On the sixth week of lockdown: Millions of Filipinos going hungry, suffer amid worst mass unemployment in history
This means that as many as 13.6 million or 76% of the 18 million poorest families have not received emergency subsidies and are going hungry, said the group. IBON said that millions of households are at risk of hunger because of the poor reach of emergency subsidies and even of government’s other financial assistance programs.
Coronavirus: Philippine labor office in Dubai suspends cash aid
Many Filipinos in Dubai, who are still employed but whose income has been adversely affected by COVID-19, meanwhile felt they had been left in the lurch.
STATEMENT: Arrest of relief volunteers is also an attack on free expression
The recent spate of red-tagging and brazen use of authority against the alternative media and the people’s growing voice of dissent speak volumes of how the Duterte administration – and its emboldened security forces – are facing the COVID-19 pandemic not only with apparent incompetence, but also under a self-serving, and despotic brand of governance.
‘We underwent through a proper process’
“This illegal and immoral arrest could be one of the major blunders of the Duterte government’s continued effort to red-tag progressives, reaching to the point where one agency refuses to recognize the authority of another agency to issue food passes.”
Military kills peasant leader in Iloilo
While the Philippine Army claims the victim was a rebel guerrilla, the local peasant group vows he was a civilian. The New People’s Army said none of their fighters have been killed or wounded in the firefight.
From Brazil to Kosovo to the Philippines, confined citizens protest from their windows
Lockdowns have been watched vigilantly by rights groups, who are urging governments to tread carefully when restricting civil liberties in these exceptional circumstances. But lockdowns do present a paradox for accountability on that very matter: How can citizens ensure officials don’t misuse their new emergency powers when public protests present an immediate danger to one other?
‘Government made financial aid to workers even more inaccessible’
“Where is government when workers need financial aid? DOLE was able to provide assistance to only less than 300,000 workers when millions of workers are displaced in Luzon alone. The government made financial aid to workers even more inaccessible after it stopped receiving applications for CAMP (COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program).”
Pinoy undocumented workers bear brunt of France’s lockdown
“The struggle of being undocumented and not declared at work doubles the vulnerability and burden of our compatriots gaining no benefits and aid both from France and especially the Philippine government,” the Nagkakaisang Pillipino sa Pransya said.
There’s funding to respond to COVID-19 – the problem is at the top
The priority is saving lives and easing hardship. The problem right now is not lack of a national effort to deal with these – so many Filipinos are struggling everyday to deal with the pandemic and they deserve all the help they can get. As so many are already realizing – the problem is at the top.
Emergency relief and COVID-19 response more important than debt payments
IBON executive director Sonny Africa said that the government’s obsession with so-called creditworthiness is blinding it to how a moratorium can help give much more, and much more quickly, to the poor amid the raging coronavirus crisis and its burdensome impact.