A symptom of desperation

PEOPLE are getting sick by the thousands but what is sickening is the maniacal glee of some quarters seeing the rise of numbers of people infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Like so many countries we are between the heavens and the deep blue sea but only in the Philippines do we see characters celebrating in bizarre fashion as if having more people get ill the better.

There are of course lapses in responding to the emergencies and exigencies needed to contain the spread of COVID 19. Many of those who berate officials in government however have nothing to contribute but empty rhetoric. The politicians among them have turned every Covid-19 case an issue against the administration zeroing in on Pres. Rodrigo Dutertein the process. The rightists and the leftists among them have connived to discredit the President who, by the looks of him, spends sleepless night grappling with the complex problems brought about by the pandemic. Sadly even the Church refuses to make use of their homilies to at least educating the flock on the basic guidelines of how to avoid infection (wearing of masks, social distancing and washing of hands or disinfecting with alcohol).

The government has released billions of pesos to help a vast number of people who lost their jobs on account of lockdowns which conversely impacted the economy. When factories and other workplaces were opened, people rushed out as if COVID had gone away with the first rain that came after summer. Then some went to stage rallies because of anti-terror law others because they wanted to resurrect the expired franchise of ABS CBN. What do you expect? The COVID cases had spiked and expect that to rise because with the number of people infected and those being traced will not recede that quick.

In the meantime, the anti-Duterte cabal has brought in all issues including those that his administration has nothing to do. They made use of Joseph Goebbel’s, Hitler’s chief propagandist, dictum: “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”. They blamed Duterte for giving up on Scarborough and then inferred that corruption in Phil-Health happened when became President. The critics rammed all these magmas of issues with COVID cases ignoring the fact the ex-Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino and his Foreign Affairs Sec. Albert del Rosario withdrew the Philippine naval forces in the Scarborough favor of China. They even allowed the Chinese to carve out a mountain in Zambales to be used by the former to reclaim the atoll. They also stonewalled the fact that the fleecing of Phil-Health funds took place in the past administration a stinking truth that Sen. Migz Zubiri had unearthed.

They made use of Facebook and the social media platform to demonize Duterte. Yet, of late, they are circulating a poisoned item written by a troll, which spews out cataclysmic issues against Duterte and, this time, included Sen. Bong Go.

But why Duterte whose term will end in 2022? And why should Senator Bong be facing the same firing squad? Is this a symptom of desperation and hopelessness of the opposition?

Look closely and weigh-in the prospects of the present crop of opposition, the Liberal Party, and the leftist Party List combined. Who are their contenders? Robredo? Roxas? Drilon? Trillanes? Pangilinan? De Lima? Carpio? Now include the cast of Otso Deretso. If elections were to be held tomorrow, they will all be extinct. Will any or all of them diminish the persuasive endorsement of Duterte in the 2022 elections? As for Senator Bong, he has gone around the nooks and corners of the country bringing the government close to the people. He has established Malasakit Centers all over to extend help to the poor who needed medical attention. He was the one who asked the Ombudsman to investigate Phil-Health and the one who proposed to the President to create a task force to look into the systemic corruption in the agency. Is this the reason why he too is being discredited? Is this simply a desperate move?