With a disastrous sphere filled with uncertainties, whether it’s an act of God or an act of Man in law subject, being competent enough in authorizing every core ruling will be of utmost substance, further, equal rights must be fought at full measure.
This year, ample catastrophes have crossed the line of the Promised Land. However, it was fabricated years ago due to incompetence and indecisive precepts, from a blissful atmosphere down into a domain of serpents embedded with deceitful tricks.
From Amazon rainforest wildfires, Jakarta floods, Australia bushfires, and down to the current state of pandemic crisis, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), 2020 is indeed a tragic year welcoming every depth of crisis in the world. However, it became more of a crisis due to the blatant oppression provoked by unbearable authorities who misdirected the country from the healing pathway.
Holding the highest number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is continuously coping with the invisible enemy with a powerless and insufficient control over it. With thousands of people being displaced from their workforce, financial assistance that is deemed inconsistent, and the newly proposed bill which silences the voice of those who oppose the current administration, the country is seemingly at stake of offering every Filipino life down the perils.
Mass testing, mass healing
With the public’s collective call for free mass testing, the administration fails to heed the wide concerns due to a prime cause of finding it difficult to interpret the true meaning of mass testing. Nevertheless, its simplest meaning is to enable a free and accessible testing for those who need it suchlike the Person under Monitoring (PUM), Person under Investigation (PUI), front liners, those people in close contacts or people with exposure, and those in high-risk communities or vulnerable population to urgently plump for easy isolation.
However, the administration discerns it at all flawed, confusing themselves to what extent mass testing could possibly outstretch. With the public call that seems inconceivable, House Bill No. 6848 or the Free Mass Testing Act of 2020 was filed on May 27 by legislators belonging to the Makabayan bloc which seeks to access free mass testing to vulnerable sectors and to establish public testing centers in every region.
With an incompetent government in confronting the forefront issue, private sectors and various celebrities took its responsibilities of supplying the needs of the underprivileged. This is an act of ‘bayanihan’ as raising funds and donation drives turn out to be their prime concerns in alleviating the burden of maybe not all, but an ample of, which the government fails to see.
The terror in Anti-Terror Bill
Amidst the outspread of the virus is the newly proposed bill wanting to silence the voice of many. This bill seeks to amend the provisions of the Human Security Act of 2007. It allows the detention of suspected terrorists for up to 24 days sans a warrant of arrest. The bill also permits a 60-day surveillance with an allowable 30-day extension that can be conducted by the police or the military against the suspected terrorists.
With today’s juncture of flooding criticisms towards the government’s poor policies, calling out to stop impunity and selective justice, this bill also authorizes to cease the power of youth activists because it perceives that activists and terrorists are alike. However, activists are just the voice of the marginalized sectors, not the enemy of the government because at this point of the pandemic, the virus is.
Additionally, press media nowadays have become the prey of the ravening fangs of these venal predators, after ABS-CBN renewal franchise issue, Rappler intrudes the lane of attacking press media as CEO Maria Ressa was found guilty of cyber libel. Evidently, a glimpse of déjà vu has been drifting down this year as Marcos in 1972 took over and controlled all newspapers, magazine, and radio and television facilities to silence the wrongdoings the administration grooms.
The Naked Truth
Through the adversities the Philippines has gone through, there’s no such way as defrauding the colors of the Rubik’s cube to get its pattern. However, there’s such a way of manipulating each unmatched color to pull off the game. This analogy applies to the government’s coping strategies that would only praise the visible and trick the unseen.
If #MassTestingNowPH had been materialized as soon as the virus stepped in the country, alongside travel bans and early notice lockdowns, the Philippines will be in great shield from the virus and would have been ahead of the pandemic.
If the Anti-Terror Bill was vetoed by the President as this is the calls of the unheard, #JunkTerrorBillNOW, press freedom will get the liberty it deserves and oppression will not reign above, the oppressed will.
As these acts desire to silence the voice of truth, stick fast to what the trend taught us – to stay woke. Being apolitical at these pressing issues is already a choice. Be involved at every possible way, take a stand for not just what is easy but for what is right, and fight for every right we have because if we don’t, who will?
Art by Xia Xinjie
