At the rate some government officials are using terms, imagery,methaphor , comics characters or what-not in the fight against Covid 19. one would think that most, if not all, of them are really frustrated actors deep inside.
Naturally, the leading role goes to, who else, the President, who has recently offered himself up as a willing sacrifice for a vaccine that promises, not really scientifically vouched, to end the existential infection that afflicts the nation and Putin’s land.
Duterte, in his own word, said he was willing to have the first shot of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V to show that he’s willing to take even the ultimate risk to demonstrate how much he cared for his people’s health.
That brave gesture really smacked no less of heroism anyJuan in his right mind would appreciate coming from the leader of the land. Before you hold your breath at this audacious offer, you have to consider three things, perhaps even four.
Caveat One, no one around the President, much less his doctors, would allow the President to be the first guinea pig for a Russian vaccine that is looked at with a lot of cautious reactions, if not suspicions, by a broad range of scientists and medical experts. It’s not worth it. Why not try it on less mortals?
Caveat Two, a government doctor clarified that, for all the President’s good intentions, he’s really not qualified for the role. Only those above 21 years of age and 59 below are. The President is not on the bracket, much less a spring chicken.
Caveat Three, remember the jet ski bragadoccio? Yes, Virginia , in the land of the forgetful and forgiving, the President has yet to fulfill the promise while China is gobbling up Philippine territories in the West Philippine Sea faster than Duterte could say tse-tse for the bully’s alleged innumerable kindness to the Philippines.
Caveat Four, don’t forget the President admission in his fifth and penultimate SONA last month. He’s inutile as far as fighting for the Philippine territories where China is now shamelessly ensconced, partly by his unconstitutional act, or lack of it. The word is Spanish, not Chinese, which as we know means, useless.
So by his own admision, the President is telling all and sundry, especially the infamous DDS, that they have elected someone who can’t do the job he signed up for. The Constitution is clear.Ask Tony Tony Carpio. You can’t blame the famous mayor. He really didn’t want it, in the first place. Destiny is to blame.
In other words, the heroism roadshow may not really happen. For one thing, there is such a practice in marketing called bait and switch. It’s a situtation where what’s advertised isn’t really what you get once the sale is closed. Caveat emptor is always good to protect you from quacks and crackpots, even crooks. There’s quite a number of them these days,one from across the ocean suggesting injecting a person with disinfectant to cure him of COVID 19 virus to one on the other side prescribing gasoline to disinfect face masks. Was it Barnum who said a sucker is born every minute?
Then there’s the so-called BIDA campaign of the Department of Health to rally the communities in the collective fight against COVID 19. BIDA is the local equivalent of the Spanish word Vida, which means life. In showbiz parlance, it refers to the one playing the leading role in a film, a savior or a hero, dead or alive, preferably the latter. A dead hero, after all, would be inutile to the beautiful girls around him.
In a imperfect world such as ours, those who fancy themselves as hero wannabes should really think of the huge potential cost, particularly the imaginable ones.
Ironically, the one leading the department, Secretary Francisco Duque Jr., is perceived to be the CONTRAVIDA in the government’s anti-COVID effort because of alleged incompetence, negligence and what-have- you. True to his perceived image, Duque remains untouchable and apparently has a Teflon -like skin that he still keeps the job, despite or notwithstanding. Some critics have a different opinion: maybe his skin is something else.
We leave that for future dermatological evaluation once his skin protector leaves office in two years time or less.
Recently, the head of the beleaguered and besieged Philhealth, whose internal ills appear to be more costly and serious than Covid and other external public infirmities it is mandated to cure, wished he were Superman to stop the alleged anomalies in the institution.
What’s going on? Apparently, he can’t see, hear or smell where the problem is coming from and stop all that the evils that men do in and outside Philhealth that is costing the government billions of pesos in fraudulent transactions.
Senate President Tito Sotto, a celluloid icon himself, if in a different genre, has this simple advise to retired Gen. Ricardo Morales. Stop dreaming about Superman. Just do your job and kick the butts.
Sotto doesn’t get it: it takes Superman to do a job like Morales’, and, unfortunately, he’s not. But until and unless he resigns, Superman cannot take over his job . Superman undestands physics. Matter occupies space .
In meantime, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan has joined the latest showbiz-laced verbiage in government when he quoted his megastar wife’s famous quote in a verbal tiff with an undiplomatic Cabinet member in charge of the country’s foreign affairs.
“He’s just a trying hard copy cat,” Pangilinan riposted in a socmed response after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin went his usual nonchalant unprintable tweeting way on criticisms against him or his boss.
What’s happening now really is the continuing paradigm shift where politicians want to be actors and actors as willing to swap places.
You don’t have to guess why.
