Coronavirus Lockdown: Silent Struggle, Mask Up, and More!

More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government. 

Suicide cases are on the rise in Davao and the pandemic is directly to blame.  

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/davaos-silent-struggleunderstanding-the-surge-in-suicide-cases

Davao City has been witness to a troubling surge in documented suicide cases recently. 

While the factual details of these tragedies — how lives are lost — are known, the haunting question of "why" continues to elude our grasp.

Recent incidents in Davao further underscore this grim reality. 

A call center agent tragically jumped off a bridge in Bankerohan on November 15, while just days earlier, an 18-year-old was rescued by the Ecoland Police Station-PS15 at Bolton Bridge due to family problems.

The Philippine Mental Health Association's (PHMA) Davao Chapter has noticed a steady rise in suicide cases from 2016 to 2022, mirroring similar trends in neighboring provinces of the Davao Region. 

One individual, identified as "Payton," not his real name as he requested anonymity, navigated the tumultuous waves of isolation during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. 

Isolated in a Davao City boarding house for four months during the start of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in March 2020, Payton found himself wrestling with the weight of contemplating an end to his life. 

He recalled calling his friends, classmates, and family, but there came a time when no one was contactable for “straight six weeks”.

Cut off from his family, his solitude deepened, exacerbated by the fear of stepping outside and falling ill amid the pandemic. These overwhelming circumstances pushed him to contemplate drastic measures. 

“Being alone, I have nothing to talk to, mura ko'g tala kay pandemic, hadlok kaayo mogawas and hadlok pod ko masakit (I feel insane during the pandemic, I am afraid to go out and get sick),” Payton said through Facebook Messenger when asked of his experiences back then.

He eventually discovered mental health hotlines that guided him toward seeking professional help.

Experts attribute the surge in suicide cases to the recent pandemic, exacerbating underlying mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. 

Societal factors such as lack of social support, economic hardships, peer pressure, and bullying also contribute significantly.

Understanding the nuanced motivations behind these suicidal thoughts poses a significant challenge.

It seems like every day we learn more about how the lockdowns did more to make people unhealthy. Of course those paying attention knew they were no good from day one. 

Duterte retained a high popularity rating during the pandmeic. One research firm says it was all fake.

https://fulcrum.sg/the-puzzle-of-rodrigo-dutertes-popularity-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Rodrigo Duterte stands out as one of the most popular presidents in the history of the Philippines, but some initial studies show that all that glitters might not be political gold. If this is indeed true, it may have a bearing on other populist politicians, particularly his daughter Sara Duterte, who is said to be eyeing the country’s top job.

Various explanations for Duterte’s popularity have been put forward to make sense of this puzzle, including his charismatic personality, straightforward leadership style, non-Tagalog-speaking ethnic ties, and a sense of disillusionment with traditional elites. However, our recent research proposes an alternative explanation that hinges on the possibility of survey respondents “pretending to support” Duterte when confronted by canvassers.

This alternative perspective was hinted at by several analysts when Duterte scored a remarkably high approval rating during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite a lacklustre performance in controlling the virus’s spread, his approval rating soared to 91 per cent in the survey conducted in September 2020. Political commentators suggested that respondents might have provided “safe answers” to canvassers, hinting at the potential for preference falsification or social desirability bias (SDB). Preference falsification refers to the act of concealing one’s true preferences due to fear or shame, and SDB is an equivalent term specifically used in survey research.

To investigate this, we conducted a survey experiment employing the list experiment (also known as an item count experiment), a methodology often used to probe politically or socially sensitive topics. We conducted face-to-face surveys with 1,200 respondents and an online survey with 4,000 respondents between 22 February and 3 March 2021.

Our primary finding indicates that Duterte’s high approval rating was significantly inflated due to preference falsification. Specifically, SDB-induced over-reporting amounted to about 39.5 percentage points in face-to-face surveys and 28.3 percentage points in online surveys. To put it differently, in face-to-face surveys, when respondents were directly asked if they approved of President Duterte’s performance, approximately 89.7 per cent expressed support, but the list experiment revealed that respondents who genuinely supported him were about 50.2 per cent. In the case of online surveys, the figures were 80.8 per cent and 52.5 per cent, respectively. While some may perceive our SDB detection as unusually high, it is worth noting that a comparable list experiment conducted in late 2021 among Metro Manila respondents (N = 300) yielded a similar level of SDB.

These results challenge the conventional understanding of Duterte’s popularity and should be interpreted with certain caveats. They provide only a snapshot of voter sentiments during a specific time when the Covid-19 pandemic exerted substantial influence on society and the economy. It is plausible that Duterte was genuinely popular when he began his presidency in 2016. Further, even with a 50 per cent approval rating as of early 2021 (the time of our survey), he could still be considered a popular president. 

Overall, however, our study questions the dominant narrative that Rodrigo Duterte enjoyed unwavering popularity as suggested by polls.  This study also challenges the stereotype of Filipino voters as uninformed or unintelligent voters. In reality, many voters may be sophisticated strategists. Rather than being delusional, they may be intentionally deceiving the interviewers.

Perhaps those results were falsified but he retains a high rating to this day. 

The pandemic hampered one lady's agricultural plans but the government came through to help her. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1214299

After working for nine years in a microfinance company in the Philippines and as a financial expat in Myanmar, 37-year-old Macon Marcelino Dawey decided to quit her job to become her own boss and prove to naysayers that, indeed, there’s money in agriculture.

True enough, Dawey is starting to reap the fruits of her labor one day at a time as she is now being sought by farmers and plant enthusiasts for her fruits and vegetable seedlings, using a customized three-wheeled vehicle to reach out to more clients.

However, the lady farmer said being successful in agribusiness was not as easy as one would imagine.

She set up Dawey Integrated Farm in Barangay Maan-anteng, Solsona, Ilocos Norte with the support of her former co-worker, Juna Pearl Samar from Leyte.

"Through research, we started in hog breeding but we lost a lot due to the African swine fever. We also tried vegetable production but we are hard up in marketing our products,” she narrated.

Then the pandemic came.

But rather than going under, Dawey said it opened up a novel opportunity for their budding agribusiness -- catering to the needs of so-called plantitos and plantitas (plant enthusiasts) by producing quality seedlings for them.

An unexpected boost also came from the local government, which suggested that they should be producing more seedlings to cater to the needs of farmers.

“At first, sales were low in the local market, but with the help of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other support agencies of the government in the production and marketing of our products, we were able to establish links to bigger markets that prefer to buy from us because of the quality of our seedlings,” Dawey said.

“We are very thankful to the local government, the DA and the government agencies for their encouragement, and invaluable inputs and support,” Dawey said,

Strange that the DA is looking to this lady to produce seedlings for farmers. Why are they unable to do this themsleves? 

The Commission on Population and Development says the pandemic lowered the population. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1865780/projected-ph-population-lowered-due-to-pandemic-deaths-dip-in-births

A drop in the number of births and an increase in fatalities due to the pandemic have resulted in a lower projected population for the country in 2023, the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) said.

Instead of its earlier projection of 115 million people for 2023, the agency has adjusted the figure to 112 million.

“The lower projection … takes into account the drop in the number of births and high mortality rates in 2021 and 2022 — the period covering the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the CPD said in a statement on Saturday. “CPD thus acknowledges that the projected population it earlier stated was an overestimate.” The CPD was formerly known as the Commission on Population, or PopCom, before its mandate was expanded to include population and development under the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Based on the latest figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released last year, the country logged a total of 1,528,684 live births in 2020, which is equivalent to a crude birth rate of 14.1. This translates to 14 births per 1,000 population.

According to the PSA, the country has been seeing a “generally decreasing trend” in the number of live births in the past eight years, from 1,790,367 births in 2012 to 1,528,684 births in 2020.

The biggest plunge was in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when there was about a 9-percent decline in registered live births, compared to the previous year.

Reported deaths, on the other hand, have been on a slow upward trajectory since 2011, except in 2017 and 2020, available data from the PSA indicated.

“The increase during the ten-year period was 23.2 percent, from 498,486 in 2011 to 613,936 in 2020,” the agency noted.

Meanwhile, records showed that more than 4.1 million Filipinos fell ill to the novel coronavirus, while at least 66,755 died of the contagious disease.

On Nov. 14, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action 2023-2028 to address the country’s slowing population growth and other population issues. The CPD has been tasked to lead the plan’s implementation.

I clearly remember a predicted pandemic baby boom because everyone was locked inside with nothing to do but bonk. It appears that is not the case though. 

China is experiencing a spike in respritory illnesses and Filipinos are being told to mask up. 

https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/11/26/23/dont-panic-but-mask-up-as-respiratory-cases-spike-in-china-expert

The public should stay vigilant and keep their guard up as cases of respiratory illness spike in China, an infectious diseases expert said on Sunday.

Speaking on TeleRadyo, Dr. Rontgene Solante — Philippine College of Physicians president — said the public should also observe health precautions such as masking and keeping vaccinations up to date while health authorities keep an eye on the situation.

"Hindi tayo magpa-panic na baka sasabihin na naman nating another COVID or a novel pathogen na hindi natin alam," Solante said. 

"But it is also important while monitoring mag-iingat rin tayo dahil alam mo naman ang sakit ngayon mabilis nang mag-travel between country to another country dahil nga sa wala nang restrictions."

An increase in "influenza-like illness" has been recorded in northern China since mid-October when compared to the same period in the previous three years, according to the World Health Organization.

China has reported no "unusual or novel pathogens" in respiratory illnesses spreading in the north of the country, the WHO said.

Solante said that vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly should take extra precautions as they could be easily infected with respiratory illnesses.

"Importante na paalalahan natin ang population, particularly 'yung mga vulnerable population, na 'yung face mask natin isa sa mga layers of protection," he said.

"Sana hindi natin makakalimutan any time pupunta ka sa mga lugar na mga high risk, maraming tao, 'di mo alam sino doon ang nagkakasakit, it's important for this population na mag-mask pa rin atsaka maghugas ng kamay."

Don't worry but act worried by wearing a mask.