PRINCESS SHANE C.

BURCE
POL2A
LAS217

As a LAS217 student, how would you use the idea of Sun Tzu in the book Art of War in
the present pandemic? How it would be useful in creating strategies and appropriate
actions in the present time?

The Philippine government has been boasting that as early as March 16, they had the
gumption to implement a lockdown in major cities and provinces in response to the
unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. However, Manila’s overall response to the pandemic
has been fraught with incompetence and rife with terror.

The implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) came on the heels
of serious negligence — namely, the authorities failing to keep up with the preventive
measures of neighboring countries and grossly underestimating the virus. What’s
worse, instead of easing the overall burden that the virus unleashed on the country, it
seems the last resort lockdown itself added to a plethora of problems without
adequately addressing the primary crisis at hand: ensuring public health and safety.

Strict compliance with the ECQ is ordered for all citizens, with the exception of frontline
professionals, until at least May 15. That has meant curfews, harsh penalties for being
outside, and an impoverished population descending into hunger.

The global crisis is first and foremost a public health issue, but Philippine President
Rodrigo Duterte has faced the coronavirus pandemic in a decidedly militaristic fashion.
Since the lockdown went into effect, he has peddled the narrative of pasaways or
“undisciplined” citizens as responsible for the ensuing problems. He has also brought up
unsubstantiated activities of guerrilla groups as threats to government aid efforts without
conceding any missteps in his management. On top of deploying thousands of police
and soldiers throughout the archipelago to enforce the ECQ, Duterte has on two
occasions threatened the public with all-out martial law. There have been moments of
abject incompetence from those in power around the world, but using the pandemic as
a reason for increasingly flexing authoritarian muscles spells danger for the Philippines
post-lockdown.

“As long as differences exist there will be war”, is like when corona virus can’t be cured
the pandemic will not be done. We find a cure for the said virus because the existence
of these brings sufferance to the people and to the world and we need to take good care
of ourselves in order to survive this crisis.
I came to believe that war was the natural state of life. Things naturally regressed
towards chaos and peace only came because someone worked incredibly hard to bring
it and maintain it, just like the present pandemic we are facing now seek immediate
medical attention if someone is having serious symptoms. Always call before visiting the
doctor or health facility and be responsible or otherwise should manage their symptoms
at home.

In the book art of war, war is a natural state of nature whether you like it or not. Or are
we
claiming that peace is sustainable, because it isn’t and that is a fact. There is no peace
without war and there is no war without peace. That being said, we are speaking about
in this pandemic and or crisis that we are facing right now each one of us, every
individual who live their lives and hate the thought of pandemic, crisis in any respect. In
all cases of this pandemic the government and other public supporters are well thought
out ideas and concepts that in many cases mutually exclusive to help the public to fight
against corona virus 2019.

Most interesting and important that I had learned on reading the art of war is that the
quote of ‘Be where your enemy does not expect you to be, and do not be where your
enemy expects you to be.’ Which in the current pandemic corona virus 2019 the world
didn’t expect that this will be come, we are not ready, and now we had a hard time to
find for a cure and for the result, changes and damage of this pandemic in the lives of
each and every people in this world. Anything that requires a strategy could with reason
be considered the issues that might help our government and the world to fight this kind
of crisis, so that people should not struggle to get a job. Things changed and life goes
on, we got to continue work and got better opportunities as time went along. It is about
mental toughness and the audacity of hope. A supportive environment also helps a lot.

I agree also that the natural man is naturally aggressive, an enemy of god’s. the natural
progression of man should lead to enlightenment, I’m not saying that war is always
wrong, in defense of your home’s and lives we fight with honor. War should never be
the natural state of things, only poison of ideologies stated of above that are always
brought to the people by government or by fraudulent means and language, and
government has a vested interest in keeping its people just as smart as they need to be
to do the jobs available, but not smart enough or spiritual enough to know when they
are being deceived. In the present case that we are facing now if we don’t learn from
the guidelines and reminders from the department of health for us to fight against the
pandemic while we are searching for the cure for virus, the pandemic will continue like
this and we will never be back to normal.

(Beltran, 2020)