The term Kronos (the origin of the English terms “chronological” and “chronicles”)

refers to time that is measured, ticking and quantitative. Kronos is the forward-moving
time that we calculate with clocks, watches, and the moon developmental phases.
Kronos gives us all of our time related words such as chronology and chronological. A
Kronos is sequential time, it is a linear measurable time, the kind of time that marches
on that keeps on ticking and that waits for no man; clocks calendars measure time on
Kronos time. Kronos is about quantity. On the other hand Kairos is about quality.
Kronos is about the present that was the future, and is the past before we know it.

We live in a Kronos world. In our Philippine History, we can find Kronos

especially nowadays. The recent Kronos event that happened is the Duterte’s response
to COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been one year and 2 months since the Philippines recorded
its first case of COVID-19 and yet our country still continues to suffer because of the
incompetency of the Philippine Government specifically our president. Let’s look back at
the most pressing stories about the pandemic in the country. This timeline is based on
the article produced by Inquirer.Net (2021). On January 30, 2020, almost a month after
China announced a "cluster" of pneumonia cases "of unknown cause" in Wuhan, the
Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the country's first case of "novel coronavirus
2019." The first patient arrived in the Philippines via Hong Kong from Wuhan, the new
virus's epicenter at the time. When she arrived in the Philippines, the woman had no
symptoms. President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a temporary ban on Chinese
nationals entering Wuhan City in China's Hubei province. On March 7, the DOH
announced the first local transmission of the virus after the wife of the patient identified
as the fifth case of COVID-19 in the Philippines, a 62-year-old man who regularly visited
the Greenhills Muslim prayer hall was also contaminated. The entire Metro Manila was
put under "group quarantine" on March 12 as the government scrambled to contain the
spread of SARS Cov2. Domestic ground, air, and sea travel to and from Metro Manila
was halted from March 15, 2020 to April 14, 2020. On March 16, only a few days after
putting Metro Manila under community quarantine, Duterte agreed to enforce an
expanded community quarantine for the entire island of Luzon. “Strict home quarantine
shall be enforced in all households; transportation shall be suspended; provision for
food and vital services shall be regulated; and a heightened presence of uniformed staff
to execute quarantine procedures shall be implemented,” according to enhanced
community quarantine. On July 31, Duterte told Filipinos that life will be "back to normal"
by the end of 2020. “I assure you, by the grace of God, I hope we will be back to normal
by December,” he said in a taped voice. According to a study published on August 6 by
INQUIRER.net, the Philippines had the most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, with
119,460 total infections. On Oct. 27, Duterte directed the DOH to first seek government-
to-government transactions for the procurement of coronavirus vaccines, citing the risk
of anomalies if transactions with private companies were pursued. He opposed the
vaccine procurement arrangement under which the government purchases directly from
pharmaceutical firms. On December 2, the health secretary rejected Local Government
Secretary Eduardo Ano's proposal to encourage minors to leave their homes and, more
importantly, go to malls, claiming that minors are not resistant to infection and may even
be virus spreaders. The country ended 2020 with 474,064 COVID-19 incidents, 439,796
recoveries, and 9,244 deaths. On March 12, 2021, The OCTA Research Group
identified 12 cities in the National Capital Region and three cities in Cebu as being
among the top 15 areas with a notable increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases.
Quezon City, Manila, Pasay, Makati, Paraaque, Taguig, Caloocan, Pasig, Malabon,
Valenzuela, Marikina, Navotas, Cebu City, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu are all included.
As of today our country is still on lockdown. It is said to be the longest lockdown all over
the world. This event has been part of history as Kronos because it’s eating up all our
time. Whenever we think about of doing something the time seems to just disappear
because of this event.

If there is a need for Kairos to disrupt/ change the occurrence of this

event, the kairos moment needed is to decide what to do with the time that is given us.
Instead of relying on lockdowns, the government especially the president need to take
their time in thinking alternative ways on how can the Philippines have 0 COVID-19
cases. The government should hear the people out. Instead of red tagging innocent
people, help them. As a citizen of Philippines, we could seek to live a Kairos life, but to
do that we need time; a time to treasure the relationships, to make the most of our
hours in our days and to embrace every season as it comes. Each of us has the same
number of hours in our days, but we don’t all have the same number of days in our
lives. At some point the clock will stop. What will we have done with our hours, what will
we have done with our days, we have time.