavy-handed-punitive-approach spells danger for Filipinos.

On the other hand, to ensure the country's COVID-19 vaccine supply, it is good that the Philippine government has been in
contact with several international vaccine manufacturers. These manufacturers include Sinovac Biotech (China), Gamaleya Research
Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology (Russia), Moderna (United States), and Pfizer (United States). By the end of 2021, the
government plans to have secured 161 million doses from at least seven manufacturers with Sinovac as the first company to supply the
Philippine government with vaccines.

But these procurement efforts of the national government have been a subject of many controversies. One of these is many
Filipinos' reluctance to accept Sinovac vaccines from China, even though they were donated. This was due to several factors,
including a low efficacy rate of 50.4 percent and a fear of neo-imperialism. The pandemic could be used by the administration to
justify the need to satisfy the interests of the capitalist country China, since the global superpower could help us contain the pandemic
and restore our economy in return. This growing reliance on China by the Philippines, especially in the face of the pandemic, would
solidify China's position as the world's leading neo-imperialist. As the Philippines gradually recovers from the pandemic, it becomes
more vulnerable to neo-imperialism and capitalism, which will result in the loss of control over the country's spaces, resources, and
people.

The strengthening of society’s concern to improve performance measures is highly significant especially in today’s time and
corrective actions should be demonstrated to result in a disciplined future outcome. Although the government has made different
counter-measures to improve regulations and practices in times of pandemic crisis, it can be seen that the improvement of the country
is not enough and has not been impressively satisfying. However, the same set of happenings remain, demonstrating the incredibility
and failure of actions and solutions of those who are in position and power. As a result of this, people can see the emergence of rising
professionals who are also willing to help fellowmen overcome this global outbreak that people are still experiencing up until now.
One of these is Ms. Angel Locsin, also known as the “real-life Darna” and a candidate of “Heroes of Philanthropy 2019” who was
recognized for her generous donations and philanthropic efforts towards victims of natural disasters and such. The aforementioned can
serve as the new cradle of hope amongst Filipinos who are suffering from different kinds of despair due to the impact of pandemic.
These incompetence should not be allowed to persist. Thus, a more heightened political will and stronger governance response on the
part of the Duterte administration are needed to curb the corruption problem in the country.

With the ineptitude of the Duterte’s administration in handling and saving the Philippines from Covid-19, this shows the
unclear future of the country and its people. This crisis then added up by the crisis that keeps on existing in the minds of those in
positions and power will prolong the life of people in cages of their houses while serving an eye-opener to everybody not to remain
neutral and silent especially if the people in power get manipulative by abusing it for personal gain and how they try to control the
people to remain in power.

In times people can’t bear to breathe freely and live safely outside anymore, it’s the duty of each every Filipinos to follow the
concrete solutions and plans of the government in eradicating this pandemic as soon as possible. But how? If the leaders can’t give
and do it for them. If the people they put in power and positions during hard times disappear and remain powerless. By the grace of
the Lord, hopes and prayers of the people, all of the countries will heal and be back to normal and Philippines will be among them.