fools
Manila, 28 March—Remember what insanity means? It’s doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results. So yeah, last week I noted ‘record-high’ 7,999 cases, and joked that it looked like the price of a Lazada item on sale.
Well, this week, we’re actually doing some +23% higher, peaking so close to 10,000 cases last Friday, March 26th, and we’re also actually in the middle of a rather huge Lazada sale.
BREAKING: The country logs another all-time high COVID-19 record with 9,838 new cases
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) March 26, 2021
The total is now at 702,856 with 109,018 active cases, which is also the highest record of currently sick patients https://t.co/sDo55hwVGt pic.twitter.com/ts5l6gg1tT
Rumors of another enhanced community quarantine being imposed in the Greater Manila bubble loomed persistently this week, and—well, here we are, in another ECQ, one year later.
The Presidential Spokesman had to hold an emergency presser to announce the week-long lockdown, the length of which was of course curious, because we all know that the quarantine period is about 2 weeks. Where did the 1 week length come from? Is it just to deter people from going to churches this Holy Week? A year later, and it’s still too much to expect scientific basis for any of these proclamations.
Anyway, I tried to check the actual resolution thinking it would have some salient points that bear mentioning, but aside from the facts we already know: That it’s being imposed in the midst of over 100,000 active COVID cases as of March 26; that it covers Metro Manila and nearby provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal; and that it will last until April 4, Easter Sunday—there’s not much else. I was expecting the announced curfew of 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. to be written on here somewhere, but I guess that’s something the Spox gets to decide on the fly? I don’t even know, but if you wanna read it, it’s here: IATF Resolution No. 106-A.
Personally, it’s useless trying to clarify any of these things with the Presidential Spokesperson, because it ultimately is up to whoever will be at your street implementing it. Asked whether we’d need our quarantine passes from last year, the Spox just said, “Well, if you still have it. If you don’t, then explain.”
People will likely be put in cages while explaining why they lost their barangay-issued quarantine passes from LAST YEAR, for fuck’s sake.
There is nothing left to say. We said it all a year ago.
— Phil Dy (@philbertdy) March 27, 2021
Anyway. The President is celebrating his birthday tomorrow—in Davao, of course, because clearly Malacañang which is right smack in the middle of Metro Manila, and whatever airport he’s using that is ALSO right in the middle of Metro Manila, are extremely extraordinary places that are exempted from whatever CQ rules everybody else is subject to.
Roque says Duterte will celebrate his birthday in Davao on Sunday and immediately return to Manila on Monday for the arrival of the Sinovac vaccines
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) March 27, 2021
At this point, I have only one wish for the man celebrating his birthday on Palm Sunday 2021, pero sa amin na lang yun ni Lord.
Sigh. I can’t believe one year later we’d still be writing livid letters, still frustrated at how the government is purposefully bungling this COVID response and perhaps trying to wait until the very last moment to associate COVID relief distribution with the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, we’re still passing the buck onto individual actors, as if that will solve this gross failure of systems that brought us here anyway. I’ve said it before, I’d say it again, like Dalgona making a comeback: To change the trajectory of this COVID response, we must change our leaders.
Here, have some Jean Garcia trying to (tearily) dance her way out of a hostage situation, which is basically all of us throughout this pandemic:
huh? anong sasayaw? ba’t kami sasayaw? pic.twitter.com/IUdux6ErSD
— Jiro Jacinto (@jirojacinto) March 20, 2021
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