Sana all...

“Nakakalungkot…lahat ng pinuntahan ko puro na lang kontra, kontra yung komunidad…Sabi ko ‘Sinong mangangalaga sa kapwa natin Pilipino kundi Pilipino din?’ Hindi naman kako natin aasahan ang ibang tao na mangalaga sa mga Pilipino tapos tayo mismong mga Pilipino hindi natin sila bibigyan ng pangangalaga.” “

Thus, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III lamented the rejection by local communities of hosting places to serve as quarantine for Filipinos to be repatriated from China.

Rued he: “Sayang yung spirit of bayanihan, kilala tayo diyan. Papayag ba tayo na mawala ito? Magpakita tayo ng patriotism.”

While Duque did not name the rejecting communities, the sangguniang panlalawigan of Nueva Ecija last Monday passed a resolution requesting the Department of Health to reconsider its plan to make the mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Fort Magsaysay a quarantine zone, “in representation of the sentiments of the people of Nueva Ecija who have readily expressed fear and opposition to the plan.”

Earlier, NE 3^rd District Rep. Rosanna Vergara separately called on the DOH to “consider a better equipped facility.”

“We have the Center for Disease Control located in Las Piñas — might this facility be better equipped to handle the coronavirus as it was built precisely for cases like the coronavirus and it has the medical personnel trained to handle cases like this,” she said.

The sound of Duque’s announcement of the Athlete’s Village in New Clark City as the chosen quarantine area for the Filipino repatriates had not fully faded but Capas Mayor Rey Catacutan, in a visit in Germany, already tweeted his “appeal in behalf of all Capaseños” to President Duterte and Duque “to consider another place or facility as isolation area.”

Rallying round the mayor, the Capas sangguniang bayan unanimously approved in an emergency session a resolution objecting to the use of the Athlete’s Village as quarantine site.

That display of NIMBY – not in my backyard, dummy – in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija and in Capas, Tarlac is, most apparently, stimulated by the fear instinct. Magnified mainly with all the hysteria surrounding the reportage on the novel coronavirus, further inflamed by the twisted narratives in the social media.

It did not help any, in fact it hardened the opposition, that the DOH did not make any coordination with the LGUs before coming out with its announcements of the proposed quarantine zones.

Said Catacutan: “I feel perturbed by the fact that [DOH] did not at all, in any way, involve the Capas LGU in its last-minute decision for New Clark City Capas to be used as quarantine zone for these persons under monitoring (PUMs).”    

Distrust of the DOH accumulating there. Thus, even with the DOH dishing the correct information that: the virus is not airborne, thus beyond three meters is a safe zone from catching particles from sneezes, coughing from the infected person; that face masks are not necessary for people with no respiratory issues,  the fear of the people could hardly be allayed.

Indeed, the fear instinct distorts focus, as some author wrote. Worse, it perverts reason.   

Amid the seemingly blurred perspective and blinded unreason of the LGUs – no less eased by their attestations of love for their fellow Filipinos coming from Wuhan, but… -- stand clearly, brightly, patriotically Gov. Dennis G. Pineda and the people of Pampanga.

To thunderous applause of thousands of barangay health workers in assembly last Wednesday, Pineda declared Pampanga open as quarantine area for Filipino repatriates: “Kadugo po natin sila kaya bukas po ang Pampanga para sa kanila…They are hailed as heroes so they should be helped when they’re in need of help. I see this as a call of duty.”

Duque’s Friday lamentation: “Who will take care of our fellow Filipinos but Filipinos themselves? We cannot expect others to take care of our fellow countrymen if we ourselves would not take care of them” has been pre-responded by Pineda two days before.

No mere sense of kapwa or patriotism inhering in Pineda’s declaration, but also one of reasoned judgment.
And no mere rhetoric for Pineda here. Having much earlier coordinated with DOH representatives of health facilities in Pampanga meeting up to the needs of quarantine; and Clark freeport and airport authorities on preparation for landing the repatriates.

On Saturday, a 40-foot container van converted into and fitted by the provincial government as an isolation chamber, along with two mini-buses fitted as containment transport have been dispatched to the Clark International Airport, ready for the repatriates.

Aye, amid all the illogical noise raised by the rejection of the Filipino repatriates by the LGUs – poor folk have even been agitated to stage protest actions – it is heartening to note the thousands of reactions in the web – veritably all positive – to the open-Pampanga declaration and subsequent actions of Pineda.

Affirming the malasakit and leadership he earlier displayed in his trail-blazing immediate response to the Taal Volcano eruptions, crafting in him the very template for good, caring governance – gravitas, dignitas, integritas, virtus, as the Romans of old defined leadership. In Delta now is raised the wish of local constituencies for their own officials: Sana all.