#ASKGOYO Atty. Gregorio Larrazabal The Mall of Asia Arena is located in Pasay City.  It’s in the Mall of Asia shopping complex.  It was officially opened on May 21, 2012.  Based on information available online, it has a seating capacity of 15,000 for sporting events, and a full house capacity of 20,000. It has retractable seats and a 2,000-capacity car park building. Several foreign artists have already performed in the Arena.  The first performer to do a concert was Lady Gaga.  Several have followed, including Madonna, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Andrea Bocelli, and others.  Several Filipino artists have also had concerts there, including Martin Nievera, Regine Velasquez, Daniel Padilla, and others.  The Arena is also where basketball events are held, including the FIBA Asian Championships.  There were other events that were also held in the Arena.  Some private, some for the public. I’ve attended some events there, including the concert of Bruno Mars.  The number of people just going in is overwhelming.  When you enter, you can’t imagine so many people cramped into a single indoor venue. Last Friday, April 2, 2021, the Department of Health reported 15,310 new infections for the day.  They qualified that out of this number, 3,709 were supposed to be reported on March 31, 2021, but weren’t.  So, it was included in the April 2 report.  The DOH further said that the number reported did NOT include those who were given an Antigen test.  A number of labs likewise weren’t able to submit their reports on time.  I assume their reports will be included in the numbers on Saturday (after I’ve submitted this column).  The infection rate of the Friday report was 20.7 percent.  Over the past few days, the infection rate has steadily increased.  Way back in February, it was “only” about 5 percent. It might not be the best to compare the Philippines to the US, or countries in other continents.  So, we compare with other countries in ASEAN (based on the report of the Center of Strategic and International Studies) for April 2, 2021: Indonesia:         5,325 Malaysia:           1,294 Cambodia:           106 Timor Leste:          73 Thailand:              58 Singapore:            43 Myanmar:            32 Vietnam:               17 Brunei:                   1 Laos:                        0 On April 2, 2021, the Philippines had almost 3X as many infections as Indonesia, which has a population of about 270 million.  While most of ASEAN is on the downtrend, the Philippines continues to spike. The number of infections reported on April 2, 2021 is enough to fill up the MOA Arena.  If you’ve ever been to an event in the Arena, you understand the feeling of being grouped together with so many people.  Imagine the Arena filled with people.  Not cheering, singing, dancing, heckling or simply enjoying, but an Arena filled with people sick, gasping for breath, struggling to take medicines, and others, intubated.  That’s spine-chilling! It’s almost certain that the quarantine restrictions in Greater Manila Area will be extended.  Till when, we do not know.  But crucial is what will be done during the lockdown.  This is where medical experts should play a SIGNIFICANT role.  Science should dictate where we should go, and what we should do.  With a very limited number of vaccines arriving in the Philippines, time is running out.  Every day, every hour, every minute counts for Filipinos desperately trying to be admitted to hospitals, with people who live in Manila, reportedly now going as far as Sorsogon for hospitalization. All over the Philippines, our healthcare workers who are overworked, are still courageously trying to hold the fort and do the best they can, to help the sick and infected.