Opinion

Pangan: Enough already

Benjie Pangan

ENOUGH already of talks about Covid-19. Let us forget about its existence although figures appear daily as increasing!

We've become very accustomed to Covid-19, which is why we have cultivated a culture of fear and anxiety.

Now, let us try forgetting all about it and let it pass into oblivion. This way, I suppose, we will all learn to forget about it. Past events come this way and for a time, they soon become just bitter moments of the past.

Covid-19 surely is a game-changer: it drastically changed our lifestyle and made us bold and aggressive. It meant certain death once acquired. There is no escaping its serious threat. It is deadly but there were recoveries.

Every one of us cowered in fear at its infections as we're always wary of its conclusion and we did not spare any effort to combat it.

Even our economy suffered tremendously because of Covid-19. We've employed and observed several tiers of quarantine and all the while we could do nothing but to observe and follow each one of them.

But what is this statement from the Department of Finance that prolonged general community quarantine over Metro Manila and key areas of Southern Luzon will not ease the country's economic pain?

It should know as it handles the country's financial condition. Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez says the continued keeping of Metro Manila along with Cavite, Rizal and Laguna under general community quarantine will only limit the economic recovery from a recession.

True, because the national authorities are so focused, to the point of exaggerating, on implementing every measure that the Inter-Agency Task Force recommends and not a bit about the economy and its gradual recovery.

Note that our passions have been muted and our earthly leisures (and pleasures) silenced for over four months now.

Secretary Dominguez seconds my suppositions: We have to face a new reality. The reality today is that the virus is not going to go away and we will have to live with it for a long time. See?

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When malls were first allowed to open during the pandemic, SM's Senior AVP JUNIAS EUSEBIO told me he and his staff had to work hard to help their tenants recover on their businesses. Usually working from home during the quarantine situations, Engr. Junias guardedly monitored his firm's tenants and their operations. He is that hardworking, this guy.

Tinago Barangay Hall, shown here on May 2, 2024, received a “Notice of Violation” from Cebu City’s Task Force Gubat sa Baha for the concrete wall behind it that lies within the three-meter easement zone of the Estero de Parian. /

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