Remaking a New Philippines and a New Filipino….Musings of an Eternal Optimist in A Post Coronavirus Period.

David Celestra Tan, MSK
22 April 2020

Let me start my optimism with a pessimism. We should be prepared that there will really be no post-coronavirus period per se. Life for humanity and Filipinos including the very rich nations of the world will never be back to the old normal. Covid-19 will not be behind us. Just like the flu and chicken pox.

A lot depends on the “if and when” of them finding a vaccine. With humanity’s existence on the line, we have to be optimistic that our scientists worldwide and the philanthropists, governments, and pharmaceutical companies supporting them will eventually come through with a vaccine or several vaccines for each type of Covid-19 that they may be able to identify. Most people including Bill Gates say it will take 1 year or two Or in the least come up with mitigation protocols, the way we have been dealing with cancer.

At this stage we are still trying to understand what is this Covid-19 that hit us. First of all it is something that attacks our respiratory system. So a lot of the mitigation is in everyone not ingesting or inhaling it through your mouth, nose, and eyes. It starts with a carrier (symptomatic or asymptomatic) spreading it by coughing, sneezing, or touching droplets in the air or surfaces. Crowds and enclosed areas are particularly dangerous. That is why we have social distancing and crowd distancing. The scary part is that there are carriers who did not even know they are, and people around them were not aware.

Initial researches say the virus doesn’t survive in heat and dry temperature. And they vary in survival time on different surfaces. That as droplets they travel only about 10 feet and die. But those are episodes to which we are continually exposed as we move around every time someone spreads it into the air or surfaces.

Our current crowd and social society will never be the same including the economic, business, health, and transport infrastructure that have been built for them.

Soon we will have to deal with our economic survival. Individually, locally, and nationally.

Even the focus of government (if the politicians are listening) will have to change.

Reopening the economy

Pretty soon we will need to reopen the economy, the government and civic functions, albeit slowly and carefully. Or we will also die economically. We will see the installation of thermal scanning systems in all entrances and hallways of offices and businesses, stores, and malls just like the CCTV. It will not only be entrance temperature taking but continuous scanning everywhere. We might even see it on airplanes and buses. This would be on top of the continuous use of appropriate face covering and washing of hands and regular facility sanitizing.

It will take a while before those who can afford it will avoid shopping and activities with big crowds. They will rely more on impersonal shopping and shopping services.

Hospitals would have special coronavirus wings with even more extensive facilities than cancer centers. Covid-19 is 10x more dangerous because it is deviously contagious and cancer is not.

The economy and society including government will have to adjust to this new normal. Business volume will not be the same and we all have to figure out a new economics and business model.

The temptation of government policy makers to provide financial bailouts to business automatically so they can go back to normal should be done with care. Are we throwing good money to try revive businesses that have become irrelevant and unimportant by the new social environment? Should we not be more strategic about this and instead help these businessmen to reposition themselves towards the new economy?

Our people and commerce can afford even less the abusive rates for basic utilities like electricity, water, telephone, and roads.

A Chance for a New Philippines

The focus of government should no longer be forever expansion and economic growth. The health care system needs to now be prepared for pandemics.

Crowded cities will have to be decongested and population centers need to be dispersed. There should be less need to travel far in crowded public transport. There should be a moratorium on building high-rises especially in crowded areas. It calls for height limits, open spaces, ventilation, and maybe external elevators. Social distancing and fever detection will become permanent parts of the system. Many families might find it safer to move back to their provinces where there is less congestion and fresher air and beaches.

What is going for us is we have an archipelagic country so it is easier to isolate and create clean and sanitized islands. And we have a lot of good local talent to run government properly in a way that is attuned to the unique needs of their island including remaking their island economy and health care preparedness.

We have to similarly remake our national economy. We can no longer count on the same magnitude of foreign income of our OFW’s. We have to adjust our expectations from foreign tourism and openness with which all of us used to travel anywhere we want. The consumer driven economy will have to change especially those that depend on crowds like malls.

Globalization, and the openness it requires, need to be revisited. It is a good time for our country to start thinking inward and be self sufficient. Our need for food security, for in- country jobs in manufacturing and services, for energy security, for health security.

We need to reevaluate the cost benefit of the POGO’s. If we want to allow them into the country, should they be in the business and population centers? Why not in confined international zones and islands where they will not be as disruptive. The stealth under which they operate maybe inconsistent with the new need for overall security.

It is a good time to promote our export zones and seek more manufacturing in the country. We need competitive energy and more consistent rules. We don’t need to manufacture the prime commodities and materials like textiles and etc. What we need are the soft parts of the fashion and electronics industry. More design and more functionality. More Value added products. How about the knowledge and info tech industries?

It is easier said than done for sure. But now we have a strong President who can have the political will to do what is necessary to remake this country and to resist the oligarchs who would want to perpetuate their money making machines under the pre-Covid-19 economy, to mobilize the government resources needed to remake the country and the Filipino.

He has to preside over not only in reviving the economy but also remaking it that is attuned to the realities and needs of the new social distanced society. Even if a vaccine is developed, that would be for the Covid-19. What we have seen here is the global peril of a truly open society, a country without borders, of population congestion, the dangers of crowd events and mass gatherings.

Surely there will be a shake up in the restaurant, hotel, and transport businesses. High rise condo’s and CBD living. Many of them will not survive. But give them time, the fittest will adjust. Soon they will have visible kitchens, glass enclosed dining cubicles, sanitized entry and unobtrusive temperature detection, sanitized servers, and of course a good food take out system. Thermal scanning will be ubiquitous. Everyone’s cellphones will become thermal scanners for personal safeguard. Much the same way it replaced our cameras.

Before we can do all that we first need to survive.

We may need a strong government not for political, ideological, or peaceful reasons but for national survival and reconstruction. We need a government who can not only mobilize resources to survive the epidemic, to rebuild and remake the economy, but also to protect our people from the profiteers who we can expect will exploit the situation.

We need new government officials and civic and business leaders who can help the President with a new post Covid-19 pragmatism and mentality. Not the same ones who are hopelessly in love with our recent past that will not come back.

Remaking us and the country in the Digital Age

Another good thing going for us, and for all countries actually, is we do not have to go back to the dark ages to decongest and to de-crowd our cities, our society, and our economy. We will be doing so in a digital economy where a lot of things can be done without human personal and physical interaction. We can actually be more efficient if we are just strategic and smart about where to take our country and people.

A lot of transactions can be done on line. We as a society have been going to social media anyway, keeping in touch with friends, family, and associates by email and facebook. Talking to them by videochat. Remote collaboration and work at home are feasible. Can we imagine being quarantined at home for months without internet, cable TV, smart phones, internet gaming, and TV hours of worship? And yes on-line shopping?

Leading the remaking of the country

The job is too big and too deep for one man and central figure to lead and implement. We need to accelerate the decentralization of government to the LGU. After all the Governors and Mayors are in better positions and accountability to know what is right for their own province or island. The President and the legislature can only provide the macro support, policies, and laws. The general goals and even nationwide logistics. LGU’s will have to develop their own strategies, their own goals, their own timing, their own implementation that would be more responsive to the needs of their province and towns. Some towns will do badly but most will do better if their ideas and local familiarity will be unleashed.

To make all these happen within the urgent time that the Filipinos need to survive, we may need a regime of national emergency not for political and ideological reasons but for social, health, and economic change. This is like rebuilding a country after a devastating war.

This is an opportunity to remake the Philippines and the Filipino. I told you I am an eternal optimist.

Keep safe everybody.

Matuwid na Singil sa Kuryente Consumer Alliance Inc.
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