It’s National Heroes Day and I’m trying my best to be asheroic as possible by staying home during a half-baked four-day time-out weekend so contribute in our own way to the government’s efforts the coronavirus disease.

A four-day “timeout weekend” has been announced for the cities of Bacolod, Talisay, Silay and Bago and the municipality of Murcia, from August 28 to 31 so mass testing for COVID-19 can be conducted. Provincial and local governments involved are targeting 10,000 free tests during that weekend as they try their bestest to stem the tide of COVID-19 infections that have been surging ever since the ECQ period ended a couple of months ago and the floodgates of infected humanity were unleashed upon our shores by the national government task force ironically responsible for keeping COVID-19 infections under control.

Aside from the obvious overcrowding in urban poor areas that prove social and physical distancing is only for the affluent, there is another common characteristic of living and working in the Philippines that makes us highly vulnerable to the dreaded coronavirus disease 2019.

Aside from the mask-wearing and physical distancing rules and reminders for the allegedly “pasaway” Filipinos who are supposed to be the reason why the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak is still rampaging uncontrollably in the Philippines, the next-most (in) visible rule of our state of quarantine is our national obsession with plastic.

Despite the numerous flip flops, pointing to a disturbingly normalized lack of vision, direction and policy coming from the of the Department of Education and the President regarding the future of education in this country, it looks like, ready or not, the next few months of basic education for Filipino school kids will be spent online.

We are on our own. It feels like our government has run out of money and ideas. After wasting three months and trillions of pesos, we have to come to terms with the reality that our country’s best of the best boomers have failed. It is now up to us to do our best for ourselves and our families if we want to survive the next few years, health-wise and financially.

Although I would have preferred to keep it quiet while the people in charge continue to work feverishly to come up with the ways, means and funds to save our beloved Visayan DAILY STAR, my maninay, mentor and mother figure Twinkling has already broken the sad news on her column. As a result of the challenges posed by the changing times and trends, and exacerbated by the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the Visayan DAILY STAR will have to press the reset button.

The suspense is killing me.

The coronavirus disease 2019 curve is alive and well in the Philippines, maintaining its upward trajectory with every passing day while our government’s best of the best do what they can to contain the contagion.

Last week my sister encountered internet problems at her home. Of all the services that have become critical for households during this pandemic, the loss of internet access can be a crippling affair so she was understandably turning desperate as she sought ways to get her service back online.