Congress has approved sweeping emergency powers for\nthe Duterte administration supposedly to help it battle the spread of the\ncoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Only a handful of lawmakers especially\nfrom the Makabayan bloc opposed this \u2013 not because there is no need to stop the\nvirus but because they saw no need for emergency powers to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is reason to be skeptical about more powers\nfor the president. It is nearly two months since the first confirmed case of\nCOVID-19 in the Philippines and what the government has done with the powers it\nalready has is not encouraging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the one hand, it has not acted enough with the\npowers it has to bolster the medical frontlines to battle the virus. On the\nother hand, it declared a drastic Luzon-wide lockdown without sufficient\nmeasures to protect the poorest and most vulnerable families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The national government arguably already has enough\npowers to deal with the problem at hand. At the same time, giving it more\npowers will not be enough without a clearer plan for what needs to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alone at the front<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of our health workers and other frontliners can\nbe forgiven for feeling neglected as they work hard to arrest the spread of the\nvirus and treat the infected. Government health workers are doing the best they\ncan with what they have within the long underfunded and undersupplied public health\nsystem. Amid the government\u2019s Php4.1 trillion budget for 2020, it does not make\nsense for them to not have even basic personal protective equipment (PPE) and\neven just soap to be able to perform their duties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But ordinary Filipinos also feel neglected. They wrestle\nto ensure their basic needs on a daily basis under the lockdown. The national\ngovernment has already given so many press conferences about how their needs\nwill be met but many still feel that they have to fend for themselves in the\nface of the pandemic and the drastic measures to contain this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Farmers, farmworkers, fisherfolk, tricycle and\njeepney drivers, vendors, and small store owners, have to go on with their\ndaily grind to bring food to the table by day\u2019s end. But they are held at\ncheckpoints. Tricycle and jeepney drivers are arrested and their vehicles\nimpounded. Farmers have been stopped from tending to their farms and transport\nand sell their goods at the market. Farmworkers are prevented from going to the\nplantations where they work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, those who continue to go to work \u2013 in\nessential or exempted government, health, business and services \u2013 risk exposure\nfrom the general lack of protective gear and facilities. Except in places where\nlocal government units (LGUs) provide rides, many have to walk or bike to work,\nas in the case of some Cavite and Bicol workers, with mass transportation\nsuspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some big companies have pledged to give their\nworkforce relief during the lockdown. But the situation is unclear for the vast\nmajority of wage and salary workers. As it is, more and more companies are\ntemporarily shutting down, and not all workers are promised compensation.\nAccording to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), 703 companies in\nLuzon have suspended their operations due to the lockdown, affecting thousands\nof workers. Some of these companies are giving financial help to their\nemployees but others have cut work hours or put their workers on leave without\npay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lockdown is also hindering access to basic needs\nas well as social services, which were already wanting to begin with. Shanty\nand tenement dwellers worry over how they can possibly practice \u2018social\ndistancing\u2019 in their cramped makeshift spaces. Some sick and elderly meanwhile\nreportedly have to walk long distances to find themselves food and medical\ncare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest 2015 official count showed 13.1 Filipino\nfamilies in Luzon. Of these, 2.5 million families live on Php10,000 or less per\nmonth (around Php83 per person per day); 2.7 million on Php10,000-15,000 (at\nmost Php125 per person per day); and 2.2 million on Php15,000-Php20,000 (at\nmost Php167 per person per day). <\/p>\n\n\n\n These 7.4 million families with 37 million Filipinos\nearn very little and can hardly save. The consequences of the lockdown on them\nwill be grave, and whether giving the administration emergency powers is the\nanswer to addressing their plight is very much in question. At worst, the proposed\ncure might in some ways even be worse than the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where\u2019s the plan?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Duterte administration and its sycophants in\nCongress gave the impression that lack of funds and indeed lack of emergency\npowers are to blame for the sorry plight of frontliners and the poorest and\nmost vulnerable. They argue that emergency powers are needed to: mobilize\nassistance for affected citizens; provide health services including COVID-19\ntests and treatment; undertake a program for recovery and rehabilitation\nincluding social amelioration and safety nets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet putting the entire country under a State of\nCalamity already gives access to calamity funds and other government resources.\nEven without emergency powers, it can immediately frontload spending for\nprograms that already have budgets such as Php145.3 billion for conditional\ncash transfers (CCT) and unconditional cash transfers (UCT). It also reportedly\nhas up to Php1.2 trillion in unused unobligated funds from the 2019 budget, at\nleast part of which can be tapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The severe public health crisis demands re-orienting\ngovernment spending to more important emerging public health and socioeconomic\nrelief priorities. Budgets for debt servicing, confidential and intelligence funds,\nas well as militarism and counterinsurgency should be revisited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)\nand Department of Transportation (DOTr) also has a combined budget of Php680\nbillion including for big-ticket infrastructure projects. The administration\nshould revisit its Build, Build, Build (BBB) program to see which of the\nprojects remain socially and economically feasible in the vastly changed\ndomestic and global economic circumstances upon the onset of the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The government can also mobilize private sector\nfunds more systematically. Beyond unilateral corporate efforts or voluntary\ndonations, it can consider issuing COVID-19 emergency bonds and oblige the\ncountry\u2019s biggest firms to invest in these. It can also accept corporate tax\npayments in advance and creditable against their future obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of these require emergency powers. If the\ngovernment had a clearer idea of what needs to be done to respond to the\npandemic, it could have submitted a detailed supplementary budget request to\nCongress and had that approved. Instead, it asked for emergency powers and\ntells the public to blindly trust that it will realign the budget responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan is everything. The country definitely needs\na response package that is much bigger than what has been announced so far. But\ngiving the President emergency powers without detailing proposals of who will\nspend what, and when, is problematic. But it should not have to invoke\nambiguous, special powers to the President. It can expediently carry out its\nduty to secure funds responding to the public health crisis and the needs of\nthe most vulnerable without emergency powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other measures so far also show that\nemergency powers are unnecessary. The drastic lockdown is arguably needed\nespecially after the administration\u2019s dismissiveness at the start of the crisis\nthat resulted in the virus spreading much more than it should have. It has\nalready issued guidelines for the \u201cenhanced community\nquarantine\u201d (ECQ) which admittedly can still be much improved to be less\nmuddled and clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The social welfare and labor departments were\nalready mandated to implement measures to ease the burden of the lockdown on\nthe working people. These include a moratorium on lease rentals, advancing a\npro-rated 13th<\/sup> month pay, reprieve in utility bills, and assistance\nto micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs). The agencies responded\nwith some programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The administration however has not clearly accounted\nfor the magnitude of Filipinos who will be needing help, nor allocated enough to\ncushion the impact of the crisis on them. Official responses during the first\ndays of the lockdown have tended to be myopic. A large proportion of the entire\nworkforce stands to be dislocated by the lockdown. IBON estimates some 14.4\nmillion workers and informal earners in Luzon risk being affected, most of whom\nare vendors, shopkeepers, salespersons, construction workers, public and\nprivate transport drivers and mechanics, manufacturing workers, and hotel and\nrestaurant employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n