Henaral Lunacy on disquiet

governance, public health

The perfect heist #stenchofcorruption

August 12, 2020 by
T

The grandest heist in our history is happening under our very eyes.

It is the perfect con: It is big, it is simple, it is scaleable, it is recurring, it is unaccountable, it can go unnoticed for years. It is taking candy from a baby.

Every Government has a milking cow. In the Marcos era it was the coconut levy and sugar industry funds, in others it was the privatization of Government controlled corporations, the NFA rice cartel. But all these pale by comparison with the latest scam in terms of size, audacity and disgrace. The new idea is to take food directly from the mouths of the poor.

I am referring to the raid on our health and social institutions. 

The 2020 budget for health and social services is P800 billion. This includes P173 billion for Universal Health Care, P109 billion for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and P37  billion for unconditional cash transfers. It totals some P5 trillion over 6 years of an Administration. It is a milking cow on steroids.

And the cow is getting fatter.

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governance, public health

Ask FASSSTER

May 2, 2020 by
A

There are truths, there are lies, and there are statistics.”

The fate of 109 million Filipinos hangs, apparently, on nothing more than an econometric Lego set.

There is a model developed by the DOH, the Dept. of Science and Technology, Ateneo de Manila and UP called Feasibility Analysis of Syndrome Surveillance using Temporal  Epidemiological Modeler for Early Detection of Disease or  FASSSTER. The model is an “evidence based” predictor of COVID under varying assumptions. I understand it is the basis by which the Government decides whether to impose a quarantine, enhance it or modify it. Below is the April 20 iteration of FASSSTER. I am told it was part of an IATF presentation.

IMG_5773
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public health

The body count #Covid19

April 6, 2020 by
T

“There are truths, there are lies, and there are statistics”

My driver, JanJan, is desperate.

JanJan is married with a 9 month old child. He supports his wife and his recently widowed mother. They live in Laguna. He works in Makati and commutes every weekend to his home.

When the ECQ was imposed in mid-March I asked JanJan to return to Laguna until the end of the lockdown. I called him yesterday to find out how he was and how I can send him money. JanJan told me he is unable to leave his small Barangay to go to Sta. Cruz, the nearest community with a remittance center. He cannot buy food because all sari-saris, groceries and market have closed. He goes direct to farmers for whatever food they have to sell. There is nothing for his child.

JanJan’s plight is replicated by millions all over this country. Yet even as Government officials talk of the billions now available for the poor there is no mechanism to recognize and identify the so called “poor”. They are the faceless victims of a crisis that our decision makers and armchair pundits like myself pay token attention to; buried in the statistics, the political rhetoric and empty expressions of concern.

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