Last Monday, June 15, was the 75th birth anniversary of the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. She was 71 when she succumbed to lung cancer in September 2016, shortly after losing her third and final bid for the presidency. No less than President Rodrigo Duterte himself preferred to her as the most qualified presidential candidate in 2016. But it was not her fate.
The thing with Miriam was that she wasn’t the type to tread middle ground. So, even with the voting public, it was either you loved her or hated her. But, while she had her share of supporters and critics, and of praises and criticisms, no one can argue the fact that she had left a very strong imprint on Philippine politics.
Only few have the distinction of having served in all three branches of government. Miriam was special assistant at the Department of Justice during the pre-martial law years; trial court judge during Martial Law; Immigration Commissioner in post-EDSA 1986; and, Agrarian Reform Secretary in the Aquino administration. She ran for president in 1992, and almost made it, then ran for senator in 1995 and won. She was reelected senator in 2004 and 2010. She ran again for president in 1998, and then in 2016.
Miriam had also worked as Legal Officer at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland. She was also the first Filipino elected as a commissioner for the International Development Law Organization. And in 2011, she was the first Asian from a developing country to be elected as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC). But she had to give up assuming that post, and opted to remain a senator, after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
I could not help but remember Miriam when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It was she, as senator, who had the foresight in 2013 — seven years ago — to file in the Senate the proposed “Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act.” This was after noting the need “to strengthen national response and preparedness for public health emergencies, such as those which result from natural disasters and severe weather, recent outbreaks and pandemics, bioterrorism, mass casualties, chemical emergencies, and radiation emergencies.”
Her bill was filed in light of events at the time, particularly the global concern over the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS. It was in June 2013, she noted in her bill’s explanatory note, that health experts started emergency international meetings on a “mysterious virus that has been described as the single biggest worldwide public health threat.”
Seven years ago, Miriam wanted to give the “Department of Health the mandate to undertake measures, such as evaluation, planning, organizing, and training, to improve national preparedness for public health emergencies.” And by preparedness she referred to “activities and measures taken in advance to ensure effective response to the impact of hazards.”
The late senator Miriam had referred to activities and measures, including policies and strategies, “taken in advance.” And this, to me, was the crucial part. One can only wonder how we would have responded particularly to the onset of COVID-19 earlier this year had the Senate passed Miriam’s bill seven years ago. I believe seven years of preparedness and readiness would have actually counted for something, even if programs crossed administrations.
In response to the present crisis, we had the Bayanihan Act. However, such a policy response is tactical in nature, and does not pave the way for greater preparedness and readiness for future events. Even the creation of a separate department for disaster management may not be enough or sufficient, considering the magnitude of a pandemic like COVID-19 and its long-term consequences.
Miriam’s 2013 bill called for the drafting of a “National Health Strategy for Public Health Emergencies.” I believe this remains relevant to this day. Our experience from COVID-19 revealed plenty of lessons on how to best go about such emergencies in the future. With this, I think our policymakers should consider a new bill on pandemics and national health emergencies, perhaps borrowing some ideas and concepts also from Miriam’s old bill.
The 2013 proposal also called for the creation of a Medical Reserve Corps composed of volunteer health professionals. In her bill, Miriam had proposed that the Medical Reserve Corps be called into duty if needed during public health emergencies. While we have existing groups of military reservists, including one composed of health professionals, I believe this also requires augmentation and support. Our present call for volunteers is precisely what this proposed corps was all about.
The value of Miriam’s bill, in my opinion, is her recognition of the possibility, as early as seven years ago, that a pandemic can occur. And that public health emergencies on a national scale, if not a global scale, can actually happen in our lifetime. And with this, the national government should devote more time and resources to improve on preparedness and readiness.
There is no doubt in my mind that COVID-19 caught not only us but the entire world off-guard, ill-prepared, and unable to deliver a quick and effective response to the emergency. By now, we should have learned plenty of lessons on how to deal with public health emergencies, especially one as devastating as COVID-19.
Moving forward, we should learn to benefit from the foresight of others like Miriam. She actually foresaw the gaps in emergency response as early as 2013, with MERS and SARS already wreaking havoc in other parts of the world at that time. And we actually witnessed these gaps as we continue to struggle with COVID-19 today.
Miriam lit the candle in 2013. It is now time to take that small light and make it bigger and brighter. Our policymakers, including legislators, should start looking into better addressing these emergency response gaps through more forward-looking policies and effective strategies. Paramount is providing the conditions and the environment that can ensure better preparedness and readiness. COVID-19 is not the first, and will not be the last, public health emergency.
Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council
