In the days leading up to the hospital visit, he was already experiencing symptoms typical of the coronavirus: fever, diarrhoea, and a sore throat. He was tested and told to self-isolate. The test results confirmed that he had COVID-19, and that he had endangered the lives of doctors and patients.

But in late March, a Philippine senator broke quarantine protocol when he stepped inside a busy private hospital in the heart of Manila to accompany his pregnant wife. He was infected with the novel coronavirus .

News of this sort of VIP treatment spread at the same time as horror stories from the frontlines — like dire equipment shortages and the death of health care workers — emerged.

After a handful of lawmakers and cabinet officials discovered that they were potentially in contact with someone who had COVID-19, most senators were tested right away, despite not showing any symptoms and amid a shortage of test kits in the country. This, even though the Department of Health requires that a person must show symptoms of the disease to qualify for a test. Only two senators listened to doctors’ advice and refused tests, opting to self-quarantine for 14 days instead.

But he’s not the only official to put lives at risk out of their own self-interest.

The public did not take kindly to the senator’s apology . Netizens called for his resignation, while others are preparing to press criminal charges .

The hospital chastised Senator Koko Pimentel in a viral press release , calling his actions “irresponsible and reckless” and said affected personnel will undergo quarantine, “further [depleting] the dwindling workforce of the hospital.”

Almost 60 percent of the population is already under enhanced community quarantine , a mandate that severely restricts movement in many parts of the country. It was the third country behind China and Italy to implement such extreme measures. Anyone who violates this quarantine period, which is expected to last until mid-April, is subject to fines and arrest .

“How many patients have to die without the dignity of a proper funeral, without a proper farewell from their families all because the results couldn't come out because of these VIPs congesting an already overwhelmed testing system?” Jaime Paolo Berba, a resident at The Medical City, told VICE.

Pimentel’s actions, as well as VIP testing of politicians, are a stark contrast from other stories of those not as fortunate.

Amid calls to hold Pimentel accountable for breaking his quarantine, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the Department of Justice “will temper the rigor of the law with human compassion.”

A whistleblower from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), the country’s primary testing laboratory, revealed that many test results were forced to wait due to certain politicians’ insistence that their results be prioritised. This burden added to an already increasing backlog. Whereas it used to take two to four days to get results, the approximate time has now become five to seven days.

A hold up in test results means hospitals can’t free up isolation units, which leads to an overflow of patients in the emergency room. This is already happening in hospitals that were caught off-guard by the uptick in admissions.

Johann Mendoza, a 24-year-old music producer, lost his father on March 24. The official cause of death remains unknown, although he showed common coronavirus symptoms of fever and difficulty breathing. Mendoza never got to see his father who spent his last days in isolation. He was tested in the hospital but, ultimately, the results didn’t arrive in time.

“I am profoundly furious,” Mendoza told VICE. “Especially when I check the news and social media, after an update on reported cases, deaths, and recoveries — it’s a flurry of content that all points to the government's ineptitude and lack of compassion.”

Mendoza may never know if his father did or did not die of coronavirus, but his father’s death did show how overburdened hospitals already are.