all-time high
Manila, 21 March—7,999 [1]. Not a Lazada item on sale, but the number of new COVID cases registered yesterday, March 20. How we are posting new record-highs a full year into this pandemic really boggles my mind. It’s ridiculous and frustrating and honestly, already pretty exhausting to complain about.
The fact is, it is easy to point fingers at people who have been lax about pandemic safety lately—the amount of gatherings and out-of-town photo ops on my Facebook feed makes me uncomfortable. But I think these are merely reflections of national pronouncements to ease local travel guidelines to restart and boost domestic tourism [2] and the government’s inability to properly assess their own pandemic response [3].
I mean, government offices have been at the forefront of these violations, as this Rappler special report illustrates [4]: Several employees of the National Tobacco Administration tested positive after attending an in-office birthday party celebration hosted by their Administrator in their head office in Quezon City. If there’s something I wished they use our taxes on (instead of lining their pockets and warchests for 2022), is to pay government workers to work from home. For crying out loud. Buy One Give One na nga ang vaccines. Recently, the presidential spokesperson and the chief of the Philippine National Police also announced that they tested positive[5]—well, since the spox has been some kind of unofficial domestic tourism reopening ambassador or something, no one is really surprised. No one is sympathetic, either.
There’s no other way to go about it; to turn this country’s pandemic response around requires a change in leadership. It requires a different president.
That’s a bit of a bright spot: A coalition called 1Sambayan[6], led by retired Justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio-Morales, was launched earlier this week, and it is our hope that this is the opposition that we are hoping for come the 2022 elections. I’ve been worried about how admin forces have been trying to launch their campaign on the back of the vaccine rollout, and have been generally appalled at the efforts of the President’s allies to exploit the current situation and lie through their teeth to advance their respective agendas.
In any case, an interesting conversation around that is: How could we help 1Sambayan succeed?
My suggestions include:
Younger people, grassroots movement
Less reliance on electoral surveys as part of the comm plan, more concrete stories of community building
Huwag masyadong nakakabit sa iisang simbahan (sorry), para malawakan ang sakop na komunidad (LGBTQ+)
Less Facebook, more video. More common tao, less influencers. Real stories, not paid testis.
Corollary: Ahensya as committed members of coalition--not as vendors.
Corollary: Tarp printing is a business, so if possible engage local tarp printers.
As a friend suggested: Radio.
As someone suggested, simple, relatable language, but not to the point of looking down upon the intended audience.
From around the Internet
Anyway, this week has been insane, so we probably deserve this reimagined scene from Tangled—but they’re all ducks. What a riot.
Helena Fitzgerald writes about love, Before Midnight and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (sort of)
Have you watched Big Hit’s rebranding presentation? You should. It’s a masterclass.
My new favorite things: K-pop mash-ups.
Thanks for making it this far. Have a great week ahead!
XO,
K