Seares: ‘Imagine there’s no Edgar or Gwen’; shield on Labellla; Trump claim; Calida’s God

‘IT could’ve been worse’

MEASURING SUCCESS. Tuesday in the US (Wednesday, May 6 here), the Trump administration declared “Mission Accomplished” for phase one of the fight against coronavirus.

The number of deaths across the states topped 70,000 on that day. And the Trump government deemed it great success?

Their basis: By the projection (the White House model), the number of deaths could’ve reached between 100,000 and 200,000. “Only” 70,000 died, ergo they succeeded.

President Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have been using that criterion: the “it-could’ve-been-worse” measurement.

“You eat only twice a day? If the Cebu City mayor were Tomas Osmeña, you’d be eating only every now and then or you’d already be dead.” That kind of Facebook argument. Only that the extent of starvation or near-starvation is tough to determine while the number of deaths is on record, even under-counted, some experts say.

The game of imagining

IF SOMEONE ELSE WERE MAYOR OR GOVERNOR. That game, started weeks ago to help people beat ECQ or lockdown boredom, is still played somewhere in a phone call, text messages, or some group chat in social media.

“What if Tomas Osmeña were the mayor of Cebu City and Paz Radaza were at the Lapu-Lapu City Hall?” Or “Imagine Junjun Davide at the Cebu governor’s office.”

How do they compare? Priorities and strategies may not differ much but the style—manner of dealing with media and the public, handling critics, sound bites, empathy with the voters –would be of different strokes.

That’s why the game -- imagining about Junjun at the Capitol, Tomas at Cebu City Hall and Paz in Lapu-Lapu—has stayed for some time now in the ECQ season.

One recent turn of events that made people muse: “How would’ve Tomas dealt with a Vice Mayor Mike Rama publicly questioning his policy and priorities in combating the coronavirus?” An interesting variation of: “What if the mayor were Mike?”

Mayor’s add-on to face mask

HOW MUCH DO NUMBERS TELL US? The almost daily reporting of people “infected, confirmed positive, confirmed negative, recovered, dead” must help health experts study the coronavirus. We don’t know how much it is helping plain citizens who need the data interpreted to give them a sense of it all.

Rise in the number of infections and positive are generally bad but they’re now told it’s good if positive infections under one test turn out to be negative under a second test: Positive under the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and negative under the polymerase chain-reaction test (PCRt). That’s supposed to give “herd immunity” to many people and enable them to work and go about their daily activities.

The governor or the mayor rarely interpret what the numbers mean. Their audience would get some clues, though, from their announced responses, such as tighter enforcement of border closure rules or harsher lockdown of a sitio or an entire barangay.

And maybe from Mayor Labella’s face mask. Lately, he added a shield to protect his face mask. Superbalita columnist Eddie Barrita says it’s like adding a moat to the wall of the castle. A detergent brand would advertise it as “Double Super Protection.” Would that also be signal of a larger threat from the virus?

In contrast, the governor’s audience takes the cue from the intensity of her “lecture” or “rant”—Facebook users’ prose—which waves a “red flag” saying, we have a situation.

‘Who’s Calida’s God now?’

CLASHING PRAYERS OVER ABS-CBN. Korina Sanchez, one of ABS-CBN’s big-name program hosts and wife of former senator and 2016 presidential contender Mar Roxas, vented ire on Solicitor General Jose Calida for the closure of ABS-CBN. Calida had filed the “quo warranto” petition against it and reportedly influenced the May 5 NTC decision to padlock the broadcast company even though Congress still had to act on pending bills for the network’s franchise renewal.

Korina posted on Instagram, citing abuse in the shutdown. “When and how will the true abusers be jailed?” she asked. Calida, she wrote, used to be “very close” to her mom Celia Sanchez. “They attend the same Bible class.” Then the shotgun blast: “Sino na kaya ngayon ang Diyos ni Calida?”

Questions like that must stump the Lord. That’s why, Choy Torralba—veteran host of “Tug-ani ang Lungsod” on dyRF radio—would say, God sometimes doesn’t answer prayers when the petitions compete or clash.

Whom would God heed: Korina’s mom Celia or SG Calida? They read and study the same Bible but must pray for contradictory outcomes on the fate of ABS-CBN.

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