“Next time, huwag ninyo akong parinigrinigin ng revolution. Naku, Diyos ko. Iyan ang mas delikado sa Covid. Eh kung mag-revolution kayo, you will give me the free ticket to stage a counter revolution. How I wish you would do it.”
Thus, fumed President Duterte at medical frontliners who earlier asked the government to revert Metro Manila to stricter quarantine measures to arrest the spike in Covid-19 cases.
“Huwag kayo magsigaw-sigaw, ‘revolution.’ Magsabi kayo revolution, then ngayon na. Try it. Patayin natin lahat ng may COVID-19. Is that what you want? We can always end our existence in this manner,” so seethed Duterte.
Absent relevance to the issue raised, the President is clearly running on fumes, so to speak, in his blabber – no, we do not imply, much less say, Duterte actually did what he told the nation to do: Disinfect face masks with gasoline or diesel.
How he came to see a revolution in plain recommendation is beyond reason, not even in this so called “new normal.”
The health workers “time-out” call is, at the extreme, a lamentation, a grievance, even a protestation. But certainly, not by the longest shot, was it a call to revolution.
“No. Our purpose really is to help, to get some breather, to really make sure that we are doing the right thing,” said Philippine Medical Association president Dr. Jose Santiago Jr. “We have to learn from the past 4 months, what are the weaknesses we had so we can strengthen that in the coming days or in the coming weeks so we are more prepared.”
A bill of particulars did the health workers present in their “time-out” plea, for the government to address, to wit:
– Failure in finding Covid-19 carriers due to inaccurate rapid antibody tests;
– Errors in quarantine protocols;
– Insufficient modes of public transport;
– Public disobedience of health guidelines;
– Breach of quarantine rules in workplaces; and
– Delays in the distribution of cash aid for displaced workers and the poorest families.
Again, where obtains revolution there?
Only in the mind of one —
Haunted by all that blood that spilled, mayhaps the addled brain playing the embattled tyrant trick, blind to everything – yet seeing nothing but red.
