IN times of great peril, nations collectively behave in many ways, principally influenced by the resilience of their people, the strength of their institutions, the efficiency of their systems of governance and, above all, the demeanor of their leadership. This time of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), telescoped in five months were the sufferings, deaths, betrayals and incompetence, and exposed were the weaknesses and strengths of these four features that define a nation. This article touches on two countries — the United States of America and the Philippines — and examines the impact of the fourth element, the quality of the political leadership, personified by its two presidents, the US’ Donald Trump and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte (“The Donald and the Deegong — lame ducks?” The Manila Times, March 4, 2020).

Covid-19 timeline

Tomes have been written on the Covid-19, tracing its esoteric pedigree from bats and snakes, to the realm of conspiracy theories. This time, facts are simply narrated on a timeline, juxtaposing the role of these two leaders, starting after the first reported death in Wuhan, China on Jan. 9, 2020, caused by a coronavirus later named Covid-19. From January 13 to 20, similar cases were reported from Thailand, Japan and South Korea. By January 23, Wuhan’s lockdown began. This contagion has spread to 46 countries, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic.

United States

By January 29, the White House Coronavirus Task Force was formed. Subsequently, Trump was informed by trade adviser Peter Navarro “that the coronavirus could cause 500,000 deaths and trillions in economic damage.” This was summarily dismissed by Trump, and Navarro was sidelined.

America, the world’s greatest economy, was the best prepared to meet the pandemic head on. Its industrial might, resources, democratic institutions and people were primed. What America needed was a spark — a leader to rally around, harnessing their strengths, inspiring them. President Trump never did rise to the occasion when imperatives so demanded, perforce analogously surrendering America’s global preeminence.

A month after China’s lockdown, the US reported 15 cases on February 26. I wrote in my April 15, column “Trump trivialized the contagion asserting it…is very well under control in the US…and when you have 15 people [infected], within a couple of days [it] goes down to zero”. Ian Johnson a writer based in Beijing succinctly stated “China bought the West time. The West squandered it.”

Thus began the daily two-hour White House CTF press conference to update the American people on the pandemic. But this turned out to be a garish spectacle of a sideshow, with Trump using it as his pulpit and undermining his scientists and experts arrayed beside him by “telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to know and do.”

A showman with credentials anchored tightly on reality TV, he cowed his own scientists and healthcare experts, reducing them to a supporting cast squirming uncomfortably whenever their president encroached into their fields of expertise. America is at war with a phantom enemy, and he fancied himself the wartime president. Except that he refused to take full command and assume responsibility. He delegated instead to state governors the strategy to wage this war. They had to figure out for themselves where and how to source their matériel — personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits, ventilators. Chaos ensued. He refused to enforce a lockdown leaving this matter individually to the state governors. And they did what they had to.

He disdained critical health protocols already done successfully in other countries and hammered on him by his own experts in a mantra: “testing, testing, testing – tracing, tracing, tracing — treatment, isolation, social distancing and quarantine.” Anyone who wants a test can get one, he declared. It was a barefaced lie. Only 1.07 million tests were completed in the US by end of March. His own task force recommended 500,000 and “millions” of tests per day, as necessary.

In a bizarre appearance, he usurped the role of his health experts to be the pharmacist-in-chief recommending a potential treatment, the untested drug, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. He reprised this role later in what was regarded as an insane act by a president. On April 23, with horrified senior members of the task force looking on, Trump suggested on national TV that injecting disinfectants or hitting the body with a powerful ultraviolet light could treat Covid-19. The Lysol company had to issue a disclaimer about ingesting their product.

By March 26, the US had 85,000 confirmed cases surpassing that of China and becoming the world’s epicenter of the contagion. Then this stunning irrational declaration, “I want to reopen the economy by Easter (April 12).”

Whereupon 40 economists with the University of Chicago published their position debunking Trump’s: “Abandoning severe lockdowns at a time when the likelihood of a resurgence in infections remains high will lead to greater total economic damage than sustaining the lockdowns to eliminate the resurgence risk.”

Thereupon, Trump mandated a phased reopening of the US economy by individual states, which he promptly repudiated two days later by supporting the anti-lockdown “Liberate Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia” protests.

By April 29, the US had surpassed the 58,220 Vietnam war’s 20-year death toll. By the second weekend of May, 80,0000 Americans were dead, and there is now a new gruesome projection of 135,000 to 240,000 deaths by Aug. 1, 2020.

Philippines

It was different in the Philippines. President Rodrigo “Deegong” Duterte was hands-on from the first confirmed death outside mainland China on February 2. Within the week, the Department of Health was directed to distribute for the use of the frontline health workers PPE, masks, gloves, respirators, isolation gowns and other equipment. Between February 9 to 22, the Deegong directed the quarantine at New Clark City of repatriates from Wuhan. In a flurry of activities, the President put his Cabinet on war footing taking total control and responsibility.

By March 9, the Philippines had a total of 20 cases. That same evening, President Duterte went on national TV to declare a state of public health emergency, suspending all classes in all levels in public and private schools. As a sign of unity, Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo on March 12 addressed the public on Covid-19, urging government to adopt the work-from-home method, fast-track the processing of test kits and protect the vulnerable from the pandemic.

In another address on national TV on March 13, President Duterte announced the placement of the entire island of Luzon on an enhanced community quarantine — euphemism for lockdown. On March 17, he signed Proclamation 929 placing the entire Philippines under a state of calamity. Quarantine was in effect for a month, later extended to May 15.

The responses of the two presidents under similar extreme conditions say much of the type of leadership a nation desires. One is all about himself. The other, all about his people. In America today, a First World democratic country, Trump will open the economy crucial to the Americans and tangentially the November elections. The Philippines, a Third World country, the Deegong may have to declare martial law, an adjunct to reopening the economy. We need not debate as to the type of leadership needed. Covid-19 is the arbiter. Death is the prize. Who may it favor?