Behind the Hero’s Cape: Honoring the Stories of Calapagan’s Frontliners in Battling COVID-19

By KISHA MICHA LUMIKID

On World Humanitarian Day (WHD), August 19, we celebrate and honor frontline
workers, who, despite the risk, continue to support and protect those who are vulnerable. In
today’s context humanitarians are seen in the faces of every frontline worker who we label to as
“Real Life Heroes”. However, we never really wondered about what these heroes’ have gone
through before their heroism. What does it take to be a hero? Why should we hold up as heroic
the deeds of those who everyday continue to extend a helping hand? What lies behind the hero’s
cape?

As I write this, my siblings are talking to my mother on the phone saying how much they
miss her and how she can’t wait to go home. My mother works as a midwife at DonCaMar
Lying-in Clinic and Birthing Center situated in Barangay Calapagan. It was more than a week
ago when she was called to report on duty at the Temporary Treatment Monitoring Facility
(TTMF) for COVID-19 positive patients at Lupon, Davao Oriental. The fact that she will be
working in a facility full of patients positive for the virus is scary enough for one can only
imagine when we learned she caught the flu and had high fever the night before she left which
made her not just sleepless but tired and weaker than she already is.

I thought her being sick is enough for her to be dismissed and that we can finally be
relieved. Unfortunately, her request was not granted for the reason that the said COVID-19
Facility was short staffed as other frontliners who finished their 2-week duty is in quarantine for
another 14 days. After receiving the news, I asked her “Kailangan jud diay dayon mo duty
ugma?” (Do you really need to be on duty tomorrow?) and without hesitation she answered “Wa
koy mahimo kay trabaho mani nako, kinahanglan man naay magduty didto kay kinsa paman
diay mag-monitor unya motabang sa mga pasyente?” (I don’t have much of a choice as it is my
job. I need to be on duty because who else would go there to monitor and help those patients?).
Before I could answer that, my mother got up though obviously struggling, tried her best to eat
the leftover porridge she was too sick to even touch earlier just so she could take her meds and
prepare for her duty leaving us, her family to take on her responsibility as a frontliner.

My mother is a true frontline hero, and she is not alone. In these extraordinary times, and
despite the very real danger to themselves, Filipino frontline workers everyday put their own
safety and well-being aside to provide life-saving support and protection to people most in need.
In the Philippines, everyday since the beginning of the year, humanitarian workers have stood in
the frontlines dealing with the challenges arising from COVID-19.

It is not just my mother. Baranggay Calapagan is a community built with helping hands
strengthened by the loving hearts of its people. The nurses that travel an hour every day back and
forth to cater the needs of the clinic, the barangay Tanods who spends sleepless nights and
restless days to watch over our checkpoints, to the barangay officials who does everything in
their power to make sure every service whether related to COVID-19 or not, reaches our homes,
to the barangay health workers (BHW) who sifts through the community to disseminate
necessary information and assistance, our beloved teachers and academic stakeholders who
strives to continue to bridge education even under unfavorable circumstances, to our local
farmers, crop growers and food distributors who takes the lead in continuing to transform and
develop our food systems all the way to our children, the promising youths of Baranggay
Calapagan who works hand in hand to utilize every platform, use every influence and bridge
every gaps in order to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, each of them deserve every
honor.

These humanitarians are real life heroes that have risked some, sacrificed some and
endured many. That’s what it took them to become a hero but they are much more than that.
Behind every frontliner is a mother, a father, they are someone’s child, someone’s sister or
brother and most especially, they are someone’s loved one and that is the story behind the hero’s
cape.