"Pandemic or Not, it's all about their interest over the people"
Bluntly speaking, this note is ought to say that for the order who deals upon this pressing issue, it doesn't matter whether the pandemic will subside or not, for sometimes having that pandemic is itself a reason for the order to "put people in their place." Of course, people will oppose that measure citing it affects their daily movement (such as those of going to work or to buy necessary needs), but the order sees it as an opportunity to put their perception of stability, even it requires mobilising the police and the military to control people's movement, of imposing stringent measures in various levels and rebranding it as "quarantine" just to show how the regime is itself "fighting" the pandemic- even it isn't in a supposed medical manner and procedures such as the need for mass testing and necessary medical support especially frontliners.
But as people continue to struggle amidst regulated movements and fear brought by the pandemic, authorities, who all sit comfortably in their high-end offices, and in connivance with interests, shrug people's concerns altogether if not being treated as an opportunity for their political agendas for 2022. In fact, various corporate entities take opportunity to make profit on this pandemic while corrupt politicians trying their best to "beautify" themselves in feigning doing charity for the poor.
However, in the halls of Malacañang comes a myriad of contradictions- that in one of presidential fireside rants, President Rodrigo Duterte wants the government’s vaccination program against COVID19 to kick off earlier than the projected second quarter of 2021, a change of statement from its earlier promise to "bring back normalcy" this December with vaccines to be distributed. Another statement from Duterte said he only recently saw the importance of mass tests after months of skepticism if not disagreeing with concerned officials stressing its importance.
Yet, come to think that most of his rants shown in television emphasises the administration's real interest as not on how to provide support in this continuing pandemic problem nor the need to acquire vaccines from various sources (be it Pfizer, AstraZenica, or Sinovac) but rather the obsession of defeating the rebels with Duterte and his camarilla wallow in an endless stream of counterinsurgency war profit. The recent red taggings, witch hunts, and the extrajudicial killings has shown how the order, driven by their hatred against the growing mass of opposition from the toiling masses has preferred to continue wielding the sword of war as it continues its low intensity conflict in various names and rephrased plans.
Like Aquino in 1987, Duterte would rather respond popular discontent not by social and economic reform or immediate relief for the downtrodden mass, but by police, military, and paramilitary action. And in speaking of that "wielding the sword of war" sometimes a concerned would wonder, what's the use of having an agency such as "adviser on the peace process" when the regime simply scrapped negotiations altogether?
With these, a concerned would say "not surprising" about the situation. That as in the past, the order is either remorseless or unrepentant in its move to focus on their interest even it requires sacrificing its people be it this pandemic or the usual cycle of witchhunts and killings.