NEWS | Of financing woes and aid delays: Gov’t needs to ramp up aid distribution
By Melissa Allauigan
With the Philippines having one of the world’s longest lockdowns, the second-highest case load in Southeast Asia, and a continuous delay in both vaccine rollout and aid distribution, there seems to be no end in sight. To fill in the gaps, citizens have taken it upon themselves to help each other out through the establishment of community pantries. The emergence of these efforts has not only given an opportunity for Filipinos to give and take what they can, but also expose the inutile pandemic response of the administration.
Aid, delayed
When the ‘NCR plus’ area — Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal — reverted to a stricter lockdown after the upsurge in cases, the government announced that it would provide financial aid to its 22.9 million low-income residents. Beneficiaries were promised P1,000 in cash or in-kind, with a maximum of P4,000 per family.
This amount was slammed by Bayan Muna, as it was grossly insufficient to sustain an average family of five for two weeks. In fact, by government standards of poverty, P1,000 can only last for three days of subsistence.
Moreover, according to economic think tank IBON, the very few families who received the full amount of the promised aid from Bayanihan 1, Bayanihan 2, and the supplementary Social Amelioration Program (SAP) tranches would only have a meager P15,607 to get them through the harsh lockdown. As of now, only 52% of the aid has been doled out while the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) will extend until the 15th of May.
Seeking reprieve
Shortly after the announcement of the MECQ, organizer Ana Patricia Non set up the first community pantry in Maginhawa with the core principle “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.” This simple effort went viral on social media and pushed other citizens to respond in solidarity. Currently, there are around 400 community pantries all over the country.
While lauded as a good socio-civic initiative and an expression of the “bayanihan” spirit, progressive lawmakers, individuals, and groups have pointed out that this was solid evidence of the government’s severely lacking response to the pandemic.
Gabriela Representative Arlene Brosas said that the pantries were a “scathing indictment of Duterte’s failed pandemic response and outright refusal to provide sufficient cash subsidy despite trillions in loans.”
Sociologist Athena Charanne Presto also pointed out that the emergence of the pantries is an act of collective resistance.
“Community pantries can be seen as acts of resistance against three things: first, against a government that fails to adequately address citizens’ needs; second, against a biased and discriminatory view of the poor as selfish and greedy; and third, against aid initiatives from institutions that are difficult to trust,” Presto stated.
Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque brushed off the criticisms and said that this was merely the Filipinos “showing our best at the worst of times”, despite admitting the delay in aid distribution.
Budget priorities
Some senators have now sought to review, realign, and rechannel the P19.1 billion budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), following the several instances of the agency’s red-tagging of the community pantries.
They argued that the funds could instead be used to provide financial aid to unemployed workers and upgrade the health response through better contact tracing and more hospital beds.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has also bared that the senate can give NTF-ELCAC no budget this year, although there was still no confirmation of a final decision.
Meanwhile, the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (Agham) said that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should just rechannel the P28M budget allotted for the dolomite sand in their beach nourishment program to COVID-19 assistance funds, due to their inability to implement an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) system.
Immediate substantive aid worth P10,000 is now being pushed forward by the Makabayan Bloc through the filing of House Bill №9089, which would provide the said amount to 18M low-income and poor families over the next two months.
Moreover, IBON stated that the government should adequately fund and make emergency relief and support a priority in this health crisis. They proposed that funds for the P1.1 trillion infrastructure budget and P.1.8T for debt servicing can be realigned to support other critical pandemic needs.
They asserted that if the Duterte administration put Filipinos’ welfare first over pleasing elite and foreign interests, there could be several sources of funding to adequately finance COVID response and recovery.
