Photo credit: Facebook/Senator Miriam Santiago

MANILA, Philippines – The late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago always had the reputation for being one of the most brilliant minds in the government. With the world, including the Philippines, now scrambling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, word soon got out that the late senator actually filed a bill in 2013 to prepare the Philippines for a pandemic! Sadly, the bill remains ‘pending’.Filed on September 5, 2013, about 7 years before the world is hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Senate Bill no. 1573 known as the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act aims to help prepare the Philippines against a pandemic or a deadly virus. In the bill, the senator pointed out that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”Under the bill, the Department of Health (DOH) is mandated to undergo evaluation, planning, organizing and training. This is to improve the country’s preparedness if and when a public health emergency happens.The Health Secretary is tasked to spearhead the creation of a national health strategy to address public health emergencies. This will includeThere will also be a “medical reserve corps” composed of volunteer health professionals (doctors, nurses, nurse assistants, hospital orderlies, etc.), just like the military reserve. They will be called into duty, if needed.Under the bill, there will also be a task force comprised of the National Security Adviser, the DOH, the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to manage the crisis.The bill itself is brilliant and could have saved the Philippines from the outbreak had it been passed into law. But its “legislative status” remains “pending in the committee”, according to the Senate’s official website.The bill was actually timely as it was filed just months after the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), also caused by a strain of coronavirus. The virus was deadly, infecting a total of 2,506 people from September 2012 to January 2020 and leading to 862 deaths, according to data from the World Health Organization.At the time the senator filed the bill, it was just 3 months after health experts all over the world conducted emergency international meetings to find ways to combat that mysterious virus that was described at the time as “the single biggest worldwide public health threat”. MERS overshadowed the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus outbreak from late 2002 to July 2003 that had 813 deaths out of 8,437 cases.Sadly, COVID-19 overtook the two cases in leaps and bounds. As of March 27, 10:00 CET, a total of 509,164 confirmed cases have been reported across the world, with 23,235 deaths.