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IMBUED with the herd mentality of vermin held rapt by a piper tune to march into the sea, the populace-- without as much as a protest or protestation-- accepted their rueful fate under house arrest. 'Twas bruited about as measure to check the spread of a viral trend. Never mind if so-called curse, oops, cure is worse than disease.

And so, the stewards of community health went the whole hog to make sure a vulnerable populace kept themselves secured in their homes-- they've given themselves the status as frontliners. As to which or what front they were lining, we didn't have an inkling. Methinks panty liners are more to my liking.

Neither did our health stewards have an inkling that imposing a garrison state was 
the equivalent of low-intensity conflict or hamleting to throttle movement of people. It just didn't occur to 'em that they inflicting mayhem and murder on the nation's economy and people's livelihood. 

Ay, there used to be over 30 tricycles plying routes from the main highway to the inner parts of the subdivision where I reside. With the health safety restrictions in place, the tricycles were reduced to three. That means 27 or so trike drivers and their families had to go on a prolonged hunger strike or grub for food elsewhere. 

Even the stay-out cleaning lady-- she with six mouths to feed-- who come to our house thrice a week was prevented by community health stewards from doing so, just to ensure that such a humble family can starve rather than probably spread gossip, virus, micro-organism or whatever.

And I had to secure a quarantine pass from local authorities allowing me to trudge about four kilometers to the next community for me to buy a weekly supply of smokes and grog. Sure, I complied. They won't give any. Reason: I am a senior citizen, and it is verboten for the elderly like me to be hiking four kilometers to spread pathogens along that stretch.

Would a quarantine pass ensure that I am virus-free and go to do my business? Are those community health stewards virus-free that they can roam the length and breadth of our subdivision. I have my doubts.

I have my doubts on the numbers fed to mainstream media about how many fresh cases were racked up, the fatalities, recoveries. If memory serves, the top three killer diseases in the country that rack up deaths in the millions are heart ailments, stroke, and cancer-- but media chose to don blinders and focused on the viral trend. 

Ay, global recommendation for health spending is 5% of the GDP and Filipinos need not worry that the government spends a mere 3% of the GDP, mostly to pay for salaries of health personnel. Do they care about community health, eh?

Maybe, maybe not, we're being taken for a ride as our health stewards feed our nightmares because we can't have food with the restrictions wrung about our necks.

Woe unto those with halitosis condemned to wear face masks-- buri bags or bayong is fine, a hallmark of collaboration-- and endure the foetor of their breaths. But that's less worse than having so-called health stewards afflicted with halitosis of intellect.
 

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