COVID-19 in the Philippines

The first case of the COVID-19 was back in January 30, 2020 when a 38 year old Chinese woman was diagnosed positive after being confined at San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila. Not long after, on February 1, the death of a 44 year old man who also tested positive, became the first recorded death due to the virus outside China. A month later, the government abruptly suspended classes and work as a precautionary measure against the increasing number of cases. It started with 3 days of suspension, to a month of Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), then extending it for months up until today with the various community quarantines enacted by the national government ranging from ECQ, General Community Quarantine (GCQ), Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ), and Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ). As of November 25, there have been 422,915 confirmed cases of the disease in the country. Out of these cases, 386,955 recoveries and 8,215 deaths were recorded, making it the 2nd highest number of confirmed cases in Southeast Asia, 8th in Asia, and 27th in the world.

New normal?

With the rapidly increasing number of confirmed cases and the implementation of various guidelines, the country is forced to adapt to the “new normal”. The new normal includes “distance” as a key element in various interactions and routines such as social distancing in public places and distance learning in school.

Education in the new normal

The Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) pushed for the continuation of AY 2020 – 2021 despite being in the midst of a pandemic. This introduced the system of online classes or distance learning in schools and universities. The online class is consisted of two kinds of classes, synchronous and asynchronous. The synchronous class requires students and lecturers to partake in an online discussion that will be conducted through video calls in a video meeting software or app such as Zoom or Google Meet. Asynchronous classes on the other hand, are the allotted time for individual learning. This is when students do given modules and requirements. Additionally, students who do not have the necessary devices for online classes or a stable internet connection are given the option of an offline learning where printed modules are delivered to their houses.

Various review centers also resorted to online reviews in preparation for upcoming university and science high school applications and board exams. Unfortunately, these examinations are cancelled due to the pandemic.

Businesses in the new normal

The economy is adjusting to a lower foot traffic world ever since the lockdown has started. Businesses are slowing down because consumers and customers have lessened. Stores that remained open have to adhere to strict community guidelines and sanitize thrice the usual. Due to loss of profit and more expenses, some companies and stores are forced to close, making thousands of employees jobless.

Online businesses on the other hand, are thriving more than ever. Online shopping and transactions are now more preferred. Most products and services sold are related to online classes, works from home, foods, or subscription to different streaming sites. This gave opportunity to lots of people to open their own business, especially businesses related to making baked goods. Other products include safety against the virus like masks, face shields, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Social interactions in the new normal

Strict community guidelines, implementation of social distancing, banning social gatherings, closing public places, and blocking city borders make it harder for friends and families to see each other in real life. This can put strain on some people’s mental wellbeing. Of course, as human beings, we need to connect with others in order to survive that’s why people put extra effort or find unconventional new ways to compensate for the lack of physical interaction. Some people get creative by hosting game night through video calls to bond with their friends. An example of games they host are jeopardy, family feud, and who wants to be a millionaire.

Social media also produced trends that people can hop on. This includes Instagram story games, Tiktok trends, and Facebook memes. People are now entertained through these social media sites and can still connect with others.

Others on the other hand, use video games to play with their friends and meet other people.

How it affects us

The Philippines, as a developing country, may find it hard to manage the increasing number of cases as our healthcare, medicines, and technologies are not as advanced as those in other countries. Additionally, its high population density would make social distancing harder especially in urban areas and slums. People would also choose not to confine themselves in the hospital as they do not have the money for it and would rather endure it at home, spreading the virus to those around them.

With people forced to stay inside their homes, more than half of the population were put at a disadvantage. People will find it harder to make ends meet as lots of them lost their job as soon as the lockdown started. People don’t have a stable source of income and not everyone can afford the equipment and internet connection for online classes and work from homes. Thousands of students are still not enrolled as they do not have the means to keep up with the system or believe that this kind of system would not work for them and would opt for genuine learning than superficial understanding of the lessons.

The economy is also slowly going down due to the absence of consumers and producers on various products and services which causes businesses and companies go bankrupt and consequently affecting those people working for them.

Some say this pandemic is breaking the system, I believe it is exposing the broken system.

Personal experience

Thankfully, I am fortunate than most as my family still has a stable source of income, can provide for my needs in my online classes, and I am still able to connect with my friends online through different platforms. I can say that my main problems for now are school workloads and college applications. I am aware of my privilege and I do not let it blind me from the reality my fellow Filipinos are currently suffering from.

What now?

It’s true that Filipinos are flexible and resilient. The situations I have listed above about the new normal and people adapting to it proves that Filipino can take whatever problem life will throw them and will always find a way to manage things but, should we really just rely on resiliency? What the Filipino people deserve is justice. Justice for the people whose lives were taken due to lack of plans for our healthcare industry and workers, justice for the victims of the 4 strong typhoons who hit the country in the middle of a pandemic, justice for the people who were robbed of their taxes and received nothing from it in return. It’s time to demand accountability to those in power whose responsibility was to provide plans and solutions in response to the pandemic and calamities that hit our country yet prioritized their own interests over the welfare of those people under them.

Resilience is an important key to survival during these trying times but we deserve more than just applause for being resilient when in the first place, we were not supposed to induce drastic changes on our lifestyles to conform to the system. The system should be made in convenience with the majority of the mass, it should be able to serve the people, not the other way around.

As a part of the Filipino youth, I will not allow my generation and those succeeding it suffer the same system and regimen those before us have went through. People may say that we’re just kids, can we really do something revolutionary that it can change the whole system? I say yes. We carry the future on our backs and our actions today could change and benefit what’s coming for us tomorrow. One at a time, starting with the pandemic, we should all rise up hand in hand to fight for what we were deprived of and fight for the safety and welfare of each other. The Filipinos, as one, will bravely yell “Pandemia ka lang, I am Filipino!”

References

Bautista D., & Lopez M.L. (2020) TIMELINE: How the Philippines is handling COVID-19 https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/4/21/interactive-timeline-PH-handling-COVID-19.html?fbclid=IwAR3oH2HZ138-xHJc3W4dcOwGhfD8gcDnQGxLti-Nqb2-Ka2-e2g_LACqDvk

Reysio-Cruz M. (2020) 3 million students still unenrolled: ‘Lost generation’ must catch up https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1334692/3m-still-unenrolled-lost-generation-must-catch-up

Lopez M.L. (2020) 4.6M Filipinos jobless in July as unemployment worsens in Metro Manila – PSA https://www.cnnphilippines.com/business/2020/9/3/PSA-July-unemployment-figures.html

Jiao C., Yap C. (2020) Philippines Plunges Into Recession and Cuts 2020 GDP Outlook https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/philippine-economy-plunges-into-recession-as-gdp-contracts-16-5