THE FIVE Stages of Grief is a theory posed by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who said that people go through five distinct stages of grief after the loss of a loved one: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

We don’t know if this does match our ongoing COVID-19 grief, but it seems that it’s the template for the government’s response to the pandemic:

DENIAL – On February 3, 2020, after the death of the first COVID-19 case of a Chinese national in the Philippines was reported by Health Secretary Francisco Duque, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said in a media briefing that “everything is well” with the country.

“Kagaya ng SARS, I assure you even without the vaccines it will just die a natural death,” Duterte said. “Apparently, itong mga ganito, mga virus, ano ‘to HIV, wala – nawala na. Meron, kokonti na lang. It will die a natural death, ito matatapos rin ito. Will it worsen in the meantime? Maybe. The progress of medical science now is far different than the yesteryears."

ANGER – On February 10, 2020, Duterte lashed out on the virus during a speech before Pasay City local executives.

“We are prepared to handle this public health emergency, in case the worst scenario happens.” Duterte said. “Alam mo, kung hindi natin kaya itong putang-inang idioto na corona ito, hinahanap ko eh. Gusto kong sampalin ang gago.”

He repeated his tirade against the virus a month later, on March 10. After reporting that the confirmed cases had jumped to 24: “Well, we have the money to combat itong COVID-19 na ito. I assure you we have the money and we can defeat that – 'tang-inang virus na ‘yan. Saan ba nakatira ‘yan? We can defeat it,”

BARGAINING – Mid-March 2020 the President declared the first “community quarantine” effectively locking down communities in Metro Manila and later expanding to greater areas in Luzon then the rest of the country. He said it was “not martial law” and moved forward with ordering food pack distribution and a Social Amelioration Program which proved tedious and ineffective. Then later, supposedly reacting to a New People’s Army attack on an aid convoy, threatened he “might have” to declare martial law.

All these were happening amid the authorities’ own missteps with Police responsible for a series of extreme actions for simple quarantine violations including the gunning down of an unarmed retired military man.

DEPRESSION – The President goes on with repeated moaning over his succeeding late night televised reports – a requirement by law because of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act passed by Congress for the executive’s pandemic response – that he has no more funds for feeding programs and health services.

Further, the late night reports increasingly had the flavor of leaving the citizenry to their own devices because the government cannot provide adequately for their needs and thus moved to ease up quarantine restrictions and move to open economic activity despite lack of viable transport and health measures such as adequate testing and systematic contact tracing.

News agency Reuters put it succinctly in its report on Duterte’s 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA):

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defended his tough approach to fighting the coronavirus on Monday amid a surge in cases, touting its effectiveness in an annual address that critics said revealed little about plans to resuscitate a battered economy.

While Duterte urged Congress to approve a 140 billion pesos ($2.85 billion) stimulus package, he devoted much of his speech to attacking opponents, reviving the death penalty and defending a bloody war on drugs.

Duterte said imposing one of the world's strictest lockdowns may have hurt the economy but it had prevented 1.3 million to 3.5 million infections, and countries that had opened up too soon like the United States were suffering.

"To me, even if the numbers were much lower, it would still be and would have been worth the sacrifice we made," he said.

He stood by his decision not to let schools reopen until a vaccine was available, which he initially thought could be by September.

As countries race to secure vaccines, Duterte said he last week asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for help should Beijing make a breakthrough with a COVID-19 vaccine.

"I made a plea to President Xi if they have the vaccine can they allow us to be one of the first ... so that we can normalize as fast as possible," he said.

Though the Philippines waited 11 weeks before starting to ease restrictions on June 1, cases have since quadrupled with 82,040 infections and deaths more than doubling to 1,945.

Duterte acknowledged "difficulties" with testing capacity…

ACCEPTANCE – For President Duterte, everything hinges on a vaccine, whether from the Chinese and now even the Russians, and he is willing to submit himself as the first one to be tested.

In his July 31 address to the nation, Duterte said:

Mga kababayan ko ganito ang sabihin ko sa inyo, unang-una, we always invoke the name of God. I thank the Lord for guiding the brains of other races other than Filipinos — we will try but lack of facilities or talagang wala talaga tayong infrastructure for research and…

Mayroon akong bakuna. Ang hingiin ko sa inyo ganito magtiis lang kayo nang kaunti dahil nga sa hawaan. Ngayon marami na ang nahawa it’s because ‘yung iba ayaw ninyong magpapigil.

Sabihin niyo wala kaming roadmap. The roadmap ng recovery natin — I do not know din ‘yung headline niyang newspaper. Sabi ko nga hindi ako nagbabasa ng newspaper eh. The roadmap… If it’s about me, I do not read. “Duterte, where is your roadmap?” Hindi nga kami maka-roadmap because we were talking about a budget. Ito, ito ngayong gabing ito. Hindi kami maka-ano ng — I could not have uttered a single sentence about roadmap to recovery kasi ang una talaga diyan ang medicine.

Now sa — ang mayroon na except for the authorization ‘yung i-distribute na at ‘yang final approval — i-distribute na sa mga opisina nila dito Pfizer, Moderna, for the public. I promise you by the grace of God I hope by December we would be back to normal. Huwag ninyo ‘yang new normal, new normal kasi sabi ko nga noon pag-umpisa natin hintayin lang natin ‘yung vaccine.

Yes, we sit and wait – starve, get infected, die – because we don’t have the money, it’s all about the vaccine, and everything is up to God’s grace.

This, from the man who emphatically said in 2018: “Who is this stupid God?”