The Covid-19 pandemic has a way of making visible the plight of the nation’s working poor. They are the hardest hit by the government’s lockdown decision. Locking up the working poor in their homes or residential areas is like a prison sentence. On TV, you see them pleading with the police and the military, explaining why they need to go out and work despite the threat of getting the dreaded virus. They ask: which is worse—dying from starvation or getting infected by the coronavirus?
As the working poor describe their daily economic situation: isang kahig, isang tuka. With the lockdown or community quarantine, the opportunity to earn even a paltry amount totally disappears.
Who will then feed them and their families in the month-long “enhanced containment” program? From the government side, we have heard the following:
From Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)—a plea to employers a) not to fire/retrench employees, b) to adopt a flexible work week arrangement in order to avoid job terminations, and c) to help employees survive the crisis by advancing some bonuses, including a percentage of the 13th month pay due end of the year.
DOLE also promises cash-for-work opportunities for the displaced workers with minimum wage compensation. But how can this be done without violating the no-movement-outside-the-home policy under the containment program is left unanswered? How can DOLE ask the third-party manpower/outsourcing companies to keep employees in the payroll when these agencies have lost their contracts with their respective principals due to the economic crisis?
As to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the agency announced that it shall continue the CCT benefit distribution for those with automated teller machine cards while the food distribution program shall be coursed through the military/police. This posture of DSWD has elicited criticisms from some quarters because it is in crisis times that a frontline welfare agency, such as DSWD should be able to show its leadership. For example, it should spearhead the formation of community kitchens in depressed barangays and municipalities across the archipelago in order to help feed poor families (as what is now being done in an advanced country like the United States).
And as expected, the country’s economic managers whispered on the President’s ears the importance of the big-brother-small-brother partnership and the extension of credit and other assistance to the SME sector. On TV, the President then asked the big corporations to help the small and medium enterprises, and demonstrate solidarity in these trying times.
On the whole, the overwhelming focus of the containment/lockout program is how to effectively minimize the movement of people, with utmost help from the police and the military. It is abundantly clear that there is no holistic and integrated program on how to address the economic and social needs of the poor during the containment period.
In this regard, some local government units (LGUs) appear to be ahead of the curve. For example, the Mayor of Mandaluyong, Carmelita Abalos, explains that they have been attending to the daily needs of all the “informal settlers,” including the “street dwellers” they have “saved,” so that the whole city can be safe from the spread of the virus. They have also provided a shuttle bus for health workers, including the “Mandaleno” health workers servicing other cities.
But how many LGUs are like Mandaluyong? How many can afford what Mandaluyong is doing, that is, providing sustenance to the less fortunate to survive the containment without working. It is clear that the pandemic requires a whole-of-society approach not only on how to stop the spread of the virus by asking people to remain stationary in their residences or communities but also on how to ensure that every Filipino, rich and poor, is able to triumphantly survive the coronavirus. Along this line, Laban ng Masa, a multi-sectoral group headed by Dr. Walden Bello, released a statement aptly titled “No One Is An Island.” The LNM declares that this is the time to harness the collective “people’s energies to meet the threat of Covid-19.”
LNM decries the piecemeal and confusing issuance of executive decrees and guidelines on the containment program, which reflects the lack of in-depth strategizing and programming on the part of the officials composing the Inter-Agency Task Force to combat infectious diseases. In particular, the LNM criticizes the militaristic approach adopted by the government. LNM states that the containment program “is blind to the grave consequences for the vulnerable and marginalized.” As it is, those who survive “the epidemic is greatly determined by who has more in life—to afford care, to drive to the nearest hospital, to stave off hunger, to counter the cruel measures that deny survival options of marginalized people.”
Given the above framework, LNM is asking the national government to adopt the following principles as guide in the formulation of the national strategy to deal with Covid-19:
“1. Public health personnel should direct the effort at all levels, with politicians, police, and the military in a subordinate role.
“2. While a strong central direction of the strategy is important, it must not be conducted as a top-down police or military operation, but instill persuasion and education as the key approaches to getting community support for massive but necessary disruptions of their lives.
“3. Civil society organizations , labor unions, religious organizations, and other citizens’ organizations must participate as vital social actors.
“4. We must draw from the best practices of societies that have dealt most effectively so far with the virus, like Vietnam, Macao, South Korea and Singapore.
“5. Transparency and respect for freedom of expression, and the truth, are essential if we are to avoid the terrible disasters unfolding in some countries, like the United States.
“6. Government and the private sector must provide financial and other support mechanisms to working people whose jobs and livelihoods are disrupted by the containment measures. In this regard, Laban ng Masa supports the following urgent measures:
“a). Congress should immediately pass supplemental measures or amendments tripling the health budget, with money taken from already allocated funds for national defense, other security-related funds, disaster funds, and presidential discretionary funds.
“b). Congress should immediately pass supplemental measures or amendments tripling the budget for DOLE and DSWD, also with money taken from already allocated security, disaster, and presidential funds, with provisions specifying the use of these funds for making up for lost income of lower income families during the emergency.
“c). All officials from the level of assistant secretary and above in government departments and their counterparts in specialized government bodies, in Congress, and in the judiciary must donate one month’s worth of their salaries to make up for the loss of income of low income families.
“d). Private companies must be encouraged to set up funds to support workers and their families during the emergency, with such funds taken from company profits, as well as voluntary cuts in the salaries of upper management. Moreover, companies must not use the crisis as an excuse to cut their work forces or roll back labor rights.”
LNM concludes that “a healthy society made possible by greater equality and compassion for one another is one of our best protections against the threat posed by pandemics.”