Politicizing the pandemic

WITH A YEAR to go till the next presidential elections which falls on May 9, 2022, and seven months to go for the filing of certificates of candidacy on Oct. 1 to 8 of this year, the wannabes are literally scrambling.

And I mean literally scrambling to the point of being desperate to be in the limelight, stay relevant and, above all, find an issue – any issue will do – to throw at President Rodrigo Duterte with the hope that somehow it will bring him down.

This is actually kind of funny since President Duterte is on his final term and the law does allow for reelection. So simply put, he is not running for president. As for any other office, that’s another story.

So why are they focusing on bringing him down since the main event come 2022 elections is the presidential race? And mind you, he is not a candidate.

It could only mean one thing: Duterte is a formidable force to be reckoned, and whoever he anoints or gets his support and endorsement as presidential candidate is the candidate to beat and most probably will be the next President of the Philippines.

Since Day One, they threw everything including the kitchen sink against Duterte to no avail. In fact, his popularity and approval ratings soared to unprecedented levels and they have run out of ideas – not that they were full of them in the first place, creativity is not one of the so-called opposition’s strong points.

Take note that after six years, all they can come up with is 1Sambayanan. This reminded me of the last local elections when then 4th District congressman Ferjenel Biron ran against then 3rd District congressman Arthur Defensor Jr. for governor of Iloilo province.  At that time, Biron and his people focused all their attacks on the outgoing Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. hoping that if they bring Arthur Sr. down, then Arthur Jr., too.

You all know what happened. They fell flat on their faces. Everything backfired on them. Instead of pulling away votes from Arthur Jr., they succeeded in bringing more votes for him so Biron lost miserably to Arthur Defensor Jr.

We are now on the final stretch before the election year and the usual suspects have run out of issues and out of desperation is their last card – politicize the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is now all hands on deck for the final push of the motley crew of the so-called opposition: “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon”, pseudo communists, out-of-work ABS-CBN “talents”, former and wannabe “beauty queens”, wokes, trendy social climbers, irrelevant remnants of the Liberal party, and fallen out of grace but overly ambitious politicians.

I hope I didn’t miss anyone who thinks he/she should be included. If I did it was not intentional, just an oversight.

The target is for the vaccination program to fail. If it does, then so will our economy and guess who they will blame? Why, Duterte of course, with the ultimate motive that it will bring him and his government down.

They don’t care about the dire consequences if the vaccination program fails. They just want to bring Duterte down. That’s how evil they are.

I know this is difficult for you to comprehend because you’re an idiot; the billions of dollars borrowed from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for purchase of COVID-19 vaccines did not go to the Philippine treasury. In fact it’s still there in the banks. Once the vaccines are available and ready for shipment, then the banks will pay the manufacturers directly – meaning not a single centavo passed the treasury. But of course, you don’t get that because you’re a biased idiot who hates Duterte.

For Leni Robredo, it’s all about grandstanding and media mileage. If she’s really sincere in wanting to help the government effort against the pandemic, instead of posting her “suggestions “in social media she could have sent it to the IATF in a formal communication manner i.e. a letter or email. Better still, she could as Vice President request a meeting with the President to present and discuss her “suggestions.” But no. Leni just has to post it on Twitter.

After six years of promoting herself using government resources, she failed miserably. always making it to the bottom half of all surveys for presidentiables.

Now they’re blaming Duterte for the spike in COVID-19 cases. Take a closer look and you’ll see its human behavior. That inherent disdain of the Filipinos for discipline and following the medical protocols are ultimately causing it.

And finally, something I picked up from Twitter. Why not just place the entire country under martial law (the COVID-19 pandemic is a national emergency). For sure medical protocols will be strictly followed. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN