Bacolod is No. 1. Ugh!

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

This is one time that Bacolod being No. 1 is nothing to be happy or proud about. This is also a time when being “negative” is a relief.

Bacolod woke up Tuesday morning to learn that during the “Timeout Weekend” on Saturday and Sunday declared by the city for more restrictions of movement, the infections of the virus increased more than at any other time. People had time out from work indeed and the virus went on a rampage. Why?

According to the Department of Health, the number of cases in Bacolod went beyond the 1,000-mark with 1,216 COVID-19 positive cases as of August 31, surpassing the combined number of cases in the 31 towns and cities of Occidental Negros that registered 1,152 cases. Bacolod City recorded 241 new cases on Saturday and Sunday, the highest for two days while Negros Occidental had 81 new cases, also a record high.

With these cases, Bacolod now ranks No. 1 in Western Visayas, followed by Negros Occidental, Iloilo City with 984; Iloilo province, 790; Capiz, 148; Guimaras, 90; Antique, 45 and Aklan, 29. If one compares by percentage of population, Bacolod is way on top.

The DOH said the weekend figures did not include results from the COVID-19 mass testing in Bacolod and Negros Occidental yet. We may have the results of the testing by the weekend, but if the trend continued with Bacolod leading or even down to number two incidence of infections, this city is in big, big trouble.

A small consolation is that while the infections are high there are only 22 deaths from the virus with the province registering eight, according to the DOH. The ratio between infection and death indicate that there are many who have recovered, but the authorities are not telling us the number of those who recovered, only the rising infections and deaths and thus fanning panic.

More people die of other diseases every day but there is no hype or hysterics that the authorities exhibit like with the COVID-19 pandemic. One wonders why, but soon we might see the ugly reasons.

The number of people questioning the response of Bacolod to the pandemic is rising. There is a sense, firstly of knee-jerk reactions, and now emerging is the corruption in the purchases of what are paraded as necessary for the fight against the virus.

A crisis is always an opportunity for good or evil. We see people in the field of medicine and health care, the so-called frontliners in this fight against the virus risking their lives but we also see businessmen selling their products needed in this crisis, like masks and ordinary medicine, at scandalous prices.

The corrupt in government are also taking the chance to skim more money from the public treasury like PhilHealth and now officials in Bacolod City that are purchasing vitamins at ridiculous prices believing people are focused on staying health and are not looking at their theft of public funds.

Information of this thievery is flying in cyberspace. I shall deal with this later.

One reason for the rapid spread of the virus in the city is demonstrated in a photo sent out on Facebook. Locally stranded individuals as well as overseas workers are supposed to be in isolation, quarantine, if we just listen to the Bacolod official statements. But the fact is that they are neither isolated nor separated. Strangers are lodged together in a room or several sheltered in one room, like classrooms in school buildings in the city. Chances of the uninfected staying with the virus carrier are high.

If they were isolated they would have been segregated individually unless they belong to the same family. No wonder since the LSI arrived, the number of infected individuals had increased – they were not actually isolated. Unless the pictures going around are fakes and the first-person accounts and lamentations of the quarantined about their situation are false.

The city just approved P113 million for the measures against the pandemic. This is a lump sum funding for four departments but as with budgets of this nature corruption breeds.

It is time to take a closer look at the way public funds are disbursed. Initial reports say they are ugly though not another first for Bacolod.