MARCH 30, 2020. Life is at a standstill. It is quarantine all over. Lockdown if you may. Even the City Hall, which is full of well-wishers and needy on a Monday morning is empty.
There are three security guards who can afford to force a smile. There is one employee in the radio room. Len is the only one who reported early before 8 a.m. in the Administrative Section.
Almost everyone wears a mask. Almost everyone is suspect. Suspect of carrying the deadly Corona Virus.
The death toll is on the rise. As if this is not frightening enough, the provincial health officer becomes a victim. Dr. Marcelo Jaochico succumbs to the virus. If someone, you know dies, this is near home. The more it becomes fearful.
I have a son who works as a nurse in the Jose B. Lingad Hospital. He is prone to get infected because all those affected in the region are brought there.
I ask my daughter who works as a nurse in America to send protective equipment. The answer is swift and negative. They are also out of supplies.
What can you do? Spend the day at home – hopeless. Or rather hopeful that the worst is over. Then you switch on the television. You are pulled down to reality.
Several deaths all over the world are reported. Even the Senators of the Philippines are not spared. Zubiri and Pimentel, once rival in a political joust, are both afflicted. Even the less interviewed Angara is listed as a carrier, Tom Hanks and wife, Rita Wilson are with the virus. The First Lady of Canada has it. The Prince of Wales is pointed to as a carrier. Who is safe?
Nobody, it seems. Even the newspapers are “dead”. There occurs to be a stop to printing of news. The news writers and journalists have suddenly lost their voices and their pens. No sword nor gun can defeat the virus. This is World War III where the enemy is invisible.
How to when we can survive is everybody’s question. For now, we can only go down to our knees and pray.
Is there no medicine to be discovered to combat the outbreak? Will the plasma of those infected and recovered be enough to give hope? The China, whom everyone points to, as the source is in turn pointing to the United States as the country of source. Italy, where the Vatican is, is crippled. The holy mass is celebrated without the “church”.
The sports community, all over the world, suspended all games. No basketball. No baseball. No football. No boxing. No volleyball. No billiards. Even the games of chess, appears to be in limbo. The Tokyo Olympics has been cancelled.
When do we see the light at the end of the tunnel? Is this a way of controlling the World’s population? Is this penance for our sinful ways? When where everything else has not worked and in desperation, everybody becomes spiritual. We storm the gates of heaven to repel this enemy.