Gov’t should check SAP’s gross failure as COVID cases rise – IBON

June 30, 2020

The Duterte government should correct the huge shortfall of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) especially amid a continuously increasing number of COVID-19 cases. About 9 million out of the target 18 million poor households received only one tranche of emergency aid, or just Php53 per day over 106 days of COVID-19 lockdown.

Hatid Probinsya and Balik Probinsya, more harm than good?

June 29, 2020

In the absence of a mass testing program, Balik Probinsya and Hatid Probinsya are turning out to be additional sources of COVID-19 transmission in some provinces. It is a disaster slowly unfolding especially with the healthcare capacity in rural areas much lower than in the NCR.

Part 2: The anomaly of transport modernization

June 27, 2020

FEATURES

The Duterte government can address the transport crisis in the time of COVID-19 and in fact can look at the pandemic as an opportunity to overhaul the system. The health protocols may be followed indeed if only the government recognizes and addresses the transport crisis in a scientific manner.

The anomaly of transport modernization

June 26, 2020

FEATURES

If there is anything that COVID-19 has emphasized, it is the fact that the Philippine transport sector is in its worst crisis – a reality that the Duterte administration had repeatedly denied before the pandemic. If the economy has to transition to a genuinely better shape, the government has to address the basic woes of the transport sector. Vice versa, if the mass transport system has to be more efficient, the economy has to be transitioned to a genuinely better one.

Open-air jeepneys safer against COVID-19 than enclosed modernized counterparts

June 21, 2020

NEWS

With only modernized jeepneys allowed to resume operations next week, traditional jeepneys off the road inconveniences commuters and also denies them potentially safer means of transport. The traditional open-air jeepney is likely even safer against COVID-19 than its air-conditioned modernized counterpart.

Govt jeepney ban has already cost drivers Php78,000

June 19, 2020

NEWS

Thousands of small jeepney drivers have lost as much as Php78,000 each from three months of mass transport suspensions since the lockdown. The government has been insensitive and stingy assistance has pushed jeepney drivers and their families into poverty.

PH Debt: All’s well that swells

June 13, 2020

The finance department underscores the need for government to borrow from foreign sources to fund its economic recovery plan. Multilateral and country creditors have unsurprisingly exploited the situation and recycled funds to lend. But do we really need to borrow for COVID-19 response? How are we going to pay for all of these debts?

Anti-Terrorism Bill Silences Dissent, Curtails Democratic Rights

June 12, 2020

Amid the current challenges facing Filipino educators nationwide, we cannot simply stay silent or neutral as increased ranks of Filipinos call for the junking of the Anti-Terrorism Bill. When it is not only us but our children’s and students’ rights and freedoms that are at stake, we stand in unison in opposing a more draconian version of the Human Security of Act of 2007 and in defending the values and principles that our ancestors have fought for.

Anti-terror law worsens economic policymaking for a few at the expense of the many

June 8, 2020

STATEMENT | The Duterte administration wants an anti-terrorism law giving it unchecked power to surveil, harass, arrest and detain government critics under the pretext of fighting terrorism. It has been on a trajectory of violating human rights, due process, rule of law, and accountability since the start of its term. With the new law, the government will achieve authoritarianism unmatched since Martial Law in the 1970s.