Has it only been a few days since I last posted? It seems like a lifetime ago. The world has gone mad and had to shut down because of COVID-19.

Italy is now on a lockdown, as well as Malaysia while Australia has closed its borders to all incoming flights. Stock markets around the world are at a tailspin while economies are spiraling down.

It has only been 6 days since the government implemented the lockdown but it feels like we had been under it for a month. And take note, we will still be under lockdown for another 3 weeks and one day. I see anecdotal reports on Twitter that some people are lining up at the pawnshop because businesses/means of livelihood have been shut down.

I don’t know how long we can keep at this. So many people going hungry now–the daily wage earners, the PUV drivers, street vendors…

Doctors, young and old, are dying here in the Philippines…and elsewhere. This stupid government has not taken this pandemic seriously and chose to protect the interests of China before its own people. It didn’t prepare for the event that we will be infected. We don’t have enough test kits, we don’t have enough laboratories, we don’t have enough facilities and healthcare workers.

My God, what are we to do? Please, Lord, protect the most vulnerable–the poor.

And in these troubled times, we need to find beauty in unlikely places to make us sane.