Philippines ignored neighbors' lessons on how to tackle coronavirus

Manila lockdown comes far too late after Duterte tried to placate China

Richard Heydarian

MARCH 18, 2020 14:00 JST

https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Philippines-ignored-neighbors-lessons-on-how-to-tackle-coronavirus

The Philippine government has taken drastic action. In response to the threat
of a coronavirus epidemic outbreak, it has placed the country's capital under a
de facto lockdown or, as President Rodrigo Duterte euphemistically said,
"enhanced community quarantine."

Metro Manila, home to more than 12 million and the most densely populated
urban center on earth, will face unprecedented restrictions on movement of its
residents from now at least until April 12. The Philippines is the first country
in the region to have placed its administrative and commercial capital under
collective quarantine.

Authorities have portrayed it as a preemptive measure against widespread

transmission. As many as 75,000 people, they warn, could get infected over
the coming months without extreme policies.

But the unprecedented lockdown in fact reflects recklessness and failure on

the part of Duterte's administration to nip the crisis in the bud, exactly when it
should have been learning from its neighbors. Instead, Duterte has been trying
to avoid China's wrath, to the potential detriment of his own people.

To put things into perspective, consider the Philippines' immediate neighbors,

both developed and developing, which have largely avoided the need to
quarantine major cities so far.
Neighbors such as Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam swiftly implemented
preventive measures, which allowed them to skip more draconian steps such
as those in China, Italy and, most recently, the Philippines.

Despite their geographic and cultural proximity to China, as the January

celebration of the Lunar New Year drew in countless tourists from the
mainland, they all managed to largely contain the epidemic.

This was accomplished through a combination of policies such as large-scale

public health campaigns, calibrated restrictions on public events and
gatherings, deployment of state-of-the-art technology to track and assess the
spread of the epidemic, proactive contact tracing to prevent intra-community
transmission and regular and transparent communication between top
officials and the citizenry.

One important factor, however, was the swift and decisive imposition of travel
restrictions to prevent the entry of potentially infected individuals to the
country.

Although a global hub and a major tourist destination, Singapore was among
the first countries to ban entry of all inbound flights from Wuhan, while
subjecting incoming Chinese tourists, especially those with potential
symptoms, to detailed health inspections and mandatory quarantine. Three
university hostels were rapidly converted to quarantine individuals coming
from affected areas in China.

Meanwhile, Taiwan rigorously inspected inbound visitors from China, then

quickly suspended flights by four major airlines between Taipei and Wuhan as
soon as the epidemic threat became clear.

The Philippines, however, responded with stubborn dismissiveness. Almost

two weeks into the Wuhan lockdown, Duterte nonchalantly claimed that
"everything is well. There's nothing really to be extra scared of that
coronavirus thing" since it will eventually "die on its own."

He asked his people not to be "hysterical" but instead "have faith in

humanity," especially since the Filipinos are a "resilient" people. Almost two
months into the crisis, this attitude may explain why the Philippines is yet to
procure large numbers of test kits to assess the real extent of the crisis.

Ruling out a proactive nationwide campaign to prevent an epidemic outbreak,

Duterte and his top officials also hesitated to place travel restrictions on
Chinese citizens, even as 135 Wuhan residents came to the Philippines to
avoid lockdown at home.

When a number of Filipino senators called on the government to follow in the

footsteps of neighboring countries, the Philippine Health Secretary warned
about the "political and diplomatic repercussions" of any travel restrictions on
China.

As the epidemic turned into a pandemic, incoming flights from China

continued despite the imposition of an official ban. Officials claim that the
flights only carried Filipinos and permanent residents, but there are reasons to
doubt this claim.

With a recent senate investigation revealing the large-scale illegal entry of

Chinese citizens, especially those working in the sprawling and largely shoddy
Chinese online casino industry in the Philippines, it is hard to ignore gaping
loopholes in the existing travel ban on mainland China.

By keeping the Philippines' doors way open weeks into the emerging
pandemic, the Duterte administration recklessly exposed the country to a
heightened risk of epidemic. Even if officially the Philippines has a relatively
low number of confirmed cases, the true extent of the epidemic threat is
largely "underreported," according to one senator, because of that lack of kits.

As Duterte announced a virtual lockdown in Manila, he still could not help but
praise the Chinese leadership and said, supposedly to allay fears among his
citizens, "if things deteriorate, I may have to call on China to help." It was far
from reassuring to many who oppose the president's China-friendly policy.

By blindly prioritizing strategic ties with China and recklessly dismissing the
possibility of an epidemic, the Duterte administration has risked an outbreak
and been forced to place a megacity on lockdown.

Richard Heydarian is an Asia-based academic, columnist and author of "The

Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt Against Elite Democracy" and the "The
Indo-Pacific: Trump, China and the New Struggle for Global Mastery."