The Philippines is no stranger to infectious diseases, epidemics, and pandemics.

It's because our nation

already has a lot of history dealing with diseases and epidemic outbreaks like dengue, measles, polio, and
many more diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2019), the Philippines had
371,717 cases of dengue with over a thousand deaths from January to October of 2019. This urged the
Department of Health to declare a national dengue epidemic on August 6, and the declaration did help the
Philippines in fending off dengue, as one year after its announcements, the reported dengue cases dropped
from 430,282 to just shy of 60,000 in 2020 (Philippine News Agency, 2020). This small victory, however,
did not prepare the Philippines at all for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the onslaught that it
caused. SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, originated in Wuhan, China, and was originally reported by Chinese
officials in December 2019 after detecting 44 cases of pneumonia from unknown causes (WHO, 2020). In
January 2020, the first case of COVID-19 appeared, which involved a 38-year-old Chinese lady who had
to be confined at San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila, while a 44-year-old man, who unfortunately died
on February 1, was detected to be the second case (Edrada et al., 2020). Afterwards, a state of public
emergency in the Philippines was quickly announced on March 9 by President Duterte, suspending all
classes when the total confirmed cases reached 24 (Tomacruz, 2020) and ushering in a sudden Luzon-
wide community quarantine later on in the same month (WHO, 2020). Although actions were quick, the
Philippines suffered a massive loss as COVID-19 proved to be much harder to fight off, revealing the
massive weaknesses of the country's health care system and government. The virus has caused the
Philippines to go into recession due to a multitude of factors, ranging from the incompetence and
complacency of the government to their negligence to collaborate with global experts and other civil
society leaders (Basuil, 2020). Therefore, in this essay, I will attempt to narrate and reflect on the outbreak
of COVID-19 and why the Philippines and its government have failed to manage the outbreak of COVID-
19, and their misactions and insufficient response have caused the nation and its people to heavily decline
due to their incompetence and complacency, their botched response to contain the outbreak, and their
failure to account for the people.

The Philippines, upon the emergence of COVID-19, suffered a great recession from the complacency and
incompetence of the government. The many requests to ban travel from China were met with reluctance
and subsequently ignored by the President and the Health Secretary (Peralta, 2020), and only after the
first confirmed case was confirmed did the government finally move to ban travel from China a day later
(CNN Philippines, 2020). Furthermore, the government's initial downplaying and underestimation of the
dangers of COVID-19, paired with their complacency against the virus, had unfortunately come back to
bite them as the Philippines became the country with the fastest rise of infections among the Western
Pacific, which they tried to deny (WHO, 2020). Despite having a national action plan that contains
strategies and guidelines to fight against the virus, the government failed to implement those same
strategies that could have managed and enclosed the outbreak early on. The government did take action
very early into the outbreak, but the restrictions were only successful in temporarily delaying the spread
of the disease as the number of confirmed cases increased in the weeks that followed. Furthermore, the
shortage of funds and equipment for testing, tracing, and protection gave the nation a much lower
capacity for tests, and the insufficient capacity of hospitals further pressured and overwhelmed the
country's health system (Yee, 2020). The government's incompetence and complacency against the virus
not only gave them the opportunity to secure and contain it before the virus spreads, but the lack of
equipment, funds, and poor testing capacity also caused the nation to suffer a recession.
While the Philippines were quite early in their actions against the virus, they sadly failed to manage the
outbreak as their response was badly carried out and quite ineffective. A travel ban was set in place only
when a confirmed case was detected (CNN, 2020), despite the various requests to ban travel from China
beforehand.There was also a complete lockdown of the entirety of Luzon being ordered without the
consultation of experts, and strict quarantine rules were set in place across various regions, but each
policy was different according to the various regions across the Philippines, only causing more confusion
and unrest for the citizens. Furthermore, these policies did not give any kind of guidance on how citizens
should deal with the pandemic, only inflicting harsher penalties that failed to address the root problem
and only caused more economic hardships for millions of Filipinos alike. In addition, the Philippine
government also failed to increase the testing, tracing, and isolation capacity, resulting in a much bigger
spike in cases and deaths. Of course, there were some good measures taken by the government to contain
the COVID-19 pandemic, like distributing vaccines despite the shortage and low coverage and keeping
only essential businesses open to measures involving the prohibition of individuals of certain age brackets
from leaving their homes (Talabis et al., 2021), but the majority of the policies kept in place were delayed
or inadequate, only helped suppress the symptoms of the problem but not its root cause, and were
ineffective. The government could've done much better had they reacted much faster and focused more on
implementing better and more comprehensive testing, tracing, and isolation strategies.

On the economic side of the outbreak, the Philippines faced an extremely severe crisis and recession due
to the pandemic. The hastily ordered lockdown of the entirety of Luzon crippled the entire economy and
sent its GDP downward to the negatives (Albert, 2020). Unemployment in the Philippines spiked to new
heights during the first quarter of 2020, while labor participation was even higher (Albert, 2020).
Furthermore, transportation was under heavy scrutiny and needed excessive permits, disrupting valuable
domestic value chains that might've helped the economy. This hasty order of locking down the entirety of
Luzon punished the poorer citizens, with the government's heavy-handed approach to the pandemic
criminalizing violations of quarantine protocols that were impossible to follow (Santos, 2020). In
addition, those that were in police custody for breaking protocols were not given proper care nor hygiene,
with Kristina Conti from the National Union of People’s Lawyers saying, "Doesn’t their arrest defeat the
purpose of stopping the spread of the virus?" The government's failure to account for their citizens when
taking action against the pandemic and their militarization and heavy-handed approach have severely
disrupted the livelihoods of the Filipino people, tanked the economy and GDP of the Philippines, and sent
the much more unfortunately poor and vulnerable citizens greater hardships to endure. The Philippines
went from the fastest-growing economies in the world to the complete opposite (Mendoza, 2021).

The Philippines and its government have been horribly unsuccessful in managing the COVID-19
pandemic, and in their long list of mistakes, they have paid the price, with the nation heavily declining
due to their incompetence and complacency, their terrible response to suppress the virus, and their
inability to account for their citizens when taking action. Their reluctance to ban travel to and from China
despite the various requests to do so, as well as their delayed response and underestimation of the virus,
had come back to bite them as a much bigger problem. Despite their response being delayed, it was much
earlier compared to other nations, except they hadn't done much to alleviate the problem as their policies
were mismanaged and inefficient. Their actions also brought about a severe economic crisis as the
lockdown halted the economy, dropping the country's GPD to the negatives and turning the next Asian
tiger economy into the sick man it had once been. The government has been very incompetent in dealing
with the COVID-19 pandemic, but I think it can do better just by learning from the mistakes made during
the pandemic, such as consulting economic experts and being more transparent about their policies rather
than resorting to a militaristic approach, which would help prevent their policies from negatively affecting
the nation and confusing its citizens. By doing so, I imagine that the Philippines would be a lot more
prosperous and healthy for the current citizens as well as the future generations of our nation.
References:
- Ana P. Santos (2020, April 13). Poverty punished as Philippines gets tough in virus pandemic. Aljazeera.
Poverty punished as Philippines gets tough in virus pandemic | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

- Arianna Maever L Amit, Veincent Christian F Pepito, and Manuel M Dayrit (2021, May 2). World Health
Organization. Early response to COVID-19 in the Philippines | Western Pacific Surveillance and Response
(who.int)

- Dynah A Basuil, KG Lobo, and Christine Marie Faustino (2020, June 29). The Philippines’ gender-blind
COVID-19 response. EastAsiaForum. The Philippines’ gender-blind COVID-19 response | East Asia Forum

- Edrada et al. (2020, April 19). First COVID-19 infections in the Philippines: a case report. National
Library of Medicine. First COVID-19 infections in the Philippines: a case report - PMC (nih.gov)

- Janine Peralta (2020, January 29). Duterte not keen on banning travel to China amid coronavirus scare.
CNN. https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/1/29/duterte-on-china-travel-ban.html

- Jose Ramon G Albert (2020, December 23). Were the Philippines’ COVID-19 responses sufficient?
EastAsiaForum. Were the Philippines’ COVID-19 responses sufficient? | East Asia Forum

- Jovic Yee (2020, July 29). Hospitals running out of COVID-19 beds – DOH. Inquirer.net. Hospitals running
out of COVID-19 beds – DOH | Inquirer News

- Paul L. Quintos (2019, June) The Philippines’ COVID-19 Response: Symptoms of Deeper Malaise in the
Philippine Health System. University of the Philippines Dilliman. https://ncpag.upd.edu.ph/wp-
content/uploads/covid19response.pdf

- Philippine News Agency. (2020, September 4). DOH initiative lowers dengue deaths by 78%.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1114383
- Ronald U. Mendoza (2021, August 12). The Philippine economy under the pandemic: From Asian tiger
to sick man again? Brookings. The Philippine economy under the pandemic: From Asian tiger to sick man
again? | Brookings

- Sofia Tomacruz (2020, March 9). Duterte suspends classes in Metro Manila March 10-14 over
coronavirus threat. Rappler. Duterte suspends classes in Metro Manila March 10-14 over coronavirus
threat (rappler.com)

- Talabis et al. (2021, September 21). Local government responses for COVID-19 management in the
Philippines. BMC Public Health. Local government responses for COVID-19 management in the
Philippines | BMC Public Health | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)

- World Health Organization (2019, November 5). Philippines situation report 9: Dengue outbreak.
Reliefweb. https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/philippines-situation-report-9-dengue-outbreak-5-
november-2019