Trending in the Philippines tonight

While we Filipinos are waiting for President Duterte to address the nation tonight, the #GawingPatabaSaLupaSiCynthia hashtag has now accumulated 29.1K tweets as of this writing.  

The hashtag “Gawing Pataba Sa Lupa Si Cynthia” (use Cynthia as fertilizer) emerged after the public came to know about Sen. Cynthia Villar’s response to an interview question about her opinion on the health professionals’ request to revert Metro Manila to an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) status. 

Villar opposed the medical group’s call to place Metro Manila to the ECQ level stating that “Hindi na siguro, pagbutihin nila trabaho nila. Hindi pwedeng isara ang ekonomiya kasi kung di naman mamamatay sa COVID, mamamatay naman sa gutom ang tao” (Probably no. They should just do their jobs better. We can’t close down the economy, people may not die of COVID but may die of hunger.)

Metro Manila was placed under ECQ on March 16. The quarantine restrictions eased on June 1.

Update:

Duterte has recently approved the recommendation to revert Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal to Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ). 

Survival of the Fittest during COVID-19

It’s been years since I had published any story.

But I never stopped from capturing events, places, and people.  Unfortunately, everything was captured from my only mobile phone, which has stopped functioning for a month or so.

Yes, it brought a few changes on my daily activities and communication but it didn’t affect my life the way COVID-19 did.

I am pretty sure, with the current 5,939,234 confirmed cases across the globe, it isn’t just me who’s hoping and praying for this worldwide outbreak to end sooner.

The coronavirus impacted not just global public health but as well as the economy. Millions became jobless. Businesses that were not categorized as essential ones needed to cease - like those of my clients.

I work online doing freelance HR practice, writing, and other digital marketing projects, but most of it has stopped since the implementation of lockdowns and quarantines began.

Today is June 1^st and is the first day for the reopening of some businesses here in the Philippines. It brings hope to employees who wanted to go back to work and earn again for their families, but it is also the start of another challenge due to the lack of public transportation. I only hope for them the best – not to get infected with the virus as social distancing seemed to have been forgotten this morning while commuters try their best to get a ride to work.

Survival of the fittest. This is the new normal.