Traveling is one of the little pleasures in life that I really love. Whether it is domestic or international travel, I always enjoy the adrenalin rush of having a great adventure.

In Philippines, the first quarter of the year is considered to be the best time to travel. One can enjoy island hopping without suffering much from the scorching heat of the sun since we still get cooler air in the months of January and February.

What can dampen the travel escapade though is when a fellow tourist brings with him or her a viral disease.

I was on travel to Boracay Island when I read the headline news on three Chinese nationals, who were suspected to have 2019-nCOV, were quarantined in Kalibo International Airport.
The sudden feeling of fear from a deadly virus is inevitable to any human being. Oftentimes, the initial behavioral response of a Filipino to fear is utter a silent prayer to be safe and not to bring home any virus that will put any members of the family in danger.

I believe in the adage that “prevention is better than cure”, so when traveling, I always packed my bag with necessary personal protective items. But then, I was not really prepared from the sudden overwhelming feeling of fear when few minutes after boarding the motorboat going to Boracay, a group of rowdy Chinese tourists also boarded. 

I somehow panicked and hurriedly put on a mask. Which, later on, I find to be an awkward moment, since it’s a bit too late for me to wear the mask. I shrugged off the situation and said to myself, hopefully the Chinese were not virus carriers.

After a week, the 2019-nCov outbreak in Wuhan, China worsens with the increasing number of death toll. The World Health Organization (WHO) Situation Report (SitRep) 13 dated Feb 2, 2020 provides that, globally, there are already 2,604 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours out of the 14,557 confirmed cases. 

WHO SitRep 13 also recorded a total of 304 deaths in China and the scariest fact for us is that, out of the 23 other affected countries, the first death outside China is in the Philippines.

So now, there’s this observed behavior among Filipinos of a growing “hatred” and “prejudice” to anything that is perceived to be “Chinese”. 

I think the seemingly recent “xenophobic” behavior or attitude of Filipinos towards Chinese can be traced back from the time when China started to lay claim in our islands and encroached our territorial waters. Next, is the influx of Chinese workers in the Philippines which takes away local job opportunities for Filipinos. And now, a deadly virus that harms our citizens? 

There are others who already think of a possible China conspiracy theory that the virus was intentionally released to the public to test a new Chinese pharmaceutical product as its cure.

A friend of mine in Cebu shared that, a group of Koreans touring within Cebu City brings with them a placard that says, “We Are Koreans, Not Chinese” so that they will not be subjected to repugnance, ill-comments or hatred.

It may sound a bit “racist”, unfair and discriminatory to other Chinese nationals who mean us no harm. Not to mention that we have a huge number of Filipino-Chinese living in our country.

Pardon for the prevailing strong stance of uncongenial attitude to anything or anyone that is perceived to be Chinese at moment. However, its a common reaction of the masses when their normal safe situation is threatened by a certain nationality or event. When the masses are not properly informed on what to do to protect themselves. When the government fall-short in putting in-place emergency measures to keep its citizens from further harm. Or when the citizens have a very low trust to the government and the society in general.

On the other hand, this prejudism could have been lessened or avoided.

A few years ago, I was living in South Korea when the MERs-COV outbreak happened. I was impressed on the prompt response of the government to call an emergency meeting of its key leaders and issue a travel ban in the onset of the outbreak. 

Protective health measures are given to all the people, both local and foreign, within Korea so that the spread of the virus will be contained immediately and appropriate cure will be given to those infected. Of course, deaths are unavoidable especially for those persons who have a very low immune system but with the responsiveness of everyone to take positive action, the situation is appropriately controlled in a short period of time.

Another impressive action of the Korean government is that they tap immediately the cooperation of the media network and entities through a press conference so that all reporters will spread the news and notify the general public on the right and necessary information about the outbreak and how to protect themselves from getting infected. 

The media, are very objective, and becomes an ally on dealing with the emergency situation. They ensure that the right information from the government is relayed to the public.

Negative political overtures are also put aside by the media so that the focus of the public is to protect themselves from the virus rather than joining the bandwagon of opposing political agenda and the grapevine political issues and gossips. 

How I wish that we could also do the same in the Philippines. If we can’t, since we have a totally different system of government and different culture and values, then at least, we should somehow stop making fake information that can create chaos or panic among our citizens. Or how about stop wasting time in making or sharing “meme” that promotes hatred and prejudism to another race? Seriously, there are much pressing concerns that we need to address at this trying times of a virus outbreak. Let’s put our heads and hands together in making a united stand as a nation to protect our families and the people in the Philippines.#