Now more than ever before, we are told to “listen to the experts,” to defer to the science, and let evidence be our guide as we try to address and grapple with the pandemic.On one hand, listening to science is far better than listening to our politicians’ fearless, fact-less forecasts, or letting our feelings guide us. Thus, it was reassuring that, a day after the President threatened activists in his late night speech, the Department of Health’s Dr. Beverly Ho affirmed “siyensya” (science) as the nation’s guiding principle.

It was equally reassuring when Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles declared: “The DOH will still study the need to extend this quarantine or not. Where this discussion is concerned, science is in charge. We hope that is clear to everyone.”

But what exactly constitutes “science”? Who exactly are the “experts”?

These questions have been vigorously debated by sociologists, such as Reiner Grundmann (2016) who defines “experts” as those who “mediate between the production of knowledge and its application; they define and interpret situations; and they set priorities for action.” They are even more relevant now that scientific knowledge is being invoked to make life-and-death decisions.

The case of the now-ubiquitous “curve” is an illustrative example. While there is general consensus over the need to “flatten” it, the exact contours of the curve are subject to debate. For the Philippines, for instance, we have seen a number of projections—some of which have already been proven wrong—even as their own authors have warned about reading too much into them.

The traction of these tentative-at-best forecasts speaks of people’s desperation to know what the future holds—and the fractious nature of “expert knowledge.” We think of science as “objective,” but faced with an “infodemic” of competing scientific claims, we fall back on our feelings, choosing which “facts” are consistent with them.


Another example is the use of face masks by the general public, which, for the longest time, health authorities advised against. “Seriously — STOP BUYING MASKS!”, US Surgeon-General Jerome Adams emphatically tweeted on Feb. 29. As with other governments, however, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now endorsing the use of masks “in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.”

This case reminds us that “expert knowledge” is iterative, and what experts ultimately say is not free from political and social pressures, as well as new knowledge.

The World Health Organization is no different. Many observers have pointed out its belated declaration of a “pandemic,” as well as its inexplicable exclusion of Taiwan. Far from being an infallible and objective authority, the WHO’s response reveals the limits of expertise and how it gets translated into policy.

All of the above should temper our expectations of what “experts” can do. First of all, they cannot predict the future and, thus, we cannot read too much into their projections and prognostications. Thankfully, true experts understand and disclose the limits of their expertise.

Second, they do not have immunity from critique. As Prof. Randy David wrote, “We should keep observing, asking questions, and thinking of alternatives.” We should not just demand evidence-based policies; we should also demand scholarly rigor from this evidence. Just because a journal article or an “expert” says something doesn’t mean we should uncritically accept it. On the other hand, precisely because science is imperfect, we need more of it, not less, allowing “expertise” to emerge from peer review and consensus.

Finally, we should be critical about the ways science is translated into news (and rumor)—and how it is mis(used) by political actors. All too often, media outlets are quick to exaggerate claims that scientists themselves refrain from making. Moreover, the quarantine may be based on science, but stifling dissent in its name certainly isn’t. Simply put, we cannot allow our politicians to use science as a shield for their misguided actions.

Needless to say, science, properly understood, remains our best—and only—framework for overcoming the pandemic. However, to mobilize its full potential and to avoid mistrust, we need to know the limits of those who claim to speak in its behalf.

IN this penultimate week of the quarantine, I am more than convinced that the Deegong did the right thing. But it may have to be extended* until “the curve is flattened.” Bureaucratic incompetence caught our government flat-footed — given that China’s lead gave us months of warning. Although its data are suspect, China’s immediate response was admirable, logical and remedial, focusing on the virus, arresting its spread by expanding healthcare capacity. Its drastic methods are something to be emulated — massive field tests to cull out the positives; trace those infected; then quarantine and apprehend both, if necessary. In contrast, the United States, similarly challenged, prioritized instead an economic stimulus and interest rate cuts, shoring up the economy and its stock market to the delight of Wall Street. Thus, federal states are faced with a severe shortage of critical tools to fight this pandemic — from personal protective equipment pr PPE to hospital ventilators. New York is now the virus’ epicenter. President Trump has been irresponsibly in denial for so long, overruling his own health professionals and wasting precious time. At this current rate of engagement, prognosis is a possible 140,000 to 240,000 dead — maybe more.

Historical pandemic precedents
This pandemic is now deadly. Historical precedent harks back to Europe’s deadliest outbreak 1,500 years ago — “The Plague of Justinian [in] 541 AD. The first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague kill[ed] 40 percent of Constantinople. It eventually eliminated one-half of the human population — in Europe — between the years 550 and 700. This is known as the first pandemic.”

The Spanish Flu of 1918 lasted three years, claiming 17 million to 100 million lives. The world’s population then was around 1.8 and 1.9 billion. Extrapolating with the current world population of 7.8 billion, a staggering 2 billion (26 percent) could possibly be infected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Unequivocally, our technology and science are far advanced today, but so is the virus. It too has mutated continuously over time, relying on human hosts. And the way Man has been irresponsible toward Nature, the latter is simply retaliating.

China’s preferred defense mechanism, lockdown/quarantine, turned the world upside down. But another tragedy awaits in the wings. Lockdowns here and abroad exposed what have been simmering beneath the economic and social surface — the disparity between the “haves and the have nots.” I see my own family as a microcosm mirroring society’s suitability to survive. In fact, my grandkids treat the quarantine as an enforced vacation with their lolo and lola here in Davao. Mom and Dad’s problem was how to occupy their time during lockdown. True, aside from online assignments and lessons from their schools, there are amusements and entertainment like Netflix, Xbox, IPads and DVDs filling their time. Internet reigns supreme.

But how about the children on the opposite end of the spectrum without access to the internet and therefore no online games occupying their time? Malls, gaming parlors, movie houses are closed for the duration. How are the masa and their children coping?

Economic stimulus
Now that we are on this topic, will the P260 billion injected into the economy benefit directly, among others, those wage earners who must forego daily wages during this lockdown? These are the Filipino “isang kahig, isang tuka,” or in the street lingo, “one day, one eat”! With our inherently defective system of governance, how is the inevitable leakage and rent-seeking handled? I have no answers and no suggestions. In this deep crisis, the default impulse is to save oneself and family first. This is simply the first rule of survival. Where do we go from here?

God knows I have so many issues against this government for bureaucratic incompetence and some policies bordering on the criminal; and a loathing toward the sycophants whose reflex mode is to grovel before the President. But this time, I add my support to this president to lead us out of this quagmire. We sink or swim together! Yellow, Blue, Red and White! Covid-19 does not distinguish between colors.

To appreciate the universe of this pandemic, I reprint excerpts from my column, (The pandemic of 2020, The Manila Times, Jan. 29, 2020).

“We are facing one of the biggest threats in the world today: the possibility of the annihilation of our species, the human race, no less, and only one country so far has understood the magnitude of the impending disaster and has responded accordingly. This is the spread of coronavirus. The disease first detected in the central China city of Wuhan in December 2019.”

The biggest tragedy is yet to come upon the introduction of the vaccine which the WHO (World Health Organization) predicts will be available only by 2021. While Covid-19 ravages the world in 18 months, not enough can be produced and distributed on time. The developed countries having first crack at these billions of doses; nary a dose will spill over to the impoverished countries of the Third World hampered by incompetence, logistics and greed; further decimating their already weakened population. Darwin’s law of natural selection will kick in – which simply means, the fittest will survive; a logical compliment to the hypothesis that results in a Malthusian catastrophe (“Covid-19 conspiracy theories,” TMT. April 1, 2020).

The world’s two remaining main protagonists are at center stage today. The incidence of new infections have abated in China while America’s numbers are just trending up. But in the Philippines, we are in for a deadly summer as health professionals are just predicting the explosion of contagion once testing is ramped up.

China-America-the Philippines
Which brings me to my last contentious issue overarching our foreign relations: the Deegong’s infatuation with China and the seeming denunciation of anything American. President Duterte declared an independent foreign policy that makes the Philippines “friend to all, enemy to none.” An admirable but slightly naïve appreciation of serious and complex foreign policy realignment reduced to the personal level. This pivot away from America was in essence the correct move given US intermittent interference and outright violations of Philippine sovereignty. But in the process of moving away from “big brother,” it has seemingly gone overboard — giving China license. And China has shown only disrespect for our sovereignty.

Rolly Narciso an MBM classmate propounded succinctly: “The China violations are actually more serious (Spratly Is., POGOs, main drug source, illegal workers, tax evasions, dummy investors, etc.) but got treated with nonchalance.” Now add to this Covid-19 from out of the exotic palates of Wuhan.

The Deegong is aware but profoundly silent. Is he intimidated or is this silence his paean to an unrequited arrangement he tried to hammer back in 2017. I wrote then: “It was no less a maudlin and yet naively erotic performance when the Deegong in his attempt to cut our umbilical cord with America, declared pompously that it was a ‘triumvirate of the Philippines-China-Russia against the world.’” In retrospect, the Chinese and Russian leaders’ reception of this statement was with an insouciance akin to adults invited to play in a sandbox by an overzealous child.

Yes, we mimic China’s lead and are thankful for its generosity. But must we give up our self-respect and be drawn totally into its web?

*This was written before President Duterte announced the extension of the enhanced community quarantine to March 30.

Alexis de Tocqueville’s America was supposed to be long gone. Seeing political centralization as the great woe of the French state — which had been periodically wracked by violent instability since 1789, and would be again in 1848 — the young French aristocrat found a possible cure in the highly decentralized system of Jackson-era American government. Political life, he wrote, was overwhelmingly concentrated at the local level, where town meetings still decided most matters of significance. Counties were administrative divisions that mostly existed on paper, state governors were kept on an extremely tight leash, and the federal government was still in its infancy, its powers strictly confined to a few undeniably national concerns.

Until several weeks ago, it was hard not to think that contemporary America had turned Tocqueville’s analysis completely on its head. Following the Civil War, the vast expansion of federal power that was deemed necessary to guarantee the rights of freed slaves against the states that had enslaved them, and to enforce Reconstruction while it lasted, famously (though more gradually than some have implied) accompanied a grammatical change in the way we describe the United States, from plural to singular: “The United States are” became “the United States is.” Early 20th century Progressives led the growth of a federal bureaucracy, which expanded with the New Deal and the Second World War until, by the end of the 1940s, it was common to speak of a federal “administrative state,” attached to the executive, ruling the country, unaccountable to voters.

All of this led inevitably to the moment just before the current crisis hit, in which national politics, blaring on TV screens and dominating social-media feeds, seemed to crowd out state and local politics. The newspapers that had reminded Americans of the importance of these closer, smaller realms declined and disappeared. Ticket-splitting, which could be considered an indicator of the strength of the Tocquevillian tradition, hit a new low in 2018.

Intermittently, Beltway writers issued calls for others to abandon the swamps of Washington and rejuvenate local institutions and state politics, which served mainly to illustrate the desperation of the situation. All the major political issues — drug legalization, gay marriage, abortion — were either removed from state purview by Supreme Court fiat or seemed destined sooner or later to receive such a treatment. It appeared increasingly clear that the federal constitution was a pretty relic of the Tocquevillian era, prized mainly by nostalgists, serving a legitimating role in an order that no longer had any space for it, like the Roman Senate under the Empire.

Then a pandemic struck. The initial federal response was faltering, with test kits malfunctioning and the president downplaying the risk. So states — and, in many cases, local governments — came to the fore. California’s Bay Area issued the first “shelter in place” order, followed quickly by a similar order for the rest of the state. Governor Gavin Newsom has proclaimed California a “nation-state.” New York, which was next in line for lockdown, has seen its governor, Andrew Cuomo, emerge as a leading protagonist in the struggle to combat the virus. Cuomo’s bullying style, a nuisance in tranquil times, now soothes the frayed nerves of New Yorkers, in the latest demonstration of Machiavelli’s tenet that men’s characters fit some times better than others. Crucial, life-and-death matters were suddenly in the hands not of the federal government but of state and local authorities.

The public-health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus has proven that you can’t fudge federalism. It isn’t enough to set up formal federal bodies and give them constitutional powers; sub-national units must have traditions of independence and popular sanction to actually use the powers they’ve been given. The viral pandemic has given the lie to systems in countries around the world that are federal on paper but unitary in fact.

Spain’s autonomous communities were supposed to have very extensive powers, including over decisions relating to public health — until, on March 14, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government declared a state of emergency and announced that the central government in Madrid would be assuming control.

In Italy, decrees isolating first a handful of northern towns, then the region, and finally the entire country came at every stage from the central government. Regional presidents such as Lombardy’s Attilio Fontana, unable to put in place firmer measures themselves, were reduced to begging the central government to do so.

In the United Kingdom, devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland —governments that some thought were moving toward an ad hoc form of federalism until the pandemic — have had no opportunity to exert influence on the response to the virus. They have been forced, as have local councils across England, simply to implement the decisions made in No. 10: first, a laissez-faire policy intended to build “herd immunity,” then, following predictions of mass death resulting from the strategy, an escalating about-face ending in nationwide lockdown on March 23.

In Germany, it’s true, the states (Länder) took the lead, with Bavaria locking down two days before the rest of the country — but reports circulated that Angela Merkel was nervous at the prospect of divergent policies across the country. She quickly directed the federal government to retake control of the fight against the virus by banning gatherings of more than two people.

Only in Brazil, where president Jair Bolsonaro has refused to institute a nationwide lockdown, taking to national television to proclaim the coronavirus a “tiny little flu” and attack the World Health Organization for its “destruction of jobs,” have federal units had a real chance to step up. State governors in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have led the response, introducing lockdown measures within their jurisdictions, and making themselves targets of the president in the process.

Of course, it can’t be said that the present resurgence of federalism in Brazil and the United States has happened under the best of circumstances. And it’s too soon to determine how a decentralized administration helped, or didn’t help, the response to the virus. But for now, it’s enough to take stock of how robust and relevant previously marginalized political institutions suddenly seem. They are a piece of the old constitution still with us, having showed signs of life at a moment when, across the world, many of their counterparts did not.

Editorial Cartoon.

WITHOUT sinking into cliché, the nation should seize this time of crisis and challenge by the pandemic as an opportunity to advance and implement some major initiatives and reforms.

It is indeed true to say that a crisis can be a powerful spur to action.

Writing in the Psychology Today journal, the psychotherapist Mel Schwartz said insightfully:

“Crises come into our lives, no matter how we may try to avoid them. They are troubling, unwanted experiences or events that take us way out of our comfort zone. Typically, crises result in some type of loss. The very nature of a crisis is antithetical to our core values of certainty and predictability as they vanish in an instant.

“We desperately try to restore order to our lives as chaos seems to prevail. Yet, if we learn to reframe how we see crisis, we might actually take advantage of it. There is the potential for alchemy as the crisis unfolds into a gain, provided we learn to stop resisting the unwanted change.”

He was targeting his advice at individuals; as with individuals, so with nations.

This present time of travail and pain, which has disrupted so much of our individual and collective life, can also be an opportunity or turning point for our Filipino nation.

It can be such if, nationally, we use it as a catalyst to achieve major changes and reforms in our country and in our national life.

Consider how different the national condition will be if instead of solely fixating on the terrible problems and choices that the coronavirus has brought to our country, we seize the moment to effect reforms in our government system and in our national life.

If this emergency has taught us anything at all, it is clearly the fact that our public health system in our vast archipelago remains inadequate, ill-equipped, and unmodern to meet the challenges that have been engendered by a national emergency as crippling as what we are facing now.

Think of what will happen if we shift our attention from the immediate crisis to the challenge of building a public health system that can effectively serve our 108 million people.

Consider what will happen if the money raised now for the pandemic were turned also toward building up our public health system.

Second, as has been suggested by one senator, we can seize the moment as an opportunity to implement the national ID system, which has been fully approved and funded, and yet still has not gotten off the ground.

According to Sen. Win Gatchalian, had our national ID system been in operation already, we could have launched a quicker health and calamity response to the pandemic because we could have traced quickly persons suspected of being infected with the coronavirus disease.

The ID law was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in August 2018 in order to establish a single official identification card for all citizens that would interconnect all government-issued IDs. The government started pilot-testing the national ID system last year, which was set to run up to June this year before formally rolling out in July next year.

Amid the current emergency, Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd has disclosed that the DoH encountered difficulties in tracing people who came in contact with Covid-19 patients because some have incomplete or erroneous contact details listed with airline companies.

In contrast, Taiwan and Singapore were able to use their respective national database to trace their citizens’ travel history.

Third, our current experience in this emergency can be used as a launch point for an earnest disinfection and sanitation program to clean up our national capital and entire capital region in order that Manila can truly rise as a prosperous, modern and livable metropolis.

It is a sad commentary on Manila that, today, our restaurants cannot open their doors during dining hours without being invaded by flies and other pests.

Other Southeast Asian capitals, like Bangkok, have wonderfully conquered this horrible limitation through a continuous and effective disinfection and sanitation system. We have made a start at disinfection and sanitation during this crisis. Imagine how different our lives and our prospects will be if we continue this permanently and do it nationwide.

Editorial Cartoon.

MANILA, Philippines — No, the Philippine National Police will not shoot dead those who will disrupt peace and order during the enhanced community quarantine, PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa assured the public yesterday.

“Of course not. Probably the President just overemphasized on implementing the law in this time of crisis,” Gamboa said in an interview. “We see the strong message and I think all the PNP personnel understood it.”

A visibly incensed Duterte issued the order after members of urban poor group Samahan ng Magkakapitbahay (Samana) staged a protest over the alleged lack of food distribution in a slum community in Barangay Bagong Pag-asa. The rally turned violent as police dispersed the demonstrators after an hour of negotiation.

Martial law is also not an option, even as Duterte does everything in his power to ensure peace and order while the country is battling a public health emergency, Secretary to the Cabinet Karlo Nograles said.

Asked how far the President would go to ensure peace and order, Nograles said, “Obviously, in a state of calamity, there has to be order. So it is important for Pangulong Duterte to maintain order, especially in this time of crisis and in this time and in this state of calamity. That’s the point which the President wants to emphasize there.”

Under the 1987 Constitution, the President may suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or place the Philippines or any part thereof under martial law for a period not exceeding 60 days in case of invasion or rebellion or when public safety requires it.

Gamboa said policemen will continue exercising maximum tolerance and vowed that all their actions in dealing with protesters are always within the bounds of the law.

“When you don’t implement things within the bounds of the law, then it’s against the policy in law enforcement,” he stressed as he noted that policemen would not hesitate to arrest unruly demonstrators who would jeopardize the administration’s efforts to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

At least 150 persons took part in the rally, violating quarantine guidelines against mass gatherings.

Gamboa has ordered the Quezon City Police District to file charges against the protesters to send a message to the public that they are serious in implementing the law.

He appealed for Filipinos to remain patient as the government is doing everything to address their needs during the health crisis.

“No less than the President addressed the public last night that patience should be our virtue and he even assured that nobody is going to get hungry,” he noted.

Duterte, on Wednesday, ordered the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to shoot dead those who would create situations that disrupt peace and order in the country.

In his taped public message, Duterte was visibly angry after the left-leaning group Kadamay supposedly instigated the protest actions over food distribution issues in San Roque, Barangay Bagong Pag-asa.

“We have a public health concern, and this should not be complicated by a peace and order concern,” Nograles said as he called on the public to obstruct plans to create confusion among the populace.

“The President has raised a point: the government will not allow any group to sow confusion and take advantage of the situation while we are all worried for our lives and the health and safety of our fellow countrymen and yet, there are groups that would want to muddle the situation,” he emphasized.

While the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) did not discuss the issue, Nograles revealed that the President has consulted with the Cabinet’s security cluster.

The Palace assured the public that the government would be implementing measures that are bound by the law.

“The government will follow the law. Government will follow what is legal. Government will follow what is right and we ask for the cooperation of everyone,” Nograles said.

The country remains under a state of calamity and a state of public health emergency, which were separately declared by Duterte last month to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Right now, it’s a public health issue. But if there will be groups sowing violence and would take advantage of situation, then it becomes also a peace and order issue. It was not a peace and order issue until there were quarters which took advantage and sowed violence,” Nograles said.

“Right now, the President regards that it’s already a public health issue, and if you put into the picture the issue of peace and order, we will have some problems. So, let it just remain to be a public health issue and concern which we are currently managing. Don’t let it be a peace and order problem,” he emphasized.

While Sen. Panfilo Lacson agreed that Duterte was just exaggerating, he said the riot should be investigated to find if it was just a “hunger-driven spontaneous act of people who lost their patience out of exasperation, or a politically-instigated act of violence by sinister groups out to take advantage and destabilize the administration and duly constituted authority.”

As a former PNP chief, Lacson said investigators could look into the possibility that Wednesday’s incident was a “dry run” to test public sentiment and the law enforcers’ ability to respond.

He noted that Kadamay posted on its Facebook page an invitation to an event scheduled for April 1. – With Cristina Mendez, Cecille Suerte Felipe

The lockdown, enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or similar appropriate euphemisms is a correct attempt to contain a deadly pandemic. Other countries are implementing this with varying degrees of success. My medium-sized family with three grandkids (aged 8, 6 and 4), two parents, two grandparents, nannies and kasambahay (househelps) — sequestered in a fairly large house with a modest garden — are enjoying the novelty of it all, at least in the provinces (five others are quarantined in Manila). Forced interaction within a confined space is akin to a prison without bars, armed guards and a bartolina (isolation chamber) and absent corporal punishment although the intermittent shouting and cries and the general ruckus that erupt between unique, dynamic and highly independent siblings are, at least to the lolo (grandfather), analogous to Holy Week penance.

Our home ECQ has unstructured amusements, leisure, entertainment and recreation privileges as contrasted to the proverbial “doing time” or incarceration. At least for a month, the inmates make their own rules, although in the hierarchy of authority — the rankings are confused as to who are the wardens; the adults or the little ones. Discipline is loose and bedtime curfew is unenforceable as the kids, with no school, consider every night a “movie night.”

Social media data overload
But Facebook, Messenger, Viber and You Tube have inundated social media with all sorts of news articles, opinions and warnings against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). But what catch my eyes are the insights of bloggers, pundits, intellectual charlatans and wannabe opinion makers.

The contributions are a witches’ brew of facts, fiction, questionable science and fake news. All these thrown into the cauldron suffused with the overarching fear of the pandemic with daily real time statistics on the spread, survival and morbidity rates. Throw in a healthy measure of a blend of epidemic movies — i.e., the “Outbreak” (1995), “Contagion” (2011), my special favorite “Andromeda Strain” (1969), the recent Netflix film “Pandemic” (2020) and “World War Z” (2013) — and, voila, conspiracy theories are regurgitated which, in some way, alleviate anxieties in the primordial quest for simple answers during times of peril.

Cover-up
One that has gained traction was an account of a paper written by four researcher-scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology based on their study from 2018, anticipating an outbreak. The document was received by the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing for peer review on Jan. 29, 2019. On March 2, 2019, it was published in an open access journal titled “Bat Coronaviruses in China,”10 months before the outbreak. Apparently these new deadly pathogens had similar genomes with other coronaviruses. The suspected cover-up by Chinese authorities was unraveled in December 2019, when the spread could no longer be contained and the lockdown of Wuhan was enforced. By then, 4,000 citizens have already fled the city for other parts in China and abroad.

To deflect these denunciations of the virus origins, Chinese authorities hinted that the United States biochemical weapons agency spread the virus through US soldiers who visited Hubei Province where Wuhan city is situated. US President Donald Trump promptly retaliated by officially tweeting Covid-19 not by its name, but as “the China virus.”

Depopulate the earth
But a compelling conspiracy theory is one expanded from the hypothesis of an 18th century philosopher, Thomas Malthus, whose writings centered on world population and its capacity to consume the earth’s resources: “The power of population is so superior to the power of the Earth to produce subsistence for man that premature death must, in some shape or other, visit the human race.”

I wrote in my column “Malthus and the global peril” (The Manila Times, Feb.12, 2019): “…The world’s resources are finite and technology can no longer mitigate the effects of a disastrous population bursting at the seams. By 2050, at current growth rates, the United Nations predicts the world population could reach 9.6 billion. Demographic experts argue 10 billion is Earth’s maximum population carrying capacity; predicated too on another projection that earth can afford to feed only this much.”

Depopulation not genocide
There are two ways to reduce the Earth’s population. One by nuclear holocaust, with the ensuing collapse of the world’s economy with the resultant possible annihilation of the human species. War is too messy, and nobody wins. The efficient method is by attrition, depopulation spaced over time so as not to inflict too much trauma to the world’s economy. Covid-19 is presumably reengineered to eliminate the elderly with preexisting health vulnerabilities. In Italy, 99.99 percent of the infected elderly died. (Another rich source of conspiracy theory “Why Italy?” https://uncoverdc.com/2020/03/20/why-italy/.)

The next round of pandemics may target the 1 billion souls worldwide living in the slums, shantytowns and favelas under squalid conditions.

The theory further postulates that over the past decades, the two remaining competing superpowers have allowed or even caused the introduction of deadly viruses from their arsenals or from “natural causes.” The coronavirus family — the severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome and now the more lethal Covid-19 have decimated the targeted segment in each other’s population — and at their allies, too. Supposedly vaccines for these various plagues have already been discovered from the blood of human survivors then processed and stored for safekeeping by multinationals, and allocated from time to time in line with the plan for depopulation

Bill Gates, in his TED speech in 2015 declared that the next world war would not be nuclear. It will be virus- and technology-based. Left unsaid is the desired result: eradication of poverty, the healing of the environment, and mitigating the violence to the earth’s climate toward striking a balance between the desired numbers of a depopulated human race and the earth’s capacity to produce; perforce maintain the desired quality of life.

Who survives
The blame game over whether the pandemic is a result of China’s profligate exotic culinary palate or America’s weaponizing biotechnology simply deflects the conversation away from the real issue — that man has long been irresponsible for his ascendency over nature.

I wrote in 2014 an appropriate conclusion: “Human extinction is unthinkable…but this might not be Mother Nature’s intention to wipe out the entire human race. We are [her] best creation, the predator on top of the food chain. She will not destroy her ‘obra maestra,’ but perhaps just intermittently warn us, humans, that we are responsible for ourselves — for each other and our environment. Over the millennia…Mother Nature was there to ride herd on us, letting us be until we go outside the limits of our discretion. Then she steps in to discipline us. More than a hundred plagues…in human history…curtailing millions from the earth’s population.”

We are taxing her resources and her patience. Mother Nature or God or Allah has simply intervened, but is neutral on who are to be eliminated. But man or more particularly the world’s oligarchy and the elite are now playing God, choosing who may or may not survive. Those who are no longer useful and a burden to society will not pull through. This is happening now!

IN times of great peril, man turns to his deity or the unknown for his survival. This is how religion evolved over the millennia: The primordial longing to be extricated from whatever difficulties he is faced with. This is, perhaps, also the evolution of prayer, starting as incantations to implore the gods for a “deus ex machina.” These are the miracles, inexplicable events attributable to those greater than him.

Lockdown and prayers
During this quarantine period, social media has been inundated by calls to prayers from all religions, sects and cults. In one TV mass celebration, a Roman Catholic priest proclaimed the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) as God’s instrument to bring the straying sheep back to the Shepherd. Hallelujah! And every 12 noon and 8 p.m. daily, the church bells will ring enjoining the faithful to pray the oratio imperata to fight the virus. Hallelujah! Catholics have a convenient prayer for all occasions, be it an earthquake, a typhoon or a tsunami. And an obscure Sta. Corona has appeared, the patron saint of pandemics.

We have one from our Muslim brothers,too, Ustadh Ahmad Javier preaching about “sampung mabubuting naidulot ng Covid-19 sa mundo” (10 good things from the virus), among which are that the lockdowns have drastically minimized industrial pollution, principally from China, healing our environment and general cleaning of cities. But my favorite is the minimizing of haram activities like drinking and gambling, leading a sinful nightlife and, presumably, going wenching. Inshallah!

Appointed son of God
But by now many would have heard of this enigmatic man from Davao City. With a dashing personality, he has the gift of gab and can sway audiences through an emotional roller-coaster, although his audiences are confined within a controlled space where images are shaped and filtered through the harsh and dominant lenses of television cameras — his cameras. With his fanatical followers, he has the capacity to make or break local politicians. This is a mighty man and an ally to another powerful Davaoeño — President Rodrigo Duterte.

Pastor Apollo Quiboloy enthrals his audience through a staccato of biblical quotes that purportedly underpins whatever claims he makes as personal revelations directly from God. During his sermons, the spellbound faithful interrupts with shouts of “Amen” and “Hallelujahs” — with the cameras panning over the choir, singling out gorgeous coiffured women in finely cut conservative white dresses with tears running down their cheeks. This goes on and on, mesmerizing an audience he already dominates, capturing images and selectively editing them for cable TV channels that he owns. This is theater at its most garish exhibition.

How Quiboloy became the chosen one is a riveting tale in itself. At his birth, he intimated that his mother had a vision of God looking down from above and declared, “That is my son!” (He has not revealed if he was born in a manger or whether his was a virgin birth.) Right after high school in his village, he attended a Bible college and later became a national youth leader of the United Pentecostal Church, which he left in Sept. 1, 1985 with 15 of its members to establish his own church, “The Kingdom of Jesus Christ — the name above every name.” He preached that Jesus Christ came as a redeemer of the Jewish people 2,000 years ago, but he comes today as the savior of the gentiles — the non-Jews — for which he was chosen by God the Father as the “appointed son of God” exactly on April 13, 2003. In some creative but convoluted way, which is the basis of his church’s credo, God gave him the “kingship” — the ultimate act of the Father who was now “finished with him” as the good pastor was now in a state of perfection, similar to Adam (and Eve) before the fall.

Owner of the world and the universe
Central to his version of the biblical genesis was an interesting twist that God ceded His right and responsibility over the universe to Adam (and Eve), but was deceived by Satan; so, ownership of the universe passed on to the devil. The race procreated through Adam and Eve, “the fallen Adamic race,” was doomed. And for more than a thousand years of the “Dominion of the Serpency (serpent seed),” the world was Satan’s. Until the fight between Lucifer and Quiboloy in “that covenant mountain” (presumably a mountain in the outskirts of Davao City) ensued, winning for the latter the whole enchilada — the Universe! In this new creation, a new Adam has come. Quiboloy profoundly and expansively declared that — “It is I that came. Who am I? I am the new owner of the world. I am here to ‘undeceive’ you by enlightenment.”

‘Earthquake stop!’
But Quiboloy has of late made other assertions. During the 6.7-magnitude earthquake in Davao, he declared publicly that he stopped the earthquake, in time to prevent further damage. Multitudes laughed and mocked him. With that, he subsequently allowed Typhoon “Tisoy” (international name: “Kammuri”) to ravage the land as chastisement for the taunt and for good measure, punishing those who insinuated he was a sexual predator and illegal recruiter. The latter prompted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to raid his church in Hawaii. This raid was also an offshoot of an investigation of an attempted United States dollar smuggling aboard his jet in Hawaii last year. With all these, God conversed with Quiboloy: “Nakausap ko and Diyos — ang kumakalat na virus ay kaparusahan sa pagsira sa aming simbahan. Hindi ko ito mapipigilan, ito po ay itinakda. Ngunit and mga kasapi po ay walang dapat ipag-alala, kami po ay exempted sabi ng Diyos (I talked to God. The [coronavirus] is punishment inflicted for destroying His church. I can’t stop this. It is ordained. But my flock need not worry. God said we are exempted).”

These claims have biblical antecedents 3,200 years ago, when Moses inflicted 10 plagues upon Egypt when the Pharaoh did not let his people go “…water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the killing of firstborn children.” Neither are these all that far-fetched from the One who turned water into wine, healed the sick, the blind to see, the lame to walk and even the dead to rise 2,000 years ago; or to the splitting of the moon in Muslim tradition by the prophet Muhammad; or of Isra and Mi’raj, two parts of a night journey on his flying horse-like beast, Buraq, to the farthest mosque and of his ascent to heaven 1,400 years ago.

So, there you are. The persons who can deliver us from this quarantine and this dilemma are both from Davao; one, a mere President with temporal powers saddled with a coping and alarmingly incompetent bureaucracy; and the “appointed son of God” himself.

Filipinos are predominantly Roman Catholics; many are poverty-stricken and easy prey to Bible-quoting characters gifted with eloquence mouthing passages of hope giving respite from their miserable lives. And, churches, sects and cults are the petri dish for the emergence of these types. These institutions enjoy tax-free revenues.

And, here is one whom prophets may have foretold — or a snake-oil salesman, a charlatan or one totally deranged!

National Week of Prayer set
MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte wants to declare a state of national emergency and is asking Congress to grant him additional powers to cope with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Malacañang stressed that Duterte is not seeking “emergency powers,” adding that a proposal to allow the state’s takeover of private firms for quarantine and related purposes came from Congress.

Duterte is also turning to prayer to fight the contagion.

In Proclamation 934 that he signed last Saturday, Duterte declared the fourth week of March as a National Week of Prayer against COVID-19.

In the proclamation, the President said the state recognizes the religious nature of Filipinos and the “vital role of faith in bringing about peace, solidarity, compassion and heroism in times of adversity.”

“During the aforesaid week, I urge all Filipinos of all faiths, religious traditions and backgrounds to unite our hearts in prayer as we face the COVID-19 threat, fixing our eyes on the Almighty in this time of affliction,” Duterte said.

The President urged the public to pray for the recovery of people who are suffering from COVID-19, for the comfort of those who have lost loves ones, and for the protection of all, especially the most vulnerable sectors of society.

“Pray also for strength and endurance for our outstanding medical professionals and health workers on the frontlines, your military and law enforcement officers, the government officials and personnel dealing with the present threat and all Filipinos who are working tirelessly to protect our communities, sacrificing their lives in the service of the country,” Duterte said.

“Through prayer, let us, as one nation, find strength to defeat this invisible enemy, with the aid and blessing of God,” he added.

The Philippines has 380 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 25 deaths as of yesterday.

The pandemic has prompted Duterte to place the entire Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine from March 17 to April 13.

Sen. Bong Go yesterday commended Duterte’s decision to declare a National Week of Prayer.

“I hope this paves the way for all of us to unite as a nation, notwithstanding our religion, and for us to also offer prayers for our frontliners who are leading our fight against COVID-19,” Go said in a statement in Filipino.

The senator seconded the importance of the President’s declaration, saying it is one of the ways to encourage and promote unity among Filipinos in the name of a common goal.

“We have gone through a lot of challenges. This is proof of our strength. Gaya ng ating pagdarasal noon upang maibsan ang hirap na pinagdaanan nating lahat, now more than ever, Filipinos need to pray,” Go said.

‘Not emergency powers’
Meanwhile, in a text message, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the letter to Congress signed by Execurive Secretary Salvador Medialdea stated “powers necessary to carry out urgent measures to implement the national emergency, not emergency powers.”

Earlier this month, President Duterte declared a state of public health emergency throughout the Philippines due to the local transmission of COVID-19.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the grant of special powers was a proposal of Congress.

“Malacañang just wants the President to have flexibility on the use of some of the provisions of the budget bill... so we can use them for our needs as we combat COVID-19,” Nograles said.

Under Proclamation No. 933 dated March 21, Duterte urged Congress to hold a special session today to allow him to “exercise powers necessary to carry out urgent measures to meet the current national emergency” relating to COVID-19.

The President also wants lawmakers to provide him “ample latitude to utilize appropriate funds to strengthen governmental response” against the threat of the disease and to continue providing basic services to the people.

In a letter sent to Senate President Vicente Sotto III last Saturday, Duterte certified as urgent the passage of a bill titled “An act to declare the existence of a national emergency arising from the COVID-19 situation, a unified national policy in connection therewith, and to authorize the President of the Republic of the Philippines for a limited period and subject to restrictions, to exercise powers necessary and proper to carry out the declared national policy and for other purposes.”

‘Emergency powers’ in draft bill
A draft bill leaked to reporters, however, used the term “emergency powers” in its declaration of policy.

“By reason thereof, and in order to optimize the efforts of the President to carry out the tasks needed to implement the aforementioned policy, it is imperative to grant him emergency powers subject to such limitations as hereinafter provided,” the bill read.

Palace officials have not confirmed whether the draft bill was the version they transmitted to Congress.

The draft bill also allows the President to take over private firms when necessary. Private firms include, but are not limited to, hotels and other similar establishments to house health workers, serve as quarantine areas, quarantine centers, medical relief, and aid distribution locations or other temporary medical facilities; public transportation to ferry health, emergency and frontline personnel and other persons; and telecommunications entities to facilitate uninterrupted communication channels between the government and the public.

Nograles was mum on the alleged proposal by the Senate to allow the government to take over private entities if necessary.

“(T)he House and the Senate will debate on it. Let’s just wait for the result of the debate because we in the executive branch will just follow the law to be passed by Congress,” he said. ­– With Paolo Romero