Decisive leadership

By Manuel P. Mejorada

When this crisis is all over, the Filipino nation will be grateful that we have President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the helm when the deadly corona virus (Covid 19) swept all across the globe.

As I write this, the total number of infections has exceeded 2 million worldwide, and the death toll stood at 134,354 people. The hardest hit is the United States, followed by Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. China, where the virus had originated, has gone down to number seven in the list.

It is our good fortune that the Philippines is just number 35 in the list, notwithstanding the fact that international air travel to and from China wasn’t suspended until late January this year. And after a month of community lockdowns in the entire archipelago, the incidence of infections seems to have slowed down. The latest figures from WHO placed the number of Covid 19 cases at 5,453, and 349 dead. Sadly, two of the fatalities are people I know well.

I have been studying the movement of the corona virus closely even before the WHO raised its spread to pandemic level. And it is clear to me that the decision of President Duterte to impose a lockdown effective March 15 was an effective brake to slow down the pandemic in the Philippines.

Right from the start, the idea was met with criticism and opposition. Senate President Tito Sotto described it as “over-reaction”. It was ridiculed by media critics Karen Davila and Richard Heydarian. The members of the opposition and the left joined the chorus.

Vice President Leni Robredo also questioned why policemen and soldiers were deployed on the streets to enforce the quarantine. The pandemic called for a medical response, and not a military show of force, Robredo said. Well, it was a ridiculous statement. Did Robredo expect doctors and nurses to man checkpoints?

Anyway, countries that closed its borders and imposed strict stay-at-home quarantine measures have turned out to have lower Covid 19 infections compared to the others that lingered too long on the decision. New Zealand and Denmark stand out to prove the point that a lockdown is the most effective way to contain the disease. On the other hand, the United States is the best illustration of how deadly the delay in the lockdown turned out to be.

President Duterte has had to manage this crisis with plenty of distractions from the yellow opposition and the left. As I have been saying in my YouTube videos, there is a destabilization plot right in the middle of this crisis, obviously funded by the oligarchs and led by media giant ABS-CBN. President Duterte had his hands full every minute during this period.

But things are improving. We have deflected the usual trajectory of the corona virus infections. Instead of a spike as we have witnessed in other countries, the infection curve in the country is more like a road hump that gradually rose before levelling off. It is a positive indication that the lockdown in working.

Had the President hesitated, nightmare scenes that we have seen in the U.S. and Europe and Latin America would have sprouted all over the country, with Metro Manila as the epicenter. It was a tough decision to make. Just thinking how things would have turned out if a Mar Roxas was our president is enough to give me the chills.

Yes, the President’s decisiveness at a most crucial moment was a life-saver for the country.

At the local level, I must also commend the decisiveness, and firmness, of City Mayor Jerry P. Trenas. JPT has taken Iloilo City to a new level in the fight against Covid 19. He has imposed stricter restrictions than the national standard, with the “block-off” during weekends. Indeed, great leadership emerges in a crisis. Trenas has demonstrated he is the right man at the right time.

Of course, the entire community, including the provincial leadership, deserve equal applause for the tight coordination and cooperation shown throughout the crisis. You have all contributed to sparing Iloilo the widespread infections, and deaths, that we have seen in other countries.