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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider 100: the countdown

100: the countdown

Published Sep 18, 2021 12:05 am

MEDIUM RARE

Jullie Y. Daza

For the first time in months, it didn’t feel so stressful to sit in front of the TV watching bad news and more bad news. On the first day of an experiment called alert level systems 1-5, supposedly a less strict classification of rules on behaving in public. Pure coincidence? Maybe. Let’s have more of the same.

Viewers wondered if the networks had a tacit agreement among themselves to focus on the 100 Days Before Christmas instead of the Eight Months Before Elections. What a relief, to be spared the noise and ear ache coming from loud public officials not behaving at their best. No back-and-forth-ing between the President and senators. No swapping of necessarily partisan views between the Office of the President and the Office of the VP. No scalding questions and no catch-me-if-you-can answers in a Blue Ribbon hearing. No violent disagreements between Church and State. The only discordant notes came from Roque vs UP on ILC, Panelo vs ICC.

PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar summed it up as a “generally peaceful” day as people lined up in silence outside Quiapo church to pray. Did the General pray for machos, toughies, recalcitrants and recidivists behaving for once, for a day?

Without the usual sound bites producing heat and no light anyway, this was one news day with a difference, a generally quiet day. The lantern makers in Greenhills glowed as brightly as their star-like wares. Shoppers, browsers, diners added a spark of life to the lavishly lighted malls, all of them more than ready to welcome Christmas. Restaurant owners and servers were grateful for a 10-30 percent improvement in sales. Satisfied diners looked like they were just coming out of a year-long fast, celebrating not so much the food as the pleasurable experience of dining out for a change.

OCTA’s Dr. Guido David sounded a cautiously optimistic note, hoping for a slow, slight downward trend after an expected peak of COVID-19 cases. In exchange, the TV screen – all channels, apparently – comforted viewers with a display to cool pandemic-fatigued eyes: a freshly groomed panorama of Manila’s green green parks, Luneta and Intramuros, lively fountains splashing gaily for their lovely visitors, like it was their first day in Eden after the longest exile.

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