The nation’s social and economic woes have only gotten worse with the pandemic and other calamities of 2020. The challenges are great in 2021 but the Duterte administration can do so much more if only it chooses to put the people’s welfare above all.

Right to work: An average of 288,000 jobs were lost annually from 2016-2019; 6 out of 10 Filipinos are in informal, regular, government contractual, or agency-hired work (Labor Force Survey (LFS), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA))

Right to decent wages: The Php537 National Capital Region minimum wage is insufficient compared to the Php1,051 family living wage for a family of five (National Productivity and Wages Commission (NPWC), PSA, IBON estimates)

Right to self-determination: 72% of total approved mining applications are in 542,245 hectares of ancestral domain; Kaliwa Dam being pushed without free prior and informed consent will displace 1,400 Dumagat families (Indigenous World 2019 Philippines, Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples)

Right to adequate standard of living: Filipinos falling below conservative official poverty threshold of Php71 per person per day can go up to 23-28 million (IBON estimates)

Right to education: Only about half of every 100 children entering Grade 1 will finish Grade 10 (Department of Education)

Right to health: Almost half or 47.9% of total health spending is out-of-pocket by households (2019 Philippine National Health Accounts)

Right to food: 64.1% of Filipino households are food insecure (2019 Expanded National Nutrition Survey)

Right to water: About 4.7 million Filipinos lack improved drinking water sources. 9 million lack or have no sanitation facilities (107 million population; 2019 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey)

Right to housing: There is a projected 6.57-million housing gap from 2017-2022 (Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development)