Too late the hero

BY ROBERT B. ROQUE, JR.

*

THE grass is of no use if the horse is dead.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) cash assistance came too late for the departed Mi­chelle Silvertino. Instead, the “huge” P15,400 cash aid was given to her four young children.

The 33-year-old single mother died after living at the EDSA footbridge in Pasay City for five days while wait­ing for a bus ride to her home province, Camarines Sur, to be with her children.

On June 5, Silvertino was found unconscious and was pronounced dead upon ar­rival at the hospital. Her death certificate showed that she was a probable (severe) new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case.

Apart from the belated cash aid, the DSWD also gave Sil­vertino’s family food supply to last for 10 days. The family would also be given access to the agency’s livelihood programs and education as­sistance for the children aged four to 11.

The Pasay City local govern­ment, in a press statement, also promised to extend assis­tance to Silvertino’s family in Calabanga, Camarines Sur.

Ironically, it was both sad and comical to see the na­tional and local governments seemingly compete with each other in sending aid to the bereaved family.

In just a matter of hours of Silvertino’s appalling tale went viral on social media, the national government came up with guidelines so that pas­sengers could be sent home after days to months of being stranded because of the com­munity quarantine.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque promised that the Silvertino incident would never happen again.

“Nagsimula na po ang DSWD-NCR na tulungan ang mga stranded noong isang linggo pa. May mga estudyante rin po na tinutulungan nating makauwi,” Roque said. (The DSWD-NCR started helping stranded commuters last week. There are also stu­dents being assisted in getting home.)

“Now, dahil nga po dito sa nangyari kay Michelle, may­roon na po tayong bagong polisiya na tutulungan ng gobyerno ang lahat ng strand­ed. (Because of what happened to Michelle, we now have a new policy that government will help all those who are stranded.)

Too late the hero. It had to take the death of Silvertino for the government to move. This is a classic example of a reaction­ary public administration.

*

SHORT BURSTS. For com­ments or reactions, email fir­[email protected] or tweet @Side_View. Read current and past issues of this column at Tempo – The Nation’s Fastest Growing Newspaper.