What could be bigger than the unprecedented problem right before us, as this pandemic continues to test our strength and resolve as a people? But as the author has also found out since the ECQ was put in place over a month ago, our love and genuine concern for each other have continued to trump almost every challenge life throws our way, including those posed by a new and deadly virus.
By GINA LUMAUIG
As cases of COVID-19 in the country were beginning to emerge in late February, people started getting a wee bit scared and restless, unsure of what the future had in store for them. As a freelance communications specialist, I didn’t allow the situation to get the better of me. After all, I had events lined up, writings to do and clients to service. Suddenly, almost overnight, life as we knew it became on hold.
A week before the government-mandated enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), I was scheduled to take a trip to Kiangan, Ifugao, my hometown, with the creative head of Great Women, an NGO, which has been supporting the weavers of Kiangan by donating threads and buying the cloths created from those threads.
I also envisioned the trip as a self-exile of sorts to satisfy my need to breathe fresh air, do work online while in the mountains and catch up with relatives. But a message came in from some farmers in Tinoc, another more remote mountain town in Ifugao.
They were to join the “Veggie Drop-Off,” a private initiative in Metro Manila formed by volunteers with the common goal of helping farmers sell their produce straight to consumers. It was going to happen in Katipunan, Quezon City, during the weekend I was supposed to go to Kiangan.
Lending hand to farmers
I immediately rescheduled the trip and opted to stay put in Manila to help in the drop-off, which would run for two days. Early on Saturday, two days before the Luzon-wide lockdown, I went to the weekend market eager to touch base with the Tinoc farmers.
I met the organizers while ordering some vegetables. It was supposed to attract a lot of people because, apart from being the event’s first day, it was also a weekend. Deep inside, I was hoping that people would start arriving later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, after talking with organizers much later in the day, that didn’t happen.
Many customers ordered online, which the group had difficulty fulfilling since most had to physically man the market. Many were also newbies when it came to dealing with deliveries. By the second day, many of them already feared the looming possibility of being unable to sell approximately 15 tons of produce they brought with them from the mountains.
For my part, I shared beforehand information about the weekend market to friends, particularly chefs, and relatives. Two of my friends who have restaurants, for instance, couldn’t make it, so I had to buy for them before having the veggies delivered through Grab.
Still, a lot of the produce remained unsold by the second day. Adding to the farmers’ woes was the ECQ, which was to be fully implemented the next day. How would they start their 10-hour road trip back to Ifugao on Monday? Would there even be public transportation to take them home? What would they do with the unsold vegetables?
Donated veggies
Rather than bring back the merchandise home with them or, worse, let them just rot in some landfill, organizers, upon my encouragement, decided to donate unsold produce to NGOs, hospitals and groups feeding front liners.
Franco’s Friends, a private group who had started sending hot meals to different hospitals as soon as the ECQ took effect, was able to get 100 kilos of assorted vegetables. Gourmet Gypsy, another restaurant who started donating packed meals to front liners, was also a willing and thankful recipient.
On a personal note, being on lockdown that first week didn’t feel alien to me. Having spent a great deal of my time working from home, I considered being cooped up in the house rather normal.
What wasn’t normal was seeing our doctors, nurses and hospital staff getting sick and even dying after being exposed to an unknown, but highly contagious virus that was just beginning to spread in the country after already wreaking havoc elsewhere. It soon made me realize that staying home was the best option.
Since there were no more clients to service and events to attend, I used the extra time in my hands to help out in whatever way I could.
Balut instead of vitamins
The first week had me seeing a shout-out for vitamins for the kitchen staff of Franco’s Friends founder Mon Eugenio, since his people have been working almost nonstop for days already.
Since I didn’t have the means to send them vitamins, I thought of other stuff I could give them to boost their strength as well as morale. As luck would have it, a colleague of mine posted her friend’s business on social media, which involved the delivery of delicious balut, penoy and salted eggs.
I decided, heck, why not give them balut instead, which we Filipinos consider “pampalakas ng tuhod” (vigor enhancer). Plus, my mom and I were also craving for balut that day. So, I lost no time contacting TV5’s Sherryl Yao, the balut supplier.
Then, I turned to my Viber group composed of a select group of high school batch mates from St. Theresa’s College. I asked them if they would want to chip in to buy balut to be sent to Franco’s Friends’ staff as well as to a chosen hospital. (The balut would come with every packed meal Franco’s Friends would be sending out that day to a beneficiary hospital.)
Immediately, all six of my friends agreed. Before the day was over, we were able to pay for and arrange for the delivery of 200 pieces of cooked balut, some of which ended up as part of the dinner fare of healthcare front liners working at St. Luke’s BGC.
The next day, another group of college friends asked me about it. Soon enough, we were able to order an additional 650 pieces of balut, which we divided and sent to three hospitals: St. Luke’s QC, East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC), where a niece of mine works as a nurse and Fabella Hospital, where another niece works as a doctor.
Based on stories I gathered from my two nieces, they and the recipients of balut were very happy.
Third time
The donation had a third run a week later, when Makati Medical Foundation reached out to us and requested for, well, balut. Once again, my friends and I pooled our resources and sent another 650 pieces of the iconic Pinoy delicacy, which eventually ended up being distributed to various frontline personnel at Makati Med: security guards, checkpoint personnel, janitors, nurses, admin staff and, of course, doctors.
Hand-sewn face masks also became requests of choice. A group of young women posted about their colorful masks and a friend asked our group if we want to donate them to a selected hospital. To cut a long story short, we were eventually able to secure and send 220 face masks to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) of EAMC.
And then I read the post of my cousin’s son, an anesthesiology resident at the Dr. Jose Rodriguez Hospital in Tala, Caloocan. It was a simple shout-out: “food for front liners like us, please!”
Their nearly continuous shift couldn’t give them the chance to have decent meals. Once again, my heart melted, as I reached out to a generous friend who was more than willing to sponsor their needs: two rounds of hot meals for 30 doctors and nurses, prepared by Chef Waya Araos-Wijangco of Gourmet Gypsy.
For good measure, the chef also threw in hundreds of free pandesal. Three days later, Chef Waya, bless her, called me up and said she was sending 50 hot meals for free to the same hospital. Again, she included pandesal as well as fresh eggs to her food donation.
The kindness, perhaps more than the disease, was getting contagious, and I was loving it! It was to continue up to the third week of the ECQ.
Quarantine facility
A few days later, Rose Cabrera, another high school friend of mine who’s now based in the US and one of the founders of Gkonomics, messaged me about a project they had just started, a Covid quarantine facility in QC.
Rose, who belonged to a lower batch, wanted to know if my high school batch mates were willing to partner with them. Immediately, I said yes! It will be modeled, she says, after San Juan’s Kalinga Kontra Korona project, which had just started.
I contacted some of my batchmates for advice, and majority of them were very supportive. The project involved a 150-bed facility in Novaliches, which would be put up by the two high school batches, together with Rotary District 3780 and Gkonomics. As one of the project’s partners, the QC LGU will run the facility.
Our target: to raise P2.5M in one week. The Hope – Kalinga Kontra Korona – QC had volunteers on deck, working ’round the clock. As cases continued to come in, setting up the city’s temporary quarantine facility for PUIs and PUMs was imperative
Thanks to Rose, Bagong Henerasyon Representative Bernadette Herrera, Gkonomics board members, batch volunteers and various Rotary members, we were able to meet the target in just one week.
What was once a seemingly impossible project will be ready for use within the week. And I’m proud and happy to share that it was through the efforts mostly of women that this became possible.
Displaced workers
Lastly, the ECQ also affected a big chunk of contractual workers who lost their jobs. My kababayans (provincemates) from Ifugao, who have been working in different parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, suddenly had no income, no way to go home and possibly no form of assistance from the government.
As transients, they weren’t considered as residents in the barangays they were staying at. Thus, they weren’t counted in the distribution of food packs and other forms of assistance.
Again, from out of the blue, a group of Ifugao volunteers from around the globe came together, created a group chat, and agreed to help them out.
We collected names and addresses, phone numbers and other information, and somehow, within days, most of the displaced Ifugao workers were reached and given food packs, cash and various forms of assistance by the local government.
The stranded workers as well as students had also hoped to be able to go home to their respective families in Ifugao, but the lockdown—and the fact that Ifugao remains free of COVID-19 cases—has compelled the provincial LGU to decide to let them just stay where they are.
Thanks to the generosity not just of fellow Ifugaos, but also of friends of Ifugaos, we have somehow adopted them for the time being and have been monitoring their welfare.
Almost all of these were achieved within the confines of our homes. We asked and made appeals, and a lot of people responded. We prayed, and our prayers were answered.
Many realizations also happened and continue to happen during this pandemic: who answers your calls/messages for assistance; who spreads misinformation and causes more panic and uncertainty; who are still in denial that staying home, unless your work is essential, is effective in helping flatten the curve. I can go on and on.
More prayerful nation
On the upside, I’d like to believe that we have all become more prayerful. Since Holy Week fell during ECQ, for instance, I noticed that even some non-Catholics had been inspired to watch live-streamed masses of Pope Francis and Cardinal Tagle. Some have even joined their friends in praying the rosary. Others are using the time to catch up with family members via Zoom.
It there’s a silver lining in all these, well, most of us suddenly found ourselves humbled, asking a Higher Being to take over and help us cope with both personal and global crises.
Personally, it hasn’t been easy. More than a week ago, my uncle was rushed to the hospital because of a lingering illness. In less than 24 hours, he passed away. One of his last wishes was not to be cremated. But DOH has mandated that everyone who dies in the hospital these days should undergo cremation.
With much sadness on our part, he was cremated the same day. No service, no blessings from a priest, no eulogies. His swab test came out four days later, and it tested negative for COVID-19.
My niece, the doctor at Fabella Hospital, had been on duty from 24 to 36 hours straight on most days. I wonder how she did it. A young wife and mother, her baby boy had just turned one late last month. Both her son and husband are in Bicol. Once her contract expires anytime this month, one of the first things she said she would do as soon as the lockdown is lifted is to see them.
But fate can be cruel. One of her patients lied about her travel history, and later tested positive. Immediately, 15 doctors and nurses at their hospital had to be quarantined, including her.
On Easter Sunday, her COVID-19 test came out positive. She’s now in the hospital undergoing treatment. Thank goodness she’s stable and claims to be doing okay.
Her mom, also a doctor based in Ifugao, has been extremely worried about her. Her younger brother, the resident anesthesiologist at Dr. Jose Rodriguez Hospital, managed to overcome his shyness by posting a video of himself on social media singing to his sister. It was his way, he says, of telling her to remain strong, as we, her family, love her and continue to pray for her.
When it hits close to home and becomes personal, I have learned that the resolve to battle this ruthless and unseen enemy becomes even stronger.
Those who complain about being bored while on lockdown, who don’t seem to understand and appreciate the need to stay at home and practice social distancing, who continue to brag about their “achievements” under the guise of “silver linings,” now seem, in my eyes, trivial pursuits by shallow people. But to each his own. We all respond differently to certain challenges before us.
Rather than be consumed by what occupies them, I just shrug it off and focus on what I still have some control over. What I consider important. The enormity of the problem before us seem to dwarf everything we’ve come to know except perhaps our love and malasakit (genuine concern) for each other. I’m hopeful that these will help carry us through.
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