Hold our leaders accountable

While the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge that has to be overcome, it is also an opportunity for us as citizens to reflect about what we do as a society, what we value as a people, and, more importantly, what we can do to change the social mechanisms and our priorities as a nation.

This pandemic underscored the source of our collective misery and disappointment: inefficient and corrupt leadership, disinformation, and social inequality. These factors have made it difficult for the country to manage COVID-19 better than our Asian neighbors. There has been a shortage of testing kits and personal protective equipment, as well as slow distribution of relief goods. Disinformation has bred anxiety and panic. Social inequality has highlighted the limited access of the lower classes to health facilities, transportation, and digital technology during lockdowns when movements are limited.

With the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine anew, we have a limited window to make immediate changes. We can monitor the actions taken by our government officials in managing the crisis, and check the reliability of information that we see and share on social media. Through these, we can ensure that checks and balances in government remain.

We have to reflect as a society: How do we hold government officials accountable for the lousy handling of the pandemic, poor health care facilities, and backward digital technology? For change to happen in our country, we have to take collective action. Otherwise, any future crisis will remain a challenge to be overcome and never an opportunity for ourselves and our society to transform into something better.

Prince Aldama, University of the Philippines Los Baños