Inexcusable negligence

By Artchil B. Fernandez

 

The Philippines ranked 79^th out of 98 countries evaluated for its handling of Covid-19 pandemic.  The evaluation was done by Australian think tank Lowy Institute which measured the Covid-19 response of the countries based on their Covid Performance Index.

Among the indicators considered by the study were the number of confirmed cases, confirmed deaths, confirmed cases per million people, confirmed deaths per million people, confirmed cases in proportion to tests, and tests per thousand people.

Among its neighbors, only Indonesia ranked lower than the Philippines which was on the 85^th place. The rest of the Asean countries ranked higher than the Philippines. Vietnam was second (next only to New Zealand which topped the list) while Thailand was fourth.  Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar placed 13th, 16th and 24^th respectively.

In times of crisis like a pandemic, leadership matters. The rank of the Philippines in Covid-19 pandemic handling reflects the awful leadership of Du30 and his administration. Aside from placing the country under the world’s longest and strictest lockdown, Du30 has not offered any tangible or outstanding approach on how to manage the pandemic. So far, Du30’s only response to the pandemic is militarist – harsh lockdown coupled with threats and putting the military in-charge of the most serious health crisis faced by the country in a century.

Deep into the pandemic, the colossal failure of Du30 to manage the health crisis continues. This is once more apparent with the coming of Covid-19 vaccines. While vaccination has started in many parts of the world even in some least-developed countries, vaccination in the Philippines is still up in the air. Nepal and Myanmar began their roll out of the vaccines. Even Indonesia which ranked lower than the Philippines in Covid-19 management started its vaccination three weeks ago.

Du30 as usual is mimicking Pontius Pilate.  In his weekly night show this week he solely placed the blame on the inability of his administration to roll-out the vaccines on external factors. He accused the European Union (EU) of hoarding the vaccines. Du30 also attributed the failure of his administration to secure the vaccines to the status of the country of being poor. “This is a fight among the highest bidders, who can pay first,” he cried. “We are not rich,” he lamely justified his failure.

In this time of grave global health crisis, hoarding of vaccines especially by rich nations is expected. The Philippines being poor is also given. These realities are plainly clear at the outset of the pandemic. The question to Du30 and his administration is this: What have they done to mitigate or manage the given realities? Did they make plans or crafted course of action to deal with these anticipated problems? This is what leadership is all about. Good leadership foresees the problems and prepares for them. Lazy and incompetent leadership simply sleep on the job, naively wishing things will be alright.

The most glaring mistake of the Du30 administration is the dropping of the ball on the Pfizer deal in June 2020. At that time, the Philippines was assured of 10 million doses of vaccines being developed by Pfizer. The failure of Du30’s favorite cabinet member, Health Secretary Duque to submit a confidentiality agreement scuttled the transaction and Philippine allocation was given China and Singapore among others.

Had the Pfizer deal pushed through, the vaccines would have arrived in January 2021 and the country would have started vaccination last month. It turned out, the China-made vaccines are the chosen ones and Du30 does not care if the roll-out of the vaccines in the country is delayed by months as long as his masters in Beijing are happy. China-made vaccines are said to be coming in the late part of February. But the application of China- made vaccines for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) with Philippine FDA remain pending due to the failure of the makers to submit data on their phase-3 clinical trial. How can these China vaccines be rolled out if there is no EUA?  So far local FDA had given EUA to Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.

Failure of Du30 and his administration to start vaccinating Filipinos even health workers at the very least in an inexcusable negligence. It had opportunity and chances to roll-out the vaccines in the beginning of 2021 but breakdown of leadership due to incompetence had the Philippines left behind by even poorer countries.

Du30 cannot hide behind the economic status of the country for his inexcusable failure to manage the Covid-19 pandemic. If he had some good standing with the international community, even a slight respect or a modicum of prestige, it would have been easy for him to secure initial vaccines from Europe. But Du30 long ago burned his bridges with the EU. He attacked EU with vulgar language and was dismissive of it. He forgot that these advanced nations are technologically superior even than his master China.

The technological superiority of the West is once again demonstrated in the development of vaccines against Covid-19. Had Du30 had a little diplomatic acumen, he would have maintained good or civil relations with the EU instead of putting all his eggs in the China-Russia basket. Putin and Xi Jinping had not delivered to Du30. India is much better for it has given vaccines to Nepal and Sri Lanka and these countries have started vaccinating their health workers ahead of the Philippines.

Being poor is no excuse for failure. The US, a rich country is ranked 94^th in Covid-19 handling under Trump’s bad leadership.  Du30’s alibi is unacceptable. Economically, Nepal and Burma (Myanmar) had lower status than the Philippines, yet these countries have managed the Covid-19 pandemic in ways better than the Philippines. Du30’s gross negligence of his duty and his ineptness is inexcusable.

A creative and competent leader will find a way despite the limitations while and an incompetent leader only whines and complains, blaming others for his failure.