ALL THE while we thought we had a vaccination task force created by the City Mayor of Davao to coordinate and harmonize all inoculation activities in order to hasten and make each roll-out properly in place.
Why then are we reading and seeing and hearing as well of vaccinations activities claimed to be initiated by the Sangguniang Panlungsod, by the League of Barangay Councilors, etc., etc.? Who is really on top of all these? We suspect that some of those facilitated by the some councilors, no matter how they will deny it, are subtle ways “in aid of re election or election” of endorsees of last termers.
Yes, organizing vaccination activities in the district the councilors represent is one sure way of either making the people be reminded that they are still around, or tagging along their “heirs apparent” to the local legislative body, mostly their sons or daughters, or nephews and nieces for “visibility.”.
Well, that is one way of finding opportunity in the midst of a serious disaster – the CoVid 19 pandemic. That is what most of us Filipinos are. Sad.
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Starting yesterday many parts of the country, especially the Metro Manila area, had been placed under the lowest level of quarantine category – the General Community Quarantine or GCQ. This was upon recommendation to the President by the Inter-agency Task Force on New and Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF). The lowering of the quarantine level in most parts of the country came at a time when the number of new CoViD-positive cases monitored in the entire country remained at over 20 thousand average per day over the week-end.
Probably, the decision to adopt the GCQ is further encouraged by the growing number of people getting vaccinated everyday, making the desired herd immunity already within reach by the government.
For the past several weeks though, Davao City has been under the GCQ even as its cases are reported to be still rising at a manageable rate. What is an area of concern, however, was the declaration made the other day by Dr. Edward Benedict Valdez, the head of Region XI’s Hospital Resources Utilization Unit for Southern Philippines. He said in a television interview that facilities and other resources including equipment intended for CoViD patients are already fully utilized. Even the ones over at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), the modular wards, are now occupied by patients and the hospital authorities are not expecting a lull in the arrival of new CoViD victims.
On the other hand, Dr. Ricardo Audan, SPMC Medical Director, also made an encouraging pronouncement. That is, that the modular hospital rooms for CoViD patients are already open to serve its intended patients.
Nonetheless, it was with a sad note that Audan had added. The modular hospital facility is still wanting in human resources to deliver the various services expected by CoViD patients wanting admission.
According to Dr. Audan, despite their efforts to entice applicant health professionals to augment the current SPMC workforce, apparently only a handful responded to their calls for applications. And worst, according to Dr. Audan, very few decided to accept the jobs offered. Where else could this hesitation be attributed to but to the fear of the applicants of the possibility of getting infected by the virus. Add to this of course is the not so inviting compensation package and the fact that whoever accepts the job will be there for only a specific time frame – the duration of the pandemic.
It is our take therefore, that the government must have to consider granting a special package in the compensation of new hires. They should be given palatable pay including allowances. And if the national government cannot provide because of certain legal limitations, the local government must now come into the picture and must shoulder the difference. Or both the local and national administration must be ready to invoke the emergency situation for them to have flexibility in fund utilization and even in certain processes.
Does not leadership call for extreme sacrifice and taking of risk if it is the interest of the constituents that is involved?
So be it. Good deeds always end up rewarded no matter how many attempts are there to use it as an instrument of destruction.
