Can you define “irony”? It’s when the actual meaning is the complete opposite (of) the literal meaning. – Reality Bites

An intolerable intransigence.

Some approve of pulling the plug off people who can no longer bear the burdens of the world and have lost the will to live – and call this kindness.

Others won’t throw a lifeline at those desperately groping for a way out of certain death because the rope happens to be tainted, tarred.

Misplaced morality is inhumanity.

A total of 370 respirators are rusting in a warehouse since last year because the Department of Health has not distributed them to hospitals even as the country is still the thick of the battle against the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic.

And the first thing to ask is: Why?

Just because they were donated by the tobacco industry?

Moral dilemma can be a real sick b_tch, don’t you think?

“This is criminal negligence. These respirators could have saved lives. My district in Cagayan De Oro, which has one of the highest cases of Covid in the country, badly needs these respirators,” an aghast Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez told the House Committee on Good Government.

“The DoH did not perform its function because they (Health officials) are really against the tobacco industry,” Rodriguez noted. “They should answer to this.”

The congressional leader has every right to be upset.

The reason the DoH cited for holding on to the donated respirators is the Joint DoH- Civil Service Commission Memorandum Circular 2010-01 signed by then CSC chairman and now Health Sec. Francisco Duque III prohibiting government interaction with the tobacco industry, including receipt of donations.

Quite fortunately, pragmatism is not a lost virtue among other public servants.

In the same hearing, CSC Commissioner Aileen Lourdes Lizada said she has moved to recall the “defective” JMC and admitted that they found no record in their office granting Duque authority to sign the JMC in behalf of their “collegial body.”

Since there is no record authorizing Duque to sign the JMC, Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Rep. Jericho Jonas Nograles said the circular is void ab initio (void from the start).

Nograles said Congress should recommend striking down the JMC for lack of legal basis.

He denounced the mindless position of the DoH to deny Covid patients life-saving equipment just to damn an industry which is cleaning up its act anyway.

He said it is the primary duty of the DoH to save the lives of Filipinos and yet they chose to prioritize their campaign against tobacco first.

The discovery of the idled respirators surfaced during the public hearing conducted by the House Committee on Good Government on reports that the DoH and the Food and Drug Administration received money from foreign anti-tobacco interest groups led by the Bloomberg Initiative.

“It is sad that the DoH prioritized the advocacy of foreigners at the expense of the lives of Filipino people,” Nograles said.

AAMBIS-OWA Rep. Sharon Garin said it is ironic that Bloomberg and other anti-tobacco philanthropies have not helped our country during this period of pandemic and yet the donations from the tobacco industry are not being used.

The committee zeroed in on the Joint JMC after learning that the CSC also received funding from Bloomberg and shortly after issued the circular prohibiting interaction with the tobacco industry.

Garin said there have been many cases of foreign interest groups profusely ladling out money to government agencies and pointing to a direction they want the agencies to take.

“We should not let this happen. We are a sovereign people.” She stressed.

Rep. Michael Edgar Aglipay, chairman of the Good Government Committee, said their report would include names of people who should be held accountable for various laws violated.

Indeed, let them answer for their grievous inaction.

Behold God’s glory and seek His mercy.

Pause and pray, people.