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GCQ Reality Check

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by Rosario Guzman

Struggling with the dilemma for about a month now – caught between the lack of science and intense pressure from big business to continue profit-making – the Duterte government is about to decide to transition the country to a general community quarantine (GCQ). Its narrative has been apparent – it is winning against the coronavirus and is ready to pick up from the economic slump.

Before you obey the government when it says it is alright to go out now, please answer the following questions truthfully.

1. Have we flattened the curve? No one really knows. The health department has cited the doubling time slowing down from 3 to 5.5 days and wrongly used it as proxy indicator that the government is winning the curve war. Up to this point, we know nothing. We know about daily new cases, like we had 350 new cases on May 26, the highest since April 7. We know about 14,669 cases nationwide and our high 6% mortality rate. But these metrics are based on a government pandemic response where there is only limited testing. Our knowledge thus can only be that – limited.

The curve is all about the infection rate of the virus – any effort to flatten it is futile if there is no mass testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine. We hoped to have that sane health response in that order, but government simply imposed a hard lockdown, euphemized as enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), without mass testing and strengthening the rest of the health system.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque quibbling over the semantics of “mass testing” is also a pathetic attempt to tiptoe around the issue. There is no such thing as mass testing, Malacañang would repeatedly say, but would later clarify that it was referring to government policy on mass testing, a much worse admission actually. Then later, government would go by the “we-don’t-have-the-money-for-that” narrative, which only makes apparent that the overarching governance principle of the Duterte administration during COVID or otherwise is to evade and default on state responsibility.

Curves and waves – these have only brought down the credibility not only of the health department but of the entire inter-agency task force. Such mass confusion shouldn’t even have happened while we are in the middle of the pandemic. But yes, that’s where we are – almost three months of lockdown and we are still debating on terms.

2. Have we increased our testing capacity? Again, in this regard, Malacañang has made another confusing claim that we have already reached 30,000 per day testing capacity. All we know is that we only have 42 testing centers nationwide, not all were even operational from the beginning of the lockdown.  The highest number that these centers have tested per day is 10,841 unique individuals. From May 16 to May 25, the government has only tested a daily average of 8,077 samples. The health department also has a backlog of 6,835 for validation of positive results, which are not yet included in the 14,669 confirmed cases. There are 818,338 remaining kits on hand, which may not refer to the number of tests that may be done because laboratories count all the supplies they have to make one test. In any case, what use is it that we have the kits if government still won’t have a directed program of free mass testing?

3. Have we strengthened the health system? The country has only 1,845 COVID-19 referral and accepting hospitals, and most of these are private hospitals, while the Department of Health (DOH) accounts for only 73 of these. There are only a reported 72 quarantine facilities nationwide, and these are even operating under capacities. Some of the so-called quarantine facilities assigned for returning overseas Filipino workers are also reportedly crowded and lacking medical services. Obviously, the DOH is more inclined towards personal or home quarantining than building public facilities.

There are 478 ICU beds, 2,356 isolation beds, 972 ward beds, and 816 mechanical ventilators in the public health system of the National Capital Region (NCR). On the average, around 56% of these beds are currently occupied based on DOH data, while 28% of the mechanical ventilators are being used. The NCR has 9,481 confirmed cases – 6,312 are active, of which 823 have been admitted while the majority 5,373 are still pending status. To put simply, if all active cases had to be admitted in the public hospitals, which is the ideal treatment if only we had many quarantine facilities, NCR with a total of only 3,806 beds of different uses would be swamped.

What is unspoken is the cost of consultation and hospitalization that pushes patients away to just go home without getting any medical attention. The main weakness of the Philippine health system is that the government has a universal health care law that is insurance-driven instead of focused on direct service provision. It is a universal misnomer that is more inclined to ensure the profits of private hospitals instead of socializing health care. For COVID-19, PhilHealth can only provide Php14,000 per worker for admission and referral and at least Php43,997-786,384 for confinement, which are not enough. This affliction of a commercialized and privatized health system has been manifestly bared during the coronavirus crisis.

The Philippines has the highest proportion of infected health frontliners in the region, reaching about 17% of total infected population. This worries the World Health Organization because the country apparently is an outlier in a region that registers only a 2-3% proportion of infected health frontliners. This tragedy can only be explained by the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for our frontliners, government’s delayed and limited procurement of PPE, lack of DOH guidelines and training, and the frontliners being overburdened. Even the plan to hire and beef up the number of health workers by hundreds of thousands is not attracting applicants, what with government offering the same low compensation levels and thankless jobs.

Ready for the GCQ? If you don’t know the answers because government has failed to inform you, or if you indeed know the answers as government has failed to take action, by all means go out and make government answerable. #

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Kodao publishes IBON articles as part of a content-sharing agreement.

Krisis sa COVID-19, lalong tumitindi, ayon sa Makabayan

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Ni Joseph Cuevas

Tumindi ang krisis ng pandemyang Covid-19 dahil sa simula pa lamang ay minaliit na ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang epekto nito sa bansa na naging militarista naman ang naging pagtugon ng gobyerno noong nanalasa na ito kalaunan.

Ito ang sumada ng mga kinawatan sa blokeng Makabayan sa isang online forum noong Sabado, May 23, na pinamagatang “Hatol Makabayan”

Inihayag ni Makabayan Chairman Atty. Neri Colmenares sa kanyang pambungad na pananalita na tumindi ang krisis ng pandemyang Covid-19 sa Pilipinas dahil sa simula ay minaliit na ito ni Pangulong Duterte at hindi kaagad gumawa ng karampatang aksyon.

Sinabi naman ni Rep. Sarah Elago ng Kabataan Party na hindi solusyong medikal ang unang naging hakbang ni Pangulong Duterte, bagkus ay isang militaristang Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) o lockdown.

Imbes anila na mass testing, isolation, tracing at treatment sa mga posibleng maysakit ay tinapatan ang unang pagdami ng kaso ng coronavirus ay nagpatupad ito ng malupit na lockdown, bagay na ikinabahala ng United Nations Human Rights Council.

Para naman kay ACT-Teachers Rep. France Castro, nakakabahala ang sitwasyon ng mga frontliner dahil sila ang sumusuong sa panganib ng pandemya.

Kulang na kulang ang mga doktor, nars, medical staff pati na din sa mga itinatayong testing centers at kagamitan tulad ng Personal Protective Equipments, dagdag ni Castro.

Kalunos-lunos din ang kalagayan ng mga pampublikong ospital at isolation center para sa mga Overseas Filipino Workers na umuwi sa bansa.

Sa ngayon nasa 13,577 ang kaso ng Covid-19 kung saan mahigit 863 na ang nasawi at mayroong backlog na halos 6,000 na mga pinaghihinalaang kaso ng sakit.

Ang Pilipinas ang may pinakamahigpit at pinakamahabang lockdown sa buong mundo na umabot na sa mahigit 70 araw.

Ang online forum ay pinangunahan ng mga mambabatas mula sa Bayan Muna, ACT-Teachers, Gabriela Women’s Party at Kabataan party.

Pasismo sa pandemya

Ayon kay Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas ang militaristang tugon ng gobyerno para labanan ang Covid-19 ay nagdulot ng 177, 540 na pag-arestosa panahon ng lockdown na umaabot ng average na 2,900 kada araw at higit 52,000 na ikinulong.

Ilan sa mga ito ang ginawang pag-aresto at pagkulong sa mga relief worker ng Tulong Anakpawis sa Bulacan noong Abril 26 at Lingap Gabriela sa Marikina at Tulong Kabataan sa Quezon City noong Mayo 1.

Dagdag pa ni Brosas, dahas din ang naging tugon katulad nang pagpaslang kay Jory Porquia ng Bayan Muna sa Iloilo at pagpatay sa isang dating sundalo na lumabag umano sa quarantine sa Quezon City. Hindi rin nito pinaglagpas ang ilang netizen sa Online Tokhang tulad ng ginawa sa isang guro sa Zambales.

Wala ring tugon ang gobyerno sa planong magpalaya ng mga bilanggo na kumakalat na ang sakit sa mga kulungan. Hanggang ngayon, wala pa ring tugon ang petisyon na inihain ng mga kaanak ng political prisoner sa Korte Suprema sa halip ay tinutulan pa ito ng Office of the Solicitor General, pahayag pa ni Brosas.

Tinalakay naman ni Rep. Eufemia Cullamat ng Bayan Muna na bukod sa pasistang pananalakay sa mamamayan ay walang humpay din ang counter-insurgency na atake ng gobyerno.

Ilan na dito ang naitalang pambobomba at pagkakampo sa ilang komunidad ng mga katutubo sa CARAGA region, pag-aresto sa mga lider ng progresibong grupo at kaso ng red-tagging, maging pekeng pagpapasurender.

Kapos na ayuda at lumolobong badyet

Naging tampok din sa forum ang tugon ng gobyerno sa kabuhayan ng mamamayan. Inilarawan ni Rep. Ferdinand Gaite ng Bayan Muna ang programang Social Amelioration Program o SAP ng gobyerno na makupad dahil sa napakabagal at burukratikong proseso nang pamamahagi nito.

Ayon kay Gaite, nasa apat na milyong Pilipino pa ang hindi nakatanggap ng nasabing ayuda mula sa target nitong 18 milyon. Maging ang tulong para mga manggagawa ay napakabagal din.

Nasa tatlong milyong manggagawa lamang ang ayuda ng DOLE na Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program o CAMP mula sa tinatayang 10 milyon na apektado sa buong bansa.

Pinuna naman ni Rep. Carlos Zarate ang napakalaking pondo na nakalaan para sa pandemya subalit hindi naramdaman ng taumbayan.

Kabilang na dito ang halos P275 bilyon na pondo ni Pangulong Duterte kahit pa umutang ito nang aabot sa $5 bilyon mula sa iba’t-ibang multi-lateral agency tulad ng World Bank at Asian Development Bank.

Itinutulak pa aniya ang mga bagong panukala sa Kongreso na “stimulus program” tulad ng Enhanced Build Build Build na magpapasidhi ng patakarang neoliberalisasyon sa ekonomiya, ani pa Zarate.

Nagbigay reaksyon naman ang iba’t-ibang grupo kabilang na dito ang mga mungkahi at panukala na:

– ng health care system sa bansa at paglalalan ng malaking pondo rito hindi lamang sa panahon ng Covid-19.

-Re-alignment ng pambansang badyet sa mga ahensya at mga target na pagkukunan kabilang na ang mataas na pagbubuwis sa mga mayayaman at malalaking korporasyon.

-Direktang ayuda sa mga manggagawa na apektado at pagbibigay trabaho sa mga natanggal kabilang na ang mga kontraktwal at job-order.

-Production subsidy at direct cash assistance na P10,000 sa mga magsasaka, mangingisda at maralita sa kanayunan.

-Pagbibigay ng SAP kahit sa panahon ng GCQ o General Community Quarantine at kabuhayan sa mga maralita.

-Paggiit  sa “No Mass Testing, No School Opening” para naman sa mga kabataan at guro sa pagbubukas ng klase sa darating na Agosto at

-Pagpapatigil sa mga dagdag bayarin at pagpapahirap sa mga estudyante tulad ng Online Classes.

Sa huli, binigyang-hatol ng Makabayan at batayang sekor na maraming kapalpakan, kasalanan at kamalian ang gobyerno ni Pangulong Duterte sa pagharap sa Covid-19.

Hinikayat nila ang mamamayan na kumilos at marapat na paigtingin ang panawagan para sa Kalusugan, Kabuhayan at Karapatan. #

Why make the poor pay for COVID-19 response?

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By Sonny Africa

There’s more than enough money for all the COVID-19 response we need – the Duterte administration just has to take the side of the people and stop being so scared of the rich.

The Philippines is in the middle of its worst public health and economic crisis in decades, possibly even in its history. The social, economic and health measures needed to deal with this are undoubtedly expensive. But are they unaffordable?

Hangin

The government seems to think so. The president famously said that the government does not have enough money to respond – “hangin lang iyan,” he lamented.

The rest of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases haven’t been as blunt but they’ve been acting that way. The social welfare department has, in effect, been rationing already stingy cash aid with unduly strict requirements. The health department isn’t testing, tracing, isolating and treating as much people as they should for want of resources.

The finance department is at the helm of the government’s economic team. It is voting with its feet – its Philippine Program for Recovery with Equity and Solidarity (PH-PROGRESO) and stimulus plans don’t give income support for tens of millions of cash-strapped families beyond the lockdown.

Unfortunately, strangely affirming the importance Karl Marx gives to the economic base of society, the economic managers are too decisive. The finance department is also in charge of revenue generation. If it says there isn’t any money, then the rest of government won’t have any money. Which explains where the president’s hangin comment came from.

But is there really no money to be had?

The plan

But before looking into that, a more basic question – how much does the government really need? Four months into the pandemic, it’s still not actually very clear. PH-PROGRESO is presumably the national government’s plan but this doesn’t include what must also be considerable efforts at the local government level.

The four-pillar PH-PROGRESO also has to be interpreted carefully because the finance department adds up actual spending, loans and guarantees, foregone revenue, financing, and additional liquidity to come up with an impressive looking grand total of Php1.74 trillion.

As it is, it looks like there’s only Php506 billion in actual spending. This includes Php321.6 billion in emergency support, Php133.7 billion in loan and credit guarantees, and Php50.7 billion for health measures.

The balance of Php1.24 trillion is actually composed of tax cuts and other foregone revenues (Php142.8 billion), liquidity released into the system by central bank measures (Php233 billion), and financing mostly from new debt (Php861.8 billion). Put another way, the government doesn’t actually need to raise funds for all these items accounting for 71% of the ‘grand’ total.

So where to get that Php506 billion that will actually be spent?

The Php861.8 billion in new financing of PH-PROGRESO – Php436.9 billion from official development assistance (ODA) and Php419.4 billion from government bonds – is presumably a source.

But the program also mentions up to Php673 billion freed up from existing budget items and so not really needing new financing or revenue sources. This is from the 2019 and 2020 national budgets, off-budget items from government-owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions, and private sector contributions as well as from “financial sector, monetary policy, regulatory relief”. In his last weekly report to Congress, the president cited raising Php257 billion already from discontinued, abandoned, reprogrammed, reallocated and realigned items in the 2019 and 2020 budgets.

Looked at in this way, it appears that the government has come up with a reasonably prudent plan.

Poor pay for meager response

But appearances can be deceiving. There are two problems here.

The first is that the planned Php506 billion in actual spending falls far short of being a sufficient response. The COVID-19 response needs to be much more comprehensive and ambitious. The combined cost of the range of health measures, emergency relief, income support, and enterprise support needed is likely more in the order of Php1.5-2 trillion.

Clearly, the perceived lack of funds is a major binding constraint to the broader response that is really needed and, indeed, even just a larger COVID-19 response than at present. This self-imposed limitation gravely undermines the public health response, risks undue infections and deaths, and will mean socioeconomic difficulties on a massive scale.

Which leads to the second problem. Meager as the response is, the poor are paying for it more than they should – through debt and higher taxes – while the rich are paying much less than they can.

Most of the Php861.8 billion in financing of PH-PROGRESO is actually new and additional debt that will be paid for from taxes. Only a tiny Php404 million of this financing are grants and the rest are ODA loans and government bonds. The government has already been reported as seeking US$5.7 billion in foreign loans for its COVID-19 response. To date, the finance department reports US$4.9 billion in COVID-related foreign debt.

The taxes to pay for this debt are disproportionately borne by the poor with their low incomes. Especially after the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Package 1 of 2017, the country’s tax system is more regressive and consumption tax-oriented than it has ever been.

The self-imposed debt trap even to so-called development agencies and friendly governments is glaring. The Duterte administration is programmed to pay US$1.7 billion in debt service to multilateral and bilateral agencies – especially the World Bank and Asian Development Bank – this year. These are also the very agencies it has borrowed an additional US$2.5 billion from to respond to COVID-19.

Taxing consumption

The government is also quick to tax consumption including of the poor. Consumption taxes are inherently regressive in being paid the same by everyone regardless of how poor or rich they are – as opposed to direct taxation of income and wealth which is more progressive.

The administration has already hiked tariffs on imported oil products by 10% to raise funds for dealing with the pandemic. The planning agency, headed by a former finance department official, is already proposing higher consumption taxes that will add to the burden of poor and middle class families.

This includes a digital economy value-added tax proposal which adds a Php50 billion tax burden on online consumers over 2021-2023, higher taxes on sweetened drinks and junk food adding a Php22.7 billion burden, and a higher Motor Vehicle Road Users’ Tax adding a Php40 billion burden.

Increasing taxes on low-income families amid a recession would be perplexing if the insensitivity of the Duterte administration and its economic managers when it comes to taxes were not already well-established. They are only being hugely opportunistic in exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to push their long-standing TRAIN agenda of raising consumption taxes on poor and low-income groups while reducing taxes on the rich.

It’s all a bizarre repeat of TRAIN where the poor are made to pay more so the rich can pay less. This time around, amid the COVID-19 crisis, the rich will benefit from the biggest corporate tax break in Philippine history.

TRAIN Package 2, comically renamed Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities (TRABAHO) bill, soberly renamed the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA), and now opportunistically renamed the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE), is being primed for rapid legislative passage. The Duterte administration is giving up Php667 billion in potential COVID-19 response funds to boost corporate profits.

Tax the rich

So where can funds for the comprehensive COVID-19 response needed come from? From the very same sources that funding for national development should come from – the accumulated wealth and income of the rich.

The pandemic has seen the ideas of solidarity, unity and compassion raised repeatedly. Beyond spontaneous acts of charity, paying higher taxes is putting money where your mouth is.

In our population of 108 million, an estimated 596 Filipinos each have wealth of some Php2.5 billion pesos or more. This includes the 50 richest Filipinos whose combined wealth of around Php4.1 trillion is, by IBON’s estimates, more than what the poorest 71 million Filipinos own combined.

There’s no reasonable argument that taxing their wealth above Php1 billion will adversely affect their well-being and welfare. A wealth tax of 1% on wealth above Php1 billion, another 2% above Php2 billion, and another 3% above Php3 billion will raise Php236.7 billion annually from these 50 richest alone. They are not going to be spending this anyway versus the huge social, economic and health returns from using this for COVID-19 response.

Other tax measures can also be considered. A two-tiered corporate income tax scheme with higher taxes on large firms and lower taxes on micro, small and medium enterprises can be designed to generate about Php70 billion annually. Similarly, a personal income tax scheme with higher taxes on just the richest 2.5% of Filipino families can raise about Php127 billion annually.

These are illustrative figures for now but the Duterte administration can come up with more precise figures if it was so inclined. There are technical challenges but these are not insurmountable and no reason not to try.

A wealth tax, higher taxes on large corporations, and higher taxes on the richest Filipinos are the most rational sources of revenues for COVID-19 response and development.

Does Congress have the political will for these? Sadly, our senators and representatives, looking to the 2022 elections already, are the biggest political won’t. #

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Kodao publishes IBON articles as part of a content-sharing agreement.

Reporting the people’s demands is not a crime

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STATEMENT BY THE PEOPLE’S ALTERNATIVE MEDIA NETWORK/21 May 2020

Information is of utmost importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reporting the people’s grievances and demands is the solemn duty of the media; it is not a crime.

The Guimba municipal council’s Sangguniang Bayan Resolution No. 52 s.2020 last May 11 empowered the mayor of the Nueva Ecija town to file criminal charges against radio network Radyo Natin Guimba (RNG) for alleged violations of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of 2020 (Republic Act 11469) by reporting the complaints of residents over the implementation of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

Prior to the resolution, RNG reported that a municipal councilor and son of the incumbent mayor confiscated RNG field reporter Lina Villaflor’s media identification cards issued by the Presidential Communications and Operations Office.

Earlier, on April 22, the mayor had written the station requesting a copy of the radio broadcast aired that day, stating that the “false and malicious” statements made by the commentator could be a basis for his legal action against the station.

This is a form of censorship meant to intimidate the media into either silence or reporting eventually and issues in a manner acceptable to local government officials.

Subsequent direct attacks against the station have been reported, among them the barring of RNG reporters from covering the sessions of the Guimba Sangguniang Bayan. On May 19, the local police again barred an RNG reporter from covering the distribution of rice seeds to farmers.

All these are in violation of press freedom, and were apparently in response to RNG’s reports on the problematic implementation by the Guimba local government of the SAP.

RNG reported that several residents had trooped to their station to air complaints on the “selective” manner in which the cash aid is being distributed—that the municipality and its barangay officials were prioritizing rich farmers over small tillers.

RNG also reported that the local police have prevented them from taking photos and videos of people who trooped to the municipal hall to complain about the SAP implementation.

As much as it is the constitutional right of the people to air their grievances, it is also the constitutional right – and the primordial duty – of the press to report on these issues.

Local government executives should keep in mind that that the current national emergency does not empower officials to silence dissent and curtail press freedom, both of which are essential to a functional democracy in which elected officials are duty-bound to defend the Constitution. #

KODAO ASKS: Kung walang mass testing, mapipigilan kaya ang COVID-19 sa Pilipinas?

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Sa mahigit dalawang buwan na pagpapatupad ng lockdown sa buong bansa dahil sa Covid 19, wala pa ring malawakang testing upang malaman talaga kung gaano kalala ang paglawak ng sakit sa mamamayan. Maraming grupo ang nanawagan na ipatupad ang mass testing na anila’y siyang tunay lulutas sa nasabing pandemya.

Sa kabilang banda, mabibigyang-solusyon ba ang pandemya na ito kung walang mass testing? (Bidyo ni Joseph Cuevas Background Music: Bumper Tag by John Deley)

Promote Forests for Health

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By Leon Dulce

The COVID-19 pandemic, like many catastrophic infectious disease spreads the world has faced, could have been avoided if we treated our forests differently.

Indeed, various studies have demonstrated that 60 to 70 percent of recognized emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are zoonotic, or originating from animals, mostly wildlife. A United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization study showed that 15 percent of these EIDs are associated with forests.

COVID-19 itself has been genetically traced back to bats, which are nocturnal forest and cave denizens. Bats are seen as the “ultimate incubator” for COVID-19 because of its robust immune system encouraging viral strains they host to adapt and evolve into dangerous and highly infectious pathogens.

Waldemar Brandt@waldemarbrandt67w/Unsplash

Epidemiologists are scrambling to determine how exactly COVID-19 ‘spilled over’ from bats to humans, though initial scientific explanations point to the virus jumping from bats to other mammals to humans in the live animal markets of ground zero Wuhan, China.

What is clear is that the coronavirus would have remained dormant if its carrier species remained isolated away in intact forest ecosystems they inhabit.

Web of life, web of consequence

Forest biodiversity plays a huge role in disease control by promoting good microbiota that compete with the disease-causing pathogens, and flora and fauna that compete with or predate on virus-carrying species to keep their populations in check.

Forests also provide various ecosystem services such as food, water, climate regulation, and pollution control, all helping human populations improve their health and wellbeing.

Vladimir Soares@vlad_soares/Unsplash

This complex web of life is continuously unraveling as we continue to lose our forests. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) itself estimates that our forest cover is down to just 7 million hectares or just 23.3 percent of the Philippines’ total land area. What can be considered intact forests are actually a mere 7 percent of our original pre-colonial forest cover.

The consequent biodiversity loss is catastrophic. In 2011, the rate of biodiversity extinction in the Philippines was already 1,000 times faster than the natural rate. Global average extinction rates at present are now up to 10,000 times faster.

The country’s latest climate change assessment report roots the biodiversity problem in key drivers such as land conversion, deforestation due to logging and conversion to agricultural land, mining, introduction of exotic species, and pollution.

The Philippine Forest Code has failed to arrest deforestation and these multiple challenges to the use of forest lands. It has served only to promote export-oriented timber plantations instead of sustainable forest management practices. Other extractive and destructive policies such as the Mining Act of 1995 also provide convenient trojan horses into forest protection policies.

This web of consequence extends to the global level through the Philippines serving as a waypoint for the global wildlife trade. We are not only a hotspot for poaching but also a porous entry and exit point of wildlife trafficking that reaches as far as Africa and Europe. Weak wildlife protection law enforcement clocking in at just 26% conviction and 13% penalization rates are failing to stop this continuing plunder of our biodiversity.

Mitchell Griest@griestprojects/Unsplash

Rainforesting, rewilding

We the public deserve a ‘Green New Normal’ beyond the COVID-19 crisis. Promoting forests for health, from rainforestation to urban rewilding, is a crucial solution to the coronavirus emergency, recovery, and post-pandemic new normal that we urgently need.

We must address the perennial lack of public funds for forest protection. Latest available data indicate that there is an 80% financing gap between the actual average budget for biodiversity protection of P4.9 billion, and the recommended level of spending from 2008 to 2013. Government must double its current annual budget for environmental protection and biodiversity conservation up to P25 billion per year to address these financing gaps.

Government forest rangers and personnel are just 10% of what we need to sufficiently cover our entire forest areas with adequate enforcement. We must increase the number of employed forest rangers and personnel, and improve their job security by increasing their wages and protection needs.

Finally, we need to overhaul our forest, biodiversity, and natural resource laws. We have to be strict with the tradeoffs, making sure not a single project that threatens massive biodiversity loss will be allowed in our remaining forest corridors. #

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Leon Dulce is the national coordinator of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), a grassroots-led national environmental campaign center established in 1997. Kalikasan PNE is a convening organization of the Citizens’ Urgent Response to End COVID-19 (CURE COVID), a national people’s initiative of various communities and sectors in response to the pandemic crisis and its impacts on their health and livelihood. 

Radio station condemns threats and attacks from LGU

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A Central Luzon radio station is condemning threats of criminal charges by local government officials using the government’s coronavirus emergency law.

In a statement, Radyo Natin-Guimba (RNG) in Nueva Ecija said the Guimba Municipal Council’s recent resolution authorizing mayor Jose Dizon to file charges against the radio station for alleged violations to the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of 2020 (Republic Act 11469) is a direct violation to press freedom.

The station added that the Council’s move is also tantamount to the suppression of the people’s right to demand assistance and relief amid massive loss of livelihood resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Ano ba ang masama at nalabag sa ginagawa ng Radyo Natin Guimba na isaboses ang tinig ng mamamayan, marinig ang kanilang apela, reklamo at daing habang sila ay nakakwarantina at hindi makapaghanapbuhay?” RNG asked. (What is wrong and what violation is committed by Radyo Natin Guimba when it only gives voice to the people in order for their appeals and complaints to be heard while they are under quarantine and are unable to work?)

RNG explained that because of the slow distribution of the national government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) by the LGU, many townsfolk went to their station to broadcast complaints.

Many of the complaints arose from reports that some SAP beneficiaries were rich farmers while many poor peasants have been left out, the station added.

“Ilang matanda, nagpapasusong ina , buntis, solo parent, at mahihirap na pamilya ang dumulog sa aming istasyon at kanilang inirereklamo ang mga Barangay Health Workers (BHWs), Day Care Workers, Kapitan at Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) sa pagpili ng bibigyan ng SAP,” RNG said. (Some elderly, lactating mothers, pregnant women, solo parents and poor families asked help through our station and complained of discrimination by Barangay health workers, day care workers, Barangay Chairperson and the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office.)

RNG also said Guimba police also prevented them from taking photos and videos of people lining up to complain about being excluded from SAP.

Townsfolk crowd Guimba’s municipal hall during SAP distribution. (RNG photo)

Elderly complainants were holding up placards saying “Nasaan ang ayuda?” (Where is the assistance?) “Protektahan ang matatanda.” (Protect the elderly.) “Help us.” “Nagugutom na kami!” (We are already starving!) that the local police also threatened to file charges against, RNG said.

The police also took Ina Jo Colcol, a resident of Brangay Balingog East, and Dexter Eusebio of Barangay Sta. Veronica to the local police headquarters and ordered to delete their photos and videos last May 4, the station revealed.

A RNG field reporter was also prevented from taking photos and videos of the people who trooped to the municipal mayor’s office to appeal their SAP exclusion, the station revealed.

Townsfolk crowd Guimba’s municipal hall during SAP distribution. (RNG photo)

Other attacks on press freedom

Before the town council session last May 11, Municipal Councilor Bonbon Dizon, son of Mayor Dizon, confiscated RNG field reporter Lina Villaflor’s media identification cards issued by the Presidential Communications and Operations Office and the station and took photos of them, RNG reported.

The councilor passed the identification cards’ details to Nueva Ecija assessor OJ Manuel Cornejo via a phone call, RNG said.

It was at the May 11 session that the Council approved Sangguniang Bayan Resolution No. 52 s.2020 allowing the filing of criminal charges against RNG by the mayor.

In an emergency meeting of Guimba’s League of Barangay Chairpersons, Cornejo–reportedly a frequent presence at the mayor’s office while the head of a provincial government office–publicly declared the planned charges against RNG.

Last May 18, RNG’s reporter was told to leave the session room as the topic being discussed was “sensitive.”

Last May 19, local police again confronted a RNG reporter covering the distribution of rice seeds to farmers.

The police reportedly told the reporter to first seek a permit from Mayor Dizon.

“We will not agree to the harassment by the LGU. It is our duty to report truthfully and give the people accurate information as is their right. We do not agree that press freedom is a violation to the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act,” RNG said in its statement.

LGU denies harassment

In a phone interview with Kodao, however, Guimba municipal information officer Sherwin Guiuo denied RNG’s allegation of harassment by the mayor and the council.

“The LGU acted on reports from barangay officials that some whose photos were posted online reacted negatively to RNG’s uploads. In the first place, they are not hungry as the LGU was in fact distributing relief,” Guiuo said.

The officer said the resolution is not harassment but obedience to RA 11469’s Section 6 on penalties.

Section 6’s item F orders penalties on “individuals or groups creating or perpetrating, or spreading false information regarding the Covid-19 crisis on social media and other platforms.”

“The council is duty bound to give the mayor the authority to take such actions as provided by the law. The mayor in turn is duty-bound to implement the law,” Guiuo said.

‘Abusive’

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chairperson Nonoy Espina however said the LGU’s actions and plans against RNG are abusive.

“The harassment of RNG and its staff by the Guimba LGU is a shameless trampling on freedom of the press and on the right of their own constituents to know what is happening in the municipality,” Espina said.

“This is clear abuse of authority that has no place in a democracy,” Espina added.

RNG is a member of both the Manila Broadcasting Company’s Radyo Natin project and People’s Alternative Media Network. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Duterte gov’t giving up Php667-B in potential COVID response funds to boost corporate profits

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by IBON Media & Communications

At a time when funds are urgent for the huge COVID-19 response needed, research group IBON said that the Duterte administration is giving up Php667 billion in revenues to boost the profits of the country’s largest corporations.

Oligarch profits are boosted at the expense of aiding poor families, containing the spread of the coronavirus, and treating those with COVID-19, said the group.

In a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that the administration wants to cut the corporate income tax (CIT) from 30% to 25% starting July this year.

The CIT will be lowered again starting 2023 to fall to just 20% by 2027.

This will result in an estimated revenue loss of Php42 billion in 2020 and a further Php625 billion over the succeeding five years.

The faster and bigger CIT cut proposed is grossly unconscionable at a time when the government is blaming its incomplete response to the COVID-19 crisis on the lack of funds, said IBON.

Cash transfers are inadequate for tens of millions of Filipino families, the government says mass testing is unaffordable, and small businesses and workers are bearing the burden of precautionary measures.

There is also no substantial increase in the number of health workers, beds, intensive care units, and ventilators in the public health system, the group noted.

And yet, IBON stressed, The DOF is using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to increase the profits of large corporations.

Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) pushed by the DOF as “one of the largest stimulus measures in the country’s history” is the very same regressive TRAIN Package 2 it has been pushing for over three years, said the group.

CREATE is only its latest renaming after being called Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA).

The finance department is also being untruthful in saying that the measure “is meant to fuel economic dynamism, especially among the country’s growth engines – the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) – that employ a majority of Filipino workers”, said IBON.

In a Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing in 2018, the DOF itself reported that 75% of CIT revenue collected comes from large corporations and only 25% from MSMEs. Hence, it is large corporations and not MSMEs who are the biggest winners getting the biggest boost in their profits from the CIT cut.

IBON said that if the government is really serious about supporting MSMEs and not just using them as a smokescreen to increase oligarch profits, it can instead introduce a more progressive two-tiered CIT scheme with 20% CIT for MSMEs and a higher 35% for large enterprises.

The group said that countries with such segmented CIT schemes in ASEAN include Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Brunei.

The proposed measure is also misguided in being designed as an incentive for foreign investors to come to the Philippines, IBON added.

Most foreign investment in the country is in low value-added operations. Reducing tax revenues collected from them reduces among the biggest concrete benefits from letting them operate in the country, the group explained.

The big business bias of the government’s COVID-19 response is becoming increasingly evident, according to IBON.

The Duterte administration is giving them CIT cuts, supporting lower wages for workers, and preparing huge loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.

These should be corrected in favor of more generous income support for affected families, strengthening the public health system, and supporting Filipino MSMEs, said the group. #

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Kodao publishes IBON articles as part of a content-sharing agreement.

To give or not to give SAP tranche 2

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by Xandra Liza C. Bisenio

How many mothers have been forced to leave their little ones at home, walk far, and stand in long lines for ayuda only to go home empty-handed? How many senior citizens and persons with disability (PWD), despite their frailty and limits, still tried to get support but in vain?

What can government say to people asking: “Paano na kami, ano nang kakainin namin sa sunod? Kung ano-ano nang ginagawa sa itlog – nilalaga, sinisigang, inaadobo.”, or “Itinutulog na lang ng mga anak ko ang agahan at tanghalian, kasi pang-isang kain na lang ang meron kami.” There are countless, grimmer accounts of such despair.

As of May 16, exactly two months after Luzon and some parts of the country were put under a lockdown to contain COVID-19, the official count of beneficiaries that have not received the first tranche of social amelioration was still quite a number – 811,193 families or some 4 million people. Even if everyone gets served eventually, the point is that millions of Filipinos were made to wait that long for the much-needed aid to come. Yet the Duterte administration dilly-dallies about distributing the second tranche of the social amelioration program (SAP), as if it is an option to give or not to give.

Those who are in modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) areas unarguably need continued support from government. The lockdown has caused two months of difficulty in terms of jobs, livelihood and incomes.

But the over 13 million families who now fall in the category of general community quarantine (GCQ) also still need continued support. They were also under lockdown for six to eight weeks and, at best, only got a small amount of support under the first tranche. Moreover, data as of the exact second month of the lockdown showed that there were even 659,850 households in GCQ areas who have actually not yet received their first tranche. This included 189,467 households in the new GCQ areas.

There should be no question that the second tranche needs to be distributed not just in the remaining MECQ areas but in the GCQ areas as well.

Bayanihan is explicit about it

The SAP targets 17.7 million beneficiaries. The National Capital Region, Region III except Aurora and Tarlac, Laguna, Mandaue City and Cebu City are under MECQ until the end of the month, covering about 4 million beneficiaries. Erstwhile ECQ areas Benguet, Pangasinan, CALABARZON except Laguna, Ilo-ilo, Cebu, Davao City and Bacolod City now join the rest of the country under GCQ – bringing the number of SAP beneficiaries in GCQ areas up to 13.7 million.

The usual economic activities can resume in GCQ areas. There are still minimum health requirements such as physical distancing, frequent handwashing, and bodily protection because the battle against the coronavirus continues. MECQ areas meanwhile maintain restrictions on mobility outside the home, as well as on non-essential activities.

Malacañang initially announced that only MECQ areas will get the second tranche of social amelioration. Soon after, the president gave orders to not just give it all 18 million families but to actually add 5 million more, earning him additional popularity points. Yet is this really something for the president to give or not give according to how generous he is feeling?

The Bayanihan to Heal as One Law or Republic Act 11469 is actually clear. Section 4 (c) of explicitly states that the government shall “Provide an emergency subsidy to around eighteen (18) million low income households: Provided, That the subsidy shall amount to a minimum of Five thousand pesos (P5,000.00) to a maximum of Eight thousand pesos (P8,000.00) a month for two (2) months.”

Making the people wait

At the onset of the Bayanihan law, the government promised Php250 billion for social amelioration and health response. It acknowledged the huge task of strengthening the country’s health system to contain the coronavirus and to save lives. It also recognized that the lockdown would result in widespread displacement of jobs and disruption of livelihoods, badly hitting the majority of the country’s low-income households.

Two months later, there is still no consensus among scientists and medical professionals on whether or not the pandemic curve is flattening. The number of confirmed cases continues to rise, now exceeding 12,700, and also deaths at over 830 already. Our health workers and frontliners are holding the line as best as they can. But they are also the first to take the brunt amid a private sector-dominated health system that is itself ailing from a gross lack of equipment, facilities, infrastructure and manpower to  deal with the pandemic.

The government owes the health sector a grand boost, in the same way that it owes the people in the GCQ areas the second tranche of SAP.

To what end

Is the administration’s dilly-dallying part of a script where, to be able to give help to now 23 million SAP beneficiaries, the government will now be forced to sell public assets to fund social amelioration? Who is buying – China?

Time and again, Malacañang has said that it doesn’t have enough funds, and that it’s only thanks to the president’s prudence that the government has found money to spend. Still, resources are limited so the people have to wait. Or even sacrifice – social welfare secretary Rolando Bautista even once said that not receiving the second tranche is perhaps actually in the spirit of Bayanihan, in freeing up resources for others.

Yet there are funds that can be tapped without the government selling off its assets. IBON estimates a universe of Php3 trillion worth of funds that can be explored and tapped. This includes: realigning Build, Build, Build and confidential and intelligence funds; realigning debt service payments by pushing for a debt moratorium, restructuring or even cancellation; and raising new revenues from issuing COVID-19 solidarity bonds and higher income taxes and wealth taxes on the super-rich.

This would indeed mean a big shift for the Duterte administration whose economic managers already have their minds set on a recovery program that pushes instead of thwarts those business-biased measures, for example, big-ticket infrastructure, tied debts, lower corporate income taxes, and tax incentives for investors. But there should be no second thoughts either about doing everything necessary to help the people survive the crisis.

Some Metro Manila local government units (LGUs) did not make people trapped in the lockdown wait for too long. They defied the apparent limitations of the bureaucracy by tapping internal funds to distribute assistance to their constituents early in the ECQ. They combined technology and people’s volunteerism to deliver help as expediently as they could.

The people have been at the center of these LGUs’ emergency relief operations. This does not seem to be the case with the Duterte administration or even its predecessors. Because, if they were, why is our health system still at a loss with COVID-19? Why can’t the government drop everything to make sure that all vulnerable households get the first and second tranche of social amelioration immediately?

Why are more hapless citizens arrested than are tested? Also, why are relief volunteers, community leaders, mobile kitchens, and even journalists – who are merely trying to fill in gaps in emergency assistance – being harassed, arrested, or even killed by law enforcers?

The huge health and economic crisis that the country is facing now can only be hurdled, humanely and effectively, if the people were heeded and not hindered from actively participating. #

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Xandra heads IBON’s Media and Communications Department. She loves to write songs, listen to her panganay’s music and play chess with her bunso on the side.

Kodao publishes IBON articles as part of a content-sharing agreement.

Financial strength, development weakness

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By Sonny Africa

The Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), presided by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, addressed the country on Tuesday. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III was a moment of lucidity especially compared to his principal’s rambling incoherence. Unfortunately, being lucid doesn’t necessarily mean being correct.

Resilient and the best?

Sec. Dominguez opened by rejoicing about the Philippines being ranked number six out of 66 countries in the world for “economic resiliency” and supposedly “the best in Southeast Asia for financial strength”. The compulsion to welcome any sort of accolade is understandable especially coming from The Economist, a well-regarded business newspaper. We’re so starved of good news that ranking highly on any international scale – like in boxing or beauty pageants – always gives an endorphin rush.

But then again, it’s probably useful to be a little more circumspect about the metrics used to say that the country is supposedly doing well. The four measures of ‘financial strength’ in the magazine’s report are of course fine as they are and include the most important usual measures of financial strength – public debt, foreign debt, cost of borrowing, and foreign exchange reserves. Hence Sec. Dominguez’s elation over our so-called financial strength and the country’s credit ratings.

But we should presumably see things from a real development perspective and beyond the shallow endorphin rush. In which case, the main problem is the confusion between means and ends. This is actually a recurring problem with our neoliberal economic managers in particular, and free market-biased economists, policy folks, and business minds in general.

The four metrics and credit ratings aren’t valuable in themselves but for how useful they are for the presumably real development ends of policymaking – enough jobs and livelihoods so that there are no poor Filipinos, and an equitable, stable, self-reliant and sustainable economy. It’s always been odd that whenever policymakers see a conflict between financial strength and social development, the latter always loses.

Which is also to highlight that while those measures are of course better favorable than unfavorable, supposedly favorable performance can actually be undesirable depending on the price paid to get them.

Financially strong for whom?

So, some thoughts on Sec. Dominguez’s self-congratulatory echoing of an assessment that the Philippines “continues to enjoy the confidence of the international community” – meaning all the foreign creditors and investors whose main interest in the country is that we keep borrowing and stay profitable for them, to put it bluntly.

First, “financial strength” is a misnomer if this is in any way taken to refer to the level of development of the Philippine economy or even of the government. The only underlying so-called strength these metrics refer to is the country’s perceived ability to pay its foreign debt obligations. There’s no direct correlation between such so-called financial strength and a country’s level of development – a quick scan of the ranking with countries like Botswana, the Philippines, Nigeria, Indonesia and India ranking high should make that easily clear.

Finance secretaries, central bankers, and other economic managers around the world are regularly feted as the World’s Best this or that by global finance magazines and organizations. Their countries, economies and governments correspondingly benefit from the halo effect and are projected as developing – even if, as is often the case, they’re not.

Second, it matters how “good performance” along these indicators was achieved. Put another way, what may be good for financial strength may be bad for development. As is often the case.

For instance, the Philippines has had comfortable foreign exchange reserves since the 1990s mainly because of remittances from the unprecedented export of cheap labor and overseas Filipino workers. We’re so used to it, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this enormous reliance on overseas work is at huge social costs for families and exposes the inability of the domestic economy to create enough jobs for its population. It also actually distorts the economy with a huge imbalance between domestic production and incomes and final household demand. Mammoth overseas remittances – not brilliant economic managers – are arguably the biggest factor in the country avoiding foreign debt payments crisis such as in the 1980s.

Public debt, including public foreign debt, has moderated and credit ratings also improved. However, this was done on the back of an increasingly regressive tax system that relies more and more on consumption taxes rather than on direct taxes. The regressive trajectory of the country’s tax system started in earnest with the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) in the 1980s then worsened with VAT expansion in the 2000s and 2010s, and with cuts in personal income, estate and donor taxes particularly through the regressive Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) reforms since 2018.

All this increases so-called financial strength by unduly burdening poor and low-income groups who make up the majority of the population, while making it easier for the narrow sliver of the richest in the country. Sec. Dominguez is unrepentant and noticeably still pushing for the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (CITIRA) bill which, among others, lowers corporate income taxes – most of all to gain further favor from the international community.

Lastly, what is prevented by insisting on these measures as if they were ends in themselves also matters. The onset of COVID-19 and the national and global measures to control the pandemic have a tremendous impact on the economy. The Philippines and the world are in recession, and some are saying that the world is in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression almost a hundred years ago.

Our current pandemic panic will eventually settle in the coming months, but the economy will still be stumbling. Worse, poverty and unemployment will be soaring. In such circumstances, it doesn’t make sense to be so insistent on narrow indicators of so-called financial strength to the point that urgent development measures are prevented.

Today, it’s incredibly important to put more money in people’s pockets both to help them maintain their welfare as well as to boost effective demand. It’s also important to support rural producers and small enterprises to ensure that the goods and services needed are still available. It’s also important to rapidly expand the public health system to deal with the pandemic and to meet the country’s vast COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 health problems.

Attending to all this means the government having to spend more as well as building up its capacity to intervene. Giving unwarranted emphasis on measures of ‘financial strength’ unfortunately sets artificial limits to the government meeting its human rights obligations to intervene on a massive scale.

To force an analogy, it’s like being in the hinterlands of the Philippines with an emergency case in the back of the car and the nearest hospital hours away. In this kind of situation, you don’t obsess about fuel-efficient driving or not red-lining the tachometer or limiting the car’s mileage – you step on the gas. Glorifying ‘financial strength’ is stepping on the brakes. #

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Kodao publishes IBON articles as part of a content-sharing agreement.