FIRST it was vaccine hesitancy coming out from the usual social climbers and racists fuelled by what’s trendy on social media. These fools seem to think that vaccines are some kind of designer stuff i.e., “I prefer Givenchy over Yves Saint Laurent.”
Vaccines are basically the same and the best vaccine is the one that is available. Waiting for your perceived “best brand” might be too late. You could get infected while waiting.
Next comes the fear that the vaccine will alter your DNA or make you magnetic, again coming from charlatans with absolutely no scientific basis.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the positive cases are rising till it got to the point that an exasperated President Duterte said in his weekly televised national address he will have those who refused to be vaccinated arrested.
And that got the usual suspects screaming “human rights”, dictator, fascist and other nonsense, including “free Leila de Lima” and “renew ABS-CBN franchise”. Nonsense indeed.
Until this finally got to the point prompting Justice secretary Menardo Guevara to issue a statement: “Getting vaccinated is not mandatory but complying with health protocols is mandatory. There is no law or ordinance that penalizes non-vaccinations but there are existing laws and ordinances that penalize non-compliance with health protocols.”
Indeed it is your right not to get vaccinated but you have no right to get infected with the virus and infect other people. Doing so is akin to attempted homicide, even murder, and if the person you infected dies it is murder consummated.
A colleague said if you infect more people and they die then you become a mass murderer. Take note that the vaccines will not make you COVID-19 proof but it will prevent you from getting seriously ill and hospitalized, or the worst, die.
There are already prominent public officials here in Iloilo that were fully vaccinated but were still infected with the virus yet they remain asymptomatic with almost no symptoms and have not infected their close contacts; after 14 days quarantine they are tested negative and that’s how the vaccine works.
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And we segue to the other stuff:
Never mind if Harry Roque is an Ilonggo or not. Here’s good news for Ilonggos: our very own Kaya FC-Iloilo won 1-nil against Chinese football powerhouse Shanghai Port FC in their AFC Champions League playoffs for the last spot in Group F.
Still on football, the best news is that history has been made. Two teams, Kaya FC-Iloilo and United City FC from our Philippine Football League or PFL, have qualified into the AFC Champions League Group Stages, besting other bigger and better funded leagues.
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So, former President Noynoy Aquino died. That’s inevitable. We all die. It is a natural stage in our existence. Nothing “heroic” really, that is, until some unscrupulous people milk it out for their ulterior motives.
And we call that “necropolitics” – using a corpse, ashes of that cremated corpse, and the fact that someone died, as props to promote a political agenda.
The timing is uncanny. Unfortunately for them, they can’t parade his enunciated corpse or his ashes on the streets of Metro Manila because of the pandemic protocols; at least we are spared that nonsense. But I won’t be surprised if they stretch this and blame, as usual, President Duterte.
To the Fallen SAF 44 of the Mamasapano Massacre, Dengvaxia victims, victims and survivors of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” and Chief Justice Renato Corona, it was indeed poetic justice.
It was ESRD or End Stage Renal Disease brought about by uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension, according to the medical report. So there’s no truth to the rumour that he finally fulfilled his election campaign promise to be ran over by a train and that disappointed a lot of people waiting for the day that he will voluntarily, together with his then Transport Secretary, lie down on the railroad tracks and be ran over by a train.
He was a man-child lured by his handlers, fellow oligarchs and unscrupulous politicians to a position way beyond his capacities and experience. During his watch as President of the republic, he was a nincompoop with an impressive title while his handlers virtually held the reins of power and wealth.
In the end, he died a pathetic, lonely, depressed broken shell of a man. That is, if he was man. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN)
