"Are we missing anything here?"
Santa Banana, there is this disturbing report from the Department of Health that says that in many hospitals, health workers can no longer cope with the great number of people dying, so much so that there are now more dead bodies that their freezers can accommodate.
While the DOH did not say what caused the death of those patients, we can only surmise!
First, the hospitals themselves are not reporting the real casualty numbers. When patients go to the hospital and are admitted, sometimes they do not tell their doctors the true nature of their ailments and other information. This is dangerous!
I say it’s disturbing and worrisome, because the daily numbers reported by the DOH could be even higher. The country is far from flattening the curve.
This leads me to what I heard sometime last month. The caretakers of the burial plot of my parents, parents-in-law and brother-in-law told me that Loyola Memorial Park in Quezon City, bordering with Marikina, was closed because the workers could no longer cope with so many of the dead awaiting burial.
Why is this so, my gulay?
I have no means to go out and validate my information, but I can always ask: Why is this happening? Is there something we don’t know?
A United States intelligence report said some 2.1 million Chinese had actually died as a result of the coronavirus—the Chinese government was just not transparent about it.
The report was based on the number of people having cellphones used as a way to identify a person and his family, where he lives and works. A staggering number of cellphone numbers was reportedly canceled. Why? Where are those people now?
If the Duterte administration wants to find out what the true picture is with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, patients and hospitals have to be transparent. If the patient does not tell the truth, he or she must be penalized.
There should be transparency so that the government can adopt measures, no matter how draconian, to deal with this crisis.
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I wrote about discrimination and corruption in the distribution of relief goods and cash assistance by barangays in Metro Manila.
I have always said that so long as human discretion is involved, there will always be corruption. The government should find a way to distribute these in an equitable manner so that social disparity is avoided. If this is not done, there will be an erosion of trust in the system.
And now I hear about chauffeur-driven cars being seen in groceries, with entire families shopping to their heart’s content. Why is this being allowed?
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It looks like not even President Rodrigo Duterte can stop the surge of our nurses wanting to work in the United States. It the constitutional right of Filipinos to go and work anywhere they deem more beneficial for them.
The US Embassy in Manila has told nurses that they can have their visas immediately!
The problem is that even before the pandemic, we already had a shortage in nurses. Now, Filipinos are even risking their health and safety for higher pay. Will the Duterte administration not do anything?