HOW do I love thee? Let me count the days.
Ten days before the Extended Community Quarantine in the NCR is expected to be lifted. Fifty days since we’ve been locked down/up/in/out under a variety of names. First, Enhanced Community Quarantine (what pre-existing condition was there to enhance?). Since then, March 15, we have progressed to a variety of styles. Extreme CQ. Heightened CQ. Hard Lockdown. Modified Quarantine. Total Lockdown. General Community Quarantine. Calibrated Quarantine. Next, Exit Quarantine?
Talk of extraordinary times. As a fellow-senior keeps reminding me, why are senior citizens constantly being reminded – nagged – about their so-called vulnerability? Never have I felt more weak and defenseless than when I forced myself to sit through a virtual briefing with the good doctor who heads UP’s Institute of Ageing. The doctor’s lecture was helpful but left me feeling helpless, her explanations were clear and concise but left me confused and worried. – Are we nature’s mistakes? God’s lesser children? Am I so ancient that the facts of life can hit me in the gut like a KO by Manny Pacquiao? Why is the President’s emergency task force talking like seniors are a problem? Is the state about to declare anyone above age 59 an undesirable citizen, a disposable piece of antique junk?
Senior citizen Senator Franklin Drilon is right. Senior-itas and senior-itos, unite, we’re not sitting ducks and we’re not about to fade out just because we’ve had more birthday parties. If the IATF is serious about keeping elderlies out of the mainstream of society, let them do it first with their 75-year-old boss, the President (“medium old,” 70-80); then there’s Senate President Sotto and Health Secretary Duque (“young old,” 60-70). There you are, three oldies who are, as far as we can see, healthy, hard-working, and hardly doddering. Could government work more productively without their experience and presumed wisdom?
Romy Macalintal, a champion of the rights of seniors, should seriously think about waging the next revolution. First to be conscripted for membership, those amazing seniors who have recovered from the coronavirus. And their first order of business? Bring down the unacceptably high mortality rate of our health workers, one in every five, or 20 percent, or 10 times higher than in other civilized countries.