The world was not ready for COVID-19. This pandemic spread faster that what experts predicted.

The pandemic that struck the world put so many things at stake, the economy, the society, and the health
system. A lot of nations suffered especially those that are considered third-world countries like the
Philippines. Currently, the Philippine administration is heavily criticized by its people because of its
inefficiency to respond through concrete plans to contain or mitigate the virus. The Philippine health
system is Is this pandemic well-handled by our government or is it the other way around? According to
Soriano (2020) The pandemic has clearly tested leaders. With more than 170 countries severely impacted,
the Covid-19 crisis has revealed many truths about leadership and governance of those in power. A grim
reminder that the country has a long way to go before any talk of an economic recovery. With the
absence of the cure for COVID-19, our country has tried different methods to somehow alleviate or lessen
the effects of the virus to those who have tested positive. According to Sabillo (2020) medical experts
have been using off-label drugs to treat severe and critical cases of COVID-19. Off-label drugs are
medicine developed to treat other illnesses but are believed or have shown some evidence of effectivity
against the novel coronavirus. Some of these drugs have been included in the WHO’s Solidarity Trial, a
multi-country clinical trial in search for a COVID-19 cure. The Philippines is among the more than 200
countries participating. The field of medicine is greatly impacted by the escalating cases of COVID-19.
Even with the criticism, the Department of Health (DOH) claims that our country has “low” COVID-19
deaths due to treatment guidelines crafted early or at the beginning of the pandemic. According to Sabillo
(2020) the relatively low COVID-19 fatality rate of the Philippines is partly due to clinical guidelines on
how to manage coronavirus patients crafted by medical societies early into the pandemic. “First of all we
had a rough start because at that point in time we didn’t know a lot about the virus,” said Dr. Beverly Ho,
director of the DOH Health Promotion and Communication Service during a virtual briefing with a
partner company. She added that the committed frontliners and medical societies that rose to create and
exercise interim clinical practice guidelines made it possible to have relatively “low” deaths due to
COVID-19. With the spike of COVID-19 cases and even with the demand everyone, the DOH still
disagrees to conduct mass testing. According to Merez (2020) The Department of Health said Friday
mass testing of Filipinos for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is unnecessary for the meantime
but assured the public that such a measure is among the government’s contingency plans for the
pandemic. Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said the measure can be done once there are enough
resources for it, admitting challenges in the government’s testing capabilities for the disease. As a result
of the current community quarantine that started on March 2020, various challenges and obstacles are
faced by our medical system. According to Cellona (2020) Manpower shortage is 'biggest challenge' in
coronavirus testing. Lack of laboratories initially hounded the campaign. The Philippines has increased its
screening capacity to 85 laboratories that can run about 25,000 tests per day. Now that we already have
85 labs, supplies are coming in, the biggest challenge now is personnel. As an example, Dizon cited the
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, the country's biggest testing lab, which recently downgraded
screenings after some personnel caught the respiratory disease. Another challenge faced by the field of
medicine is medical populism. According to Lasco & Curato (2019) Medical populism works by creating
a shared imaginary of ‘the people’ as aggrieved parties, if not victims of diseases due to the system's
neglect. The current situation of our country’s field of medicine under Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s
administration is an example of medical populism. According to Cabico (2020) In a study, The Lancet
COVID-19 Commission noted that the country’s dismal ranking can be attributed to President Rodrigo
Duterte’s style of political leadership. The study drew from the study of medical anthropologist Gideon
Lasco. He described top government officials as “simplifying the pandemic by downplaying its impacts
or touting easy solutions or treatments, spectacularizing their responses to crisis, forging divisions
between the ‘people’ and dangerous ‘others,’ and making knowledge claims to support the above.” The
Lancet COVID-19 Commission stressed this style of political leadership not only affects the
implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as wearing of face masks but also “breeds
misinformation and rumor trafficking.”

The pandemic has caused an uproar to the people because it has completely stopped the people
from working, from doing their jobs which has kept them alive. In view of the lockdown, closures in
retail trade, malls, airports, canceled flights, and closures of non-food and non-health related
manufacturing services within the island were estimated to result in a maximum of one million people
losing their jobs. The closures of the jobs that the people need to survive was closed because of the
pandemic, because of the outbreak many workers will lose their job and if they lose their job they will not
have the money to survive the pandemic, the survival for this pandemic is very high priced. You will be
needing money to survive, to buy the your necessities and to feed you family. Knowing that we are
affected by the pandemic and due to the sudden lockdown from all over the world I was sad and worried
as my family was abroad working as front liners and cannot come home because they have to earn money
for us to survive. Because they are working as front liners they have taught me the ways to protect myself.
In plight of this pandemic we are being trained to survive. We are to follow the protocols that the WHO
has given us. As we practice the these protocols we are already preventing and helping the world to be a
better place for us, we can reduce the chances of us getting infected or spreading the COVID-19 by
properly being precautious. Knowing the facts and taking proper precautions will protect you from this
pandemic and even if the pandemic will be over soon we can still help by practicing these things and
teach the ways to future generations.
 As a Filipino citizen who is completely aware of my surrounding and what is happening
currently, it disheartens me that our country is in a situation wherein our leaders have to choose between
risking the lives of many and our economy. A lot of people are affected but knowing essential workers
who risk their lives everyday to save the lives of many Filipino breaks my heart. The lack of efficiency
and incompetency in our government severly affects us, the citizens. At this time, a lot of challenges are
faced by the field of medicine, even before this pandemic, the Philippine health system was not as good
as that of other country’s. Underlying issues such as corruption, lack of equipments and a slow
technological advancement make our situation right now, during this pandemic, a lot worse. Medical
populism plays a big role in the challenges in the field of medicine as it the gov’t keep on making
knowledge claims that are far from the actual reality. It does not sit right to me the fact that the people
who have sacrificed and are sacrificing their lives in the field of medicine are belittled by some people in
our society when they are the ones saving us from this calamity. I also think that it is unfair that the
government doesn’t want to listen to the plight of these medical frontliners and the Filipino citizens even
if they have the right to voice out their stance. It is not right that our government labels the Filipinos who
criticize the administration for the better as “rebels” and tags them as hard-headed citizens. The
frontliners’ demands are for the betterment of our situation yet our leaders refuse to listen to these factual
claims that they’d rather make their own just to justify their incompetency. Even with the fast escalation
of the COVID-19 cases, the government still chooses to prioritize irrelevant things over this important
matter that puts the lives of many at stake.

To sum everything up, the inefficiency and incompetency of the government contributes and
deepens the issues that we are facing right now. The proper and justifiable allocation of budget must be
done in order to solve issues like lack of equipment, lack of personnel because their salary is the root
cause as to why they refuse to accept job offers here in the Philippines. On the other hand, issues like
medical populism must be solved with open-mindedness and acceptance. Criticism must be seen
constructively to help improve our situation right now as it is not the time to drag people down and their
opinions when they clearly want to prove a point and contribute to our country for the better.
Accountability must also be exercised by our politicians As what they say, this pandemic proved how
much of an incompetent government we have and exposed the people we put into authority without
sufficient experience as public servants. This COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global health
crisis. Even so, we must do everything that we can, we must maximize our resources to provide for the
Filipinos and to mitigate the virus or its’ effects even with the absence of any vaccine or cure. We must
address issues like medical populism or challenges regarding the field of medicine without risking the
health of the Filipinos while still prioritizing the mitigation of the virus and the overall welfare of our
nation.

REFERENCE LIST

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Sabillo, K. (2020). “Without certain COVID-19 cure, Philippines tries these drugs to treat patients.” ABS-
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certain-covid-19-cure-philippines-try-these-drugs-to-treat-patients

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Merez, A. (2020). “DOH says no to mass COVID-19 testing of Filipinos for now.” ABS-CBN news,
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covid-19-testing-of-filipinos-for-now

Cellona, J. (2020). “Manpower shortage is 'biggest challenge' in coronavirus testing: official.” ABS-CBN
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