A better normal

After Super Typhoon Yolanda flattened Tacloban City and other parts of Eastern Visayas, there was a lot of talk about building back better.

“Better” is relative; I’m not sure if the objective has been achieved or is on the way to fulfillment in the typhoon-battered areas. Building back better, however, can also be a goal for the current catastrophe we are facing.

The coronavirus pandemic is a once-in-a-century cataclysm – my generation’s world war, our Apocalypse. It should offer once-in-a-century opportunities for implementing sweeping reforms and for building back better. Obviously, this is easier said than done – especially since several of the needed reforms will take time to fully implement.

One thing the pandemic has highlighted is how unsustainable our mega cities have become. Congestion, pollution and other manifestations of urban blight provide an ideal environment for the rapid spread of highly infectious and deadly pathogens. Unhealthy lifestyles also put people at higher risk of infection.

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Building back better in a way can start with our own health. We’ve been told that people with comorbidities are at higher risk of coronavirus disease 2019 infection. It would be interesting to find out how many people were driven by COVID-19 phobia to quit smoking, exercise regularly, eat healthy and reduce obesity, get enough sleep and drink moderately if drinking can’t be avoided.

As far as dieting goes, a popular joke during the quarantine is that people cooped up at home with nothing to do but binge-watch and stuff their faces will no longer be able to fit into their doorways once all lockdowns are lifted.

As for wearing face masks, I guess we’ll all become like the Taiwanese, South Koreans and Japanese, many of whom have been wearing masks in public since Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus rampaged across Asia. SARS-CoV, believed transmitted to humans from bats through civet cats in Guangdong, China in 2002, spread to 29 countries, affected 8,000 people and killed at least 774, but largely spared the Philippines. I think this experience made our officials initially believe that Filipinos are invincible to COVID-19.

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What we are certain to build back better is our response to emerging infectious diseases. Isolation and quarantine facilities, separate from the main structures, may become mandatory for establishments providing medical care. Several local government units may initiate the provision of their own separate isolation facilities. Mass testing and contact tracing capabilities are expanding.

With transactions increasingly turning digital, we expect to see a boost in the required infrastructure for everything from e-commerce to online learning to telemedicine. I don’t see how much boost is possible, however, with the communist New People’s Army bombing telecommunications towers when the telcos refuse to give in to extortion, and with state forces unable to stop the NPA.

We might have better luck in building back better in terms of public works.

Traffic is back – not yet on the scale of the pre-pandemic carmageddon, but pretty bad in certain areas.

The reason is not so much the increased vehicle density, but the resumption of public works projects that involve reblocking and similar limitations on the road network.

In Manila’s Port Area, the trucks with shipping containers are back. In front of The STAR office, the throngs of private cars and even military trucks with people buying bicycles have become a daily sight.

Last Wednesday, Secretary Mark Villar of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) led the drive-through ahead of the June 15 opening of the NLEX Harbor Link project.

The elevated connector road will drastically cut the travel time especially for cargo trucks from the Port Area to the North Luzon Expressway. This will greatly ease traffic on their current routes.

Colleagues from all over Metro Manila are complaining about the traffic buildup since quarantine rules were eased. But because it indicates the revival, slow as it is, of livelihoods, for once I see the traffic in a positive light.

Undersecretary Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, who chairs the Build Build Build committee of the DPWH, told “The Chiefs” Wednesday night on One News / TV 5 that infrastructure projects are expected to generate about 1.5 million jobs until 2021.

Many of the overseas Filipino workers who have lost their jobs amid the pandemic can be hired for these projects, Lamentillo said. The OFW phenomenon had in fact led to a shortage of skilled workers for such projects, she noted.

The projects are those in the pipeline, high-impact “low-hanging fruits,” she says, which can be completed within the next two years.

The pandemic and consequent funding re-prioritization have led to further tweaking of the BBB program. Recently, presidential adviser on flagship projects Vince Dizon had told The Chiefs that among the new priorities are public health infrastructure.

Lamentillo says their department is also incorporating bicycle lanes where possible in road construction. This should be good news for the Move As One Coalition, although the group says the one-meter width allocation for the EDSA bike lane, as proposed by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, is dangerously narrow for cyclists.

Still, it looks like a cycling culture is inexorably developing in our country as a result of the pandemic. It’s good for the health and for the environment.

It’s been said often enough in this pandemic: never waste a good crisis. We can all work not only for a new but also a better normal.