‘No one could blame the many thousands driven by depression and anxiety to find the answer to their oppressive maladies in recreation, holiday-shopping, get-togethers, and family reunions.’
AS expected, enforcement and discipline had not stood in the way of merry making during the recent holidays. PNP patrols were less visible or coming far and in-between. It seemed the police and barangay tanods could not pass up the chance to join the rest of the nation in celebrating Christmas and New Year. It also happened to be the most coveted holiday respite for the lamentably bone-tired anti-COVID enforcers Undermanned police and barangay patrols had practically become bystanders.
Easing of COVID protocols should have been matched by hard enforcement of basic restrictions on bigger and wayward crowds. The malls and tianges burst with a new life, harbingers of another wave of dread and suffering. Only a few malls had alert security guards to set things right for the massive crowds that included the unvaccinated who paid little attention to physical distancing.
Large gatherings became the order of the day as people opted to party than to remain vigilant for their safety. Countless of them unmasked for many hours during gluttonous dining and drunken storytelling. Public transport, especially PUJs, were commonly full shoulder-to-shoulder.
No one could blame the many thousands driven by depression and anxiety to find the answer to their oppressive maladies in recreation, holiday-shopping, get-togethers, and family reunions. Before the pandemic struck, a DOH study revealed that 30 percent of the population were already experiencing depression.
Based on a Boston University research, one out of three Americans today or 100 million citizens are suffering from some mental dysfunction, mostly depression, which has led to sales of anti-depression and anti-anxiety medication skyrocketing.
As the Duterte administration threw repeated brickbats at former President Noynoy Aquino for his alleged dismal response to alleviate the lives of the victims of super typhoon Yolanda, little did it realize that it would one day be thrown facing a similar catastrophe in the aftermath of Odette. How the government was caught-flatfooted as Odette’s ferocity and devastation swept through the Visayas and Mindanao was almost predictable as the hard lessons of Yolanda had never really been a presidential priority.
President Duterte announcing there were no available funds for the calamity victims showed meanness and nearly shocking neglect to the despairing and distraught families. Suddenly both the national and local governments were weighed down in battling both the pandemic and Odette’s widespread and horrific trail of death and destruction.
Sen. Frank Drilon said unused government funds amounting to P1.4 trillion was sitting around for idle, abandoned, or delayed government projects and should be immediately realigned for the typhoon-ravaged provinces. Ultimately, the President pledged P10B, 60 percent of which would be sourced from the 2022 national budget.
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From American theologian, philosopher and civic rights leader Howard Thurman: “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with the flocks, then the work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, to heal those broken in spirit, to feed the hungry, to release the oppressed, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among all peoples, to make little music with the heart. And to radiate the Light of Christ, every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say, Then the work of Christmas begins.”
