When COVID-19 hit my family fatally with the death of my wife of 47 years on Feb. 13, 2021, it was not only a tsunami of emotions that hit us; it also brought us down financially, my wife and I being seniors of modicum means and paltry pensions. I had to run to this government for financial assistance. With considerable effort at documenting our plight to them, I was given the signal that some help was coming.
The government asked how much we still owed the Pope John Paul II Hospital and Medical Center in Las Piñas City, where my wife died. We responded that since we had to comply with the government’s health protocol to cremate the body within 24 hours of death, and since the hospital would not release the cadaver without us paying in full, we no longer owed the hospital as we paid them fully with my son’s credit card. To our extreme disappointment, the people at the Office of the President in Malacañang and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office told us that help, therefore, was no longer forthcoming. “El fallo del juez es inapelable” (The judge’s decision cannot be appealed).
Now comes Sen. Panfilo Lacson saying that the prospective Bong Go-Rodrigo
Duterte presidential-vice presidential tandem is No. 1 in Pulse Asia’s survey, and it occurred to me that this must be the reason why this government is scrimping on help to its
citizens—to save funds to finance the election of this duo. Kaya pala sila walang pakialam sa atin!
LARRY G. NOVENARIO
elgingee46@gmail.com