NEARLY a year ago, SunStar published this quote from my column:
"THE pandemic is not only wreaking destruction on public health and the global economy but disrupting democracy and governance worldwide as well.
Covid-19 has hit at a time when democracy was already under threat -- not only in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. What morphed into a pandemic, risks exacerbating democratic backsliding and authoritarian consolidation.
"Already, some governments, our very own to start with, have used the pandemic to expand executive power and restrict individual rights. Such actions are just the tip of the iceberg. Just watch how Covid-19 and other epidemics to come, will likely transform other pillars of democratic governance -- such as electoral processes, civilian control of militaries, and civic mobilization-and potentially reset the terms of the global debate on the merits of authoritarian rule versus democracy.
"The pandemic I foresee will usher in broader effects on governance by overburdening countries' basic governance functions, taxing their socio-political cohesion, exacerbating corruption, unsettling relations between national and local governments, and transforming the role of non-state actors.
"Truth to tell, there is a wide spectrum of effects. Still, much remains uncertain as long as the ultimate scope and severity of the crisis are unknown, and pandemic statistics continue to be manipulated. As the pandemic penetrates lower-income and fragile states, like the Philippines, it will likely have even more profound and unpredictable effects than those visible thus far.
"A powerful second-order effect resulting from the unfolding global economic slowdown will pack a further governance punch, like the 'Anti-Terror Bill' in the Philippine Congress.
"President Duterte has certified the proposed Anti-Terror Bill urgent, which would fast-track its passage through the House of Representatives where the administration enjoys an overwhelming majority."
Since the time I wrote the above-cited excerpt, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the contentious anti-terrorism measure despite mounting opposition and fears that it targets critics of the government.
The Philippine Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which amends the 2007 Human Security Act, expands the definition of terrorism, which human rights advocates say could lead to abuses and stifle free speech. It also permits the surveillance, warrantless arrest, and detention of suspects for up to 24 days, according to the draft law.
Since the 2020 Act took effect, the red-tagging of known social activists, indigenous people group spokespersons, NGO (non-government organization) poverty and social justice-focused heads, and other socially-minded individuals -- rural doctors, lawyer advocates, and mass media people --- have been widespread. So do extrajudicial killings and assassinations of Filipinos that were red-tagged.
World Report 2021, Human Rights Watch publication reports that:
"The killings increased dramatically during the Covid-19 lockdown, rising by over 50 percent during April to July 2020 compared to the previous four months. There has been almost total impunity for these killings.
"In June 2020, the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a highly critical report on the human rights situation in the Philippines. In October, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution continuing scrutiny of the situation in the country for another two years, but without creating an international investigation.
"Threats and attacks, including killings, against left-wing political activists, environmental activists, community leaders, indigenous peoples’ leaders, journalists, lawyers, and others rose in the past year. The government harassed journalists and media companies, including through politically motivated prosecutions and other legal actions; a court convicted journalist Maria Ressa of cyber libel in June, while the government shut down the country's largest television network the following month... placed the country under lockdown, restricting people’s movement to limit the spread of Covid-19, using the military, as well as the police and local officials, to enforce the lockdown.
"Tens of thousands of people were arrested and often detained in crowded jails and holding centers where they were at increased risk of contracting the virus. Police and local officials targeted vulnerable populations and in some cases using public humiliation and cruel treatment."
There are more pandemics to come. What I wrote then has come to pass. To date, we are now facing multiple variants of the fast mutating Covid-19 virus.
So, where do we go from here? Many Facebook chats exist that range from a network of doctors and health and wellness advocates who closely monitor the unfolding pandemic and treatments. Endless shares and chats fill these groups which feed both fears of the unknown of the fast morphing pandemic and the promise of alternative less costly cures, and for the believers, the ultimate divine intervention of God.