COVID-19 has opened our eyes to one hard truth – our government is terribly ill-prepared for pandemics.
Moving forward, we must learn from this unfortunate experience. Post-COVID-19, for example, the government may set up a permanent body which, aside from serving as the institutional memory of our collective experience on the coronavirus, shall have the mission of making sure we have much better defenses and countermeasures against lingering COVID-19 effects and future epidemics.
The current Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases is just an ad hoc body, busy with day-to-day matters. For the years ahead, we need an epidemic management commission as a permanent structure.
The epidemic management commission can be created through Executive Order, in much the same way other presidential commissions were established. But Congress can institutionalize it with a bill containing its formal charter. It should have its own epidemiology and quarantine unit, a governing body like the IATF, and coordination authority over the network of molecular and microbiology laboratories we have nationwide.
What we also have in mind for future epidemics are molecular laboratories that are mobile quick deploy units, perhaps in the form of small fleet of hospital ships manned by a corps of highly-trained health professionals. With these hospital ships, we can respond to outbreaks and epidemics in the most remote areas of our country. The molecular laboratories now in operation and those being built would be for the host of other contagious diseases the Department of Health is mandated to address.
For administrative and budget purposes, the commission could be attached to the Office of the President. Then when we have a Department of Disaster Resilience, the commission can be transferred to the DDR.
But wait…we still do not have a Department of Disaster Resilience. When the COVID-19 urgency wanes, the Filipino people will be wondering why the DDR is still not up and running.
