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public health

public health

“These are signs of government’s pandemic machinery in trouble and a nation in danger.”

March 23, 2021 by
&

by Senator Ralph Recto

(Public Statement)

Hindi lang change oil, change engine and driver na rin

COVID is fast and furious while the vaccine rollout is slow and sputtering. These are signs of a government’s pandemic machinery in trouble and a nation in danger.

Hindi lang change oil ang kailangan, mukhang change engine na rin.

If after a year, the current one is not bringing us to where we want to be, then it is time to build a better one.

It is time to expand the membership of IATF, to include those in private business with superb managerial skills, such as those who have been running companies with a million moving parts with efficiency and precision.

Under EO 168 that created it, leadership of the IATF remains an all-government affair, chaired by the Secretary of Health with the Secretaries of the DFA, DILG, DOJ, DOLE, DOT and DOTC (now DOTR) as members.

The private sector also has no permanent seat on the table in the National Task Force for COVID-19, the command center that is headed by the Secretary of National Defense.

To cite one skill set, the war against COVID requires logistics experts who supply a customer base numbering in the tens of millions, like that bakery in Laguna that every day brings millions of pieces of perishable bread to store shelves from Aparri to Zamboanga in a matter of hours.

Kung may reinforcement man sa IATF, huwag lang po sana MDs—mga Military Dati—kasi quota na po ang sector na ito.

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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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public health

The last line of defense is crumbling: A desperate plea from your Filipino Medical Frontliners

August 7, 2020 by
T

by Dr. Edmund Villaroman

Our passion to help is the only thing that gets us to wake up early each and every day and leave behind our families. Some struggle to get to work with the limited transportation, or others even pedal their bicycles for miles just to get to the hospital. We don our PPEs, endure the discomfort for hours, oftentimes missing meals, and with limited restroom breaks, just to give the best care to our COVID-19 patients. This same passion drives us to continue serving despite being overwhelmed by the sheer number of COVID-19 cases.

A lot of us have been infected in the line of duty and some have fallen severely ill and sacrificed their lives in the name of professional service and dedication to our patients. We comfort our patients because their families are not allowed inside the COVID-19 wards. We are the closest to being family at their bedside. Patients die in front of us everyday and we shed tears for each one of them.

Most of us go home fearing we are infected ourselves, and worse that our own family might contract the virus from us. Many sacrifice not seeing their families for a long time and opt to stay in the discomfort of temporary shelters to prevent community transmission.

We lack the proper PPEs to protect ourselves. We lack the proper medicines to treat our patients. We lack proper testing and tracing of our COVID-19 patients and their relatives. We lack the proper critical care beds to admit our distressed patients. We lack the mechanical ventilators for our patients who can barely breathe.

What we lack most is a leader who knows how to navigate nation in these desperate times. We need someone who understands and accepts the gravity of the pandemic and lays down a road map from a healthcare and economic perspective. People are suffering and dying everyday. Waiting for a vaccine isn’t a plan but a hope and a prayer. We need a concrete, comprehensive and compassionate plan to include the different stakeholders of our society.

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governance, public health

Notes on: What next? #Covid19 #TerrorLaw #Protest

July 19, 2020 by
N

We all already agree that the Duterte government’s handling of this public health crisis is probably one of the worst in the world—and certainly the worst in Southeast Asia—as both the facts and numbers reveal.

But this government is much much worse. It has used this pandemic and to declare de facto martial law. The policies on the Bayanihan We Heal As One Act are the tip of the iceberg; what is worse than the words that are there is how it is implemented on the ground, where military might and police power are king. We of course had this coming: we watched the past four years as Duterte appointed military men into the Cabinet, one after the other; we watched as he emboldened the police by telling them to kill, and condoning their abuses; we watched as he jailed Leila de Lima, unseated CJ Sereno, jailed activists on trumped-up charges; we watched as the body count grew.

This pandemic was all Duterte’s government needed to get all its other unjust, extrajudicial policies to happen. Cancel the ABS-CBN franchise based on the President’s personal gripe? Check. Pass the anti-terror law that will legalize the tagging of activism as terrorism among the violation of our rights? Check. Put Charter Change back on the table? Check. Allow the Aerotropolis airport in Bulacan to push through despite displacing fisherfolk and it environmental repercussions? Implement the jeepney phaseout that will disenfranchise thousands of jeepney drivers who are being made to go into debt for a modern vehicle in this time of crisis? Check. Disallow protests, and arrest without warrants any group, no matter how small, that dares do a protest? Check.

The latter is of course key: the past five months, we have seen how incompetent and violent, how shameless and thoughtless this government is. At any other time we would be out on the streets, raising a fist. In the time of pandemic, we are disallowed from doing so, and with a Terror Law now in place, acts of resistance like that can easily be construed as acts of terrorism. The fear is valid, but so is the anger.

Especially since it get worse. Duterte’s propaganda machinery is so head of us, with it’s game so strong, that it has been able to control the narrative of this pandemic and the government’s contingent abuses.

Click here for the rest of it.

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.

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