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How Filipino People Respond to COVID-19

The corona virus, known as COVID-19, has disrupted economies, shattered social structures and units, and even annihilated many lives. Different reports from all over the world bring media attention that COVID-19 terrorizes every facet of life. Government leaders and the world public think of the gravity of the situation and work so hard to stop the spread of the virus. Because of this effort, government leaders of each country impose various ways to discontinue the spread of the virus whatever means necessary.

The spread of corona virus popularizes new vocabularies. For example, each region in a country understands the concepts, such as “no face-mask – no entry policy,” “social distancing,” “quarantine,” “lock-down,” “one meter apart,” “stay at home,” and the like. Government leaders and health care officials often use these vocabularies and even create policies to implement to the public. As COVID-19 strikes globally, world leaders must respond to the crisis logically and systematically to ensure the safety of people.

In the Philippines, government leaders take actions and measures to treat COVID-19 patients. They implement rules to enforce community lock-down where only a few people can go outside to buy groceries. Only one of the family members can go outside; however, he or she has to wear a face-mask as “no face-mask – no entry policy.” When this person is outside or in the store, he or she has to maintain a social distance due to the social distancing policy. Wherever he or she goes, he or she has to maintain one meter apart due to one-meter-apart policy so that the COVID-19 cannot transmit to others.

However, the social distancing policy receives negative remarks from some people. For some people, they consider the social distancing policy funny since two people cannot go together. Even if they are couples who just walk outside, the police officers will blow a whistle onto them. At some point, the social distancing policy gets people stranded. Local and foreign tourists, for example, cannot go home to their point of origin. A lot of foreigners have to stay for days, weeks, or months for a month or so. Local people from other places cannot even go home due to lock-down or quarantine. The worst thing is that they cannot get support from the government due to complex criteria and measures of who can receive the Social Amelioration Program (SAP). Even if all people receive the kilos of rice and canned goods, those relief food packages are inadequate. Due to hunger and depression for one month and a half, some people kill themselves. Truly, some people respond to COVID-19 differently to their madness or their death.

Finally, some people try to contradict the government’s edicts. Somehow, they try to infringe on the government’s ordinances to stay at home. They go to the beaches and streets; however, they get imprisoned for doing so. Certainly, many people go to prison due to COVID-19. One day, news reports aired. Some people commit suicide. Out of frustration of the crisis, as well as the government’s lack of action to support the public, these people push the limit of their depression, frustration, and hunger. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that distributes the financial and material support lacks logistics and consideration. The department selects those individuals who can receive financial aid – the SAP aid. The delivery of support services is too slow where the budget has been available. Because of this, people choose to end their lives due to the extreme frustration of the government’s actions. For these people, committing suicide is the only option to make to end their agony. Since they cannot find jobs because all systems, such as business, employment, and social interaction, stop, they cannot survive. They are hopeless. If the Philippine government leaders and the local government units and agencies want to attain the perfection of their functions and roles, they can still save lives apart from the COVID-19 patients.

In the Philippines, government officials work so hard to support others without thieving the money from the people’s taxes, and they save lives. They even beat the corona virus. However, some individuals in government do not think that way. They fail to facilitate support for the poorest of the poor. These government officials, perhaps, will just wake one day that they no longer have people to rescue. Those people that they want to help and rescue are no longer alive. They die from depression and hunger.

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Why I Write

When children begin to stand to balance their feet, they set themselves free from a desperate cradle. When they start to talk or even utter a single word, they now learn to express their feelings. Yet, when children initiate realization and can understand things around them, they conquer ignorance. They can, in fact, criticize and visualize things around them. They can comprehend the series of pains, wonder the unexplained occurrences, and solve the puzzle and mysteries of life. Despite all mental activities, children remain oblivion for those scenarios that can be forgotten.

This idea, however, brings me into a solemn recognition that the things around those children may not be remembered. They, perhaps, are somebody else. The experiences of children were just a matter of their adventure, a series of wonders about whats, hows, and whys. From the able to unable things, those children learn to establish their character to know the world. Hence, they choose to stand and balance their own feet, try to utter even a single word, and initiates understanding of the how, the what, and the why about the world moves and spins on its axis as their lives start to rotate.

However, whatever they do, after they fulfill their dreams, walk their chosen road, and experience the trenchant life, their adventures to the story of life vanish the same way as they exist in the world of dramas, fiction, and poetry. When they grow, they know that paradise, as dreamt by some, does not exist in the real world. They discern what is right and wrong and choose one out of it. As well, they decide on their fate by choice. Now, it is a matter of living in the world and when the time comes, they will be blown by the wind. And yet, they disappear. Sounds pathetic, right?

This is why I say something about children. From the childhood period, they can figure out the importance of how they grow, how they manage their own, and how they fulfill the adventures of their lives. I want to record those thoughts, those lives, and those significant others in them. Because of that, I can also start recording my own life, and this is why I write. Moreover, I write because I need to share my story about the scenes of my dreams, the brilliance of my hopes, and the shadows of my suffering and pain. I write because I want to paint the words of my thought, to give a life of what is in my head, and to share my experience from the world of my own. In other words, I want other people to know about my life and my history. This is why I write.

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HOW MY NEIGHBORHOOD SHAPED MY BEING

Should I consider my neighborhood as an influential factor that shaped my being? At first, I answered such a question without realizing what it meant in its very deepest sense. I never had any idea what to assert based on my experiences or my judgment. I just grew up in a community where I crept on the ground several early mornings because the rebels and the soldiers fired and exchanged bullets and rocketed missiles into the sky. Honestly, I feared; I trembled. It was because I had to fight those fears of dying from the pouring bullets and bomb explosions that smoked into the air and from the booming sounds that deafened within the coil of my eardrums. Though I was unsure about my community if it molded and changed me, I have been fully convinced that my neighborhood has shaped the kind of person I am today.

The year was 1990 if I could still remember. My family and I planned to move places due to frequent chaos in our town. On early mornings, gun fires and shots banged. The sounds just roared and thundered in a distance while fighting planes in the sky plunged and rained explosives on the ground. For years when wars were on, my family and I struggled enough to find ways to escape from the terror. When I witnessed explosions nearby, for instance, I could not pretend as if nothing happened. I felt shocked and terrified. In effect, I became careful and patient. I learned to live quietly and know my grounds. I uncomplainingly waited for silence. However, I grew cautious about the people around me. As I watched my every move and worked amidst the danger in my community, I grew careful, patient, and hardworking.

Summing up, my neighborhood helped shape the kind of person I am today. The peril in my town kept me guarded. I had to be careful and safe. Indeed, I have been keen to endure pain to survive. The danger that I experienced served me as a reminder that I had to be strong to accept varied realities in life. Though I was uncertain about my community if it formed and shaped my belief, I have been entirely persuaded that my vicinity has fashioned my whole existence.

Photo source: https://www.centives.net/S/2012/why-dont-american-cities-burn/