With 16.6% of the population living below poverty line, with more businesses closing down, with more Filipinos losing their jobs, with increasing foreign debt – how much really can our economy hold on before it collapses?
Paranoia has a cost. We cannot compare our country with other countries that implemented total lockdown for months. They have vast resources and their economy can take the hit. Ours cannot. A rich man can afford to shut himself down from the world and hibernate in the woods for years, but an ordinary laborer with mouths to feed cannot.
It is not a choice between public health and economy. Both are important. Both have the same focus – human life. It is catastrophic to choose one over the other. Media has focused so much about this virus to the point that many people are now living in fear in spite of the precautionary measures that have been handed down.
We have to take responsibility to help our country fight this virus AND our economy recover. We just need to be careful, just follow the guidelines, don’t be reckless in going out… but we need to go back to work. We need to help our economy start running again. Help the businesses recover because behind those businesses are people with families.
Everyone has been affected by this crisis. The poor, the middle class, the rich, fresh graduates, those in retirement, business owners, employees, Catholics, Muslims, pagans… everyone. Everyone is struggling. Everyone is in pain. Now is the time, more than ever, to think and care for other people’s lives not just yours. Life will have no meaning if after all this, you are the only one who survived.
Ern Ynion 