Malilong: What’s taking you so long, Mr. President?

LAW enforcement is essentially a function of the police. But the military can be called upon for assistance because they are the protectors of the people. The Constitution says so.

President Rodrigo Duterte said he will do just that in order to impose a martial law type of discipline among our people. In the past, any mention of martial law was enough to draw loud protests from various sectors and send shivers to those who are old enough to have experienced the horrors of the Marcos dictatorship.

There is no such strong reaction this time and it is not because we value our freedoms lesser now than we used to but because now is the right time to give up some of them if only to teach us the value of discipline.

We are supposed to be fighting Covid-19, but in reality we have become our own enemies. We cannot even follow a very simple rule, such as staying at home so we cannot infect or be infected by others with the coronavirus.

I saw the recording of Land Transportation Office Regional Director Victor Caindec’s rant, provoked by the sight of so many vehicles on the Banilad-Talamban road as if it was business as usual even if Cebu City was under enhanced community quarantine.

I also watched the video of a woman arguing with an unseen male over the hardship that the lockdown has caused them. When the man, presumably a government employee, pointed out that the men who were nearby were drinking, she dismissed him by saying that they were not the ones who bought the liquor.

The two videos, both of which became viral, showed our greatest failing as a people in this time of extreme need. We ask for rules that we expect others, not us, to follow and then blame the government when there are consequences. The ECQ pass was supposed to limit the movement of people in the city but as Caindec noted, every vehice that his team flagged down was on an essential trip.

I am now on the fourth week of quarantine. I have not ventured out of our gate except on two occasions to feel the warmth of the early morning sun. I go out of our room only for meals and for the evening prayer with the entire household. I have not seen my friends. I have not gone to the office. I have not attended my board meetings. I miss our GS breakfast with the CEO.

I am bored. I want to go out, walk with my Walk and Talk friends, laugh with them and then feed the pigeons at the Cebu City Sports Center. But I can’t and I won’t because we are supposed to stay at home and not complicate the fight against the coronavirus.

I am not alone. There are many of us looking forward to the day when we can resume living normal lives. And it angers us when we see others flaunting the rules that are supposed to bring us to the day of emancipation from this increasingly unbearable burden.

And so we say: Please do it, Mr. President. Bring in the soldiers. What’s taking you so long?