Something good in the worst situation

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

With the many voices from so-called experts and politicians of varied colors concurring with the idea of an extension of the Enhanced Community Quarantine in Luzon, the possibilities are high that the present restraints in Luzon will be extended for another 15 to 30 days. So far, nobody in the top echelon of the government is talking about the situation in the Visayas and Mindanao as if these islands do not belong to the Republic of the Philippines.

Or perhaps in their eagerness to save Luzon they forgot that the ECQ is also hurting, and hurting bad, in the rest of the country where the containment was imposed. Even the news casts hardly mention that things are normal in many parts of the archipelago but extremely abnormal for people to live day by day. More people die in the provinces from other causes than this virus.

There is really some truth to the saying that when Manila coughs the rest of the country gets pneumonia. Naturally the medicine is limited to Manila.

Anyway, we assume that the decision-makers know more and better than we do, like equating the entire country to what is happening in Manila and in Luzon.

And so we must submit to whatever the Manila people decide and try to make the best of the worst situation we find ourselves – if the ECQ is extended nation-wide and no calibrated or graduated easing of the quarantine is made for the towns and cities without or very few cases that are already contained or isolated in the hospital.

The confined have more time than they ever had and so they can do those things they had planned to do and had “no time” to spend. There are no more appointments, no time to go to the mall and sit for hours in a coffee shop with like-minded people. Offices are closed (and incomes lost in the process) but there are also little expenses. Gas prices are down to the level when young adults today were toddlers and there are nowhere to go. So, a lot of gas expenses are gone. Kids are out of school so there are no more expenses for fares and baon and even nonsensical school projects that cost a lot.

Friends and relative just call but don’t drop by the house that adds to meal expenses and rush preparations. No more “borrowers” and there is one solid reason that one cannot pay even the water and electric bills – he would be arrested unless he has the permit from a barangay chief that suddenly has become or think he is more powerful than the President.

Churches are closed and the Lenten duties are waived. One can hear Mass and join the religious rites in the comfort of one’s home. A Catholic is even granted a dispensation from the Church law that requires him or her to go to confession and communion at least once during the Easter season. No expenses involved here, including putting something in the collection plate or bag.

The family can hear Mass or follow the liturgy at home, sitting on a sofa rather than the hardwood benches and kneeling on a soft pillow than the bare pew. Moreover, the faithful can hear better than the bouncing sound waves inside the church. The homilists have always something good to say but the sound system in many churches simply are poor that the homilist makes no more sense.

Perhaps with the church close, the parish priests can check their sound systems, that is, if they can get a technician who cannot also get out of his house without the pass from the barangay chieftain. That sounds like the Japanese occupation period when every citizen except kids who had to have an identification card and pass from the local garrison commander. The wise guerrilla commanders thus used kids and travelling salesmen as couriers.

Even marriages are postponed, but surely not romance. The delay gives the groom time to save, if he had not been laid off in the meantime. The confined young married couples can also prepare the money needed for baptism in January of the girl Corona or the boy Virus.

Even one’s laundry had been reduced to the bare minimum. So, in the worst of times there can be something good. Let us pray.