The lockdowns of the past two and a half months has been devastating to the economy. While there is a slow and positive recovery post-lockdown the extent of the damage is just now coming to light.
Unless one could work from home or one's job was considered essential it was probably lost.
Five million more Filipinos were left jobless by the pandemic and government-initiated lockdowns in April, in the clearest sign of socioeconomic damage from the health crisis that saw businesses getting shuttered and people staying home.
While state officials said some job losses were temporary and could have since recovered with Metro Manila’s reopening, observers cautioned the situation may be far worse than the numbers are telling, with displaced migrant workers not counted in the official tally. Labor groups said the government shares the blame for growing unemployment.
The jobless rate hit 17.7% in April, surging from last year’s 5.1%, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday. The figure was the highest since April 2005 when the government made methodological changes on how unemployment is computed.
In absolute terms, movement restrictions threw 7.3 million Filipinos out of their workplace during the survey period, up from 2.3 million a year ago, PSA data showed.
Hopefully those jobs will come back. However the DOLE 2,068 establishments have shuttered due to the pandemic and only 69,000 people lost their jobs.
At least 2,068 establishments in the country have so far closed down due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Wednesday.
According to Bello, the closure of these establishments rendered some 69,022 workers jobless.
The Labor chief issued the statement as he clarified the figures on the effect of COVID-19 on the labor sector.
(The actual number of unemployed reached only 69,000 and those who said they have closed down were 2,068 companies or employers. The 7.3 million earlier reported was just an estimate, it is not actual or factual.)
The 7.3 million figure is from the Philippine Statistics Authority and is based on real data. Who is right and who is wrong? The DOLE or the PSA? Why can't these bureaucracies get their numbers straight?
The DEpEd is forcing classes online which is a huge problem for many who do not have internet access or proper devices for online learning. The City of Manila is helping to fill that gap.
The Manila City government will buy 110,000 tablet devices equipped with SIM cards and 11,000 laptops with pocket WiFi devices worth P994 million for students and teachers in preparation for upcoming online classes.
Mayor Isko Moreno announced this on Friday evening after convening the Local School Board of the city in preparation for this school year’s online classes.
Moreno told members of the board he doesn’t want kids going to schools that are not properly equipped.
“We are the capital of the nation… I want you to focus all your effort on this,” he said.
He said that each educational tablet device will be equipped with SIM cards with 10 GB bandwidth monthly as well as free 2GB data allocation for YouTube.
“I want to focus on the real problem that they need bandwidth,” he said.
Likewise, Domagoso said that 11,000 laptops with pocket WiFi devices would be issued to public school teachers for the online classes.
Domagoso said these devices would be distributed prior to the opening of school year 2020-2021.
Free Wi-Fi, bandwidth and tablets. Hopefully these devices get used properly.
When they say the coronavirus has affected everything they mean it!
Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. has advised cockpit operators in the province to prepare guidelines and recommendations for their operation despite the continued ban on cockfighting.
In an interview on Saturday, Defensor said he met with cockpit operators on Friday after he received an advisory from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) dated June 11 that bans cockfighting until it is allowed by the President, the department, or the Inter-Agency on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Cockfighting is a huge business in Iloilo province with at least one cockpit in almost all 43 local government units.
“Our direction of the discussion is we have no option but to wait for the guidance from the national government but we better prepare guidelines,” he said.
Cockfighting is big business throughout the nation. What will the cockpit look like in a post-COVID-19 world? That is what they are trying to decide.
It's funny how taxes on cigarettes and alcohol as well as proceeds from gambling go to pay for healthcare. Ironic having unhealthy activities finance the health system
The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has lost around P13 billion in earnings amid the implementation of the community quarantine due to COVID-19.
Due to the threat of COVID-19, the gaming operation of PCSO has been suspended since March.
Garma said they have already written to the Office of the President regarding the resumption of their lotto outlet operations.
The PCSO will implement health protocols, including requiring the gaming public to wear face masks, as well as social distancing.
It will also require betting booths to have a screen or protection between agents and bettors.
Garma said the agency has also proposed a digital system for betting.
Why not reopen
the lotto? Everything else
is reopening albeit
with strict control measures.
"Ding-dong!" "Who is it?" "Ding-dong delivery!"
As the entertainment industry is put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, actor Dingdong Dantes is set to launch a delivery app to help out displaced showbiz workers.
The app, aptly called DingDong PH, is the brainchild of Dantes, who admitted that he was not that in tune with technology prior to the pandemic.
DingDong PH came about after Dantes got inspiration from a problem he and his wife, Marian Rivera, had to deal with involving the latter’s flower business.
(One time, she had to deliver flowers to a client. The flowers were delivered to the wrong house, and then they got damaged.)
Dantes shared that after he stepped up by delivering the flowers himself to the client, the idea for creating DingDong PH was born.
“Doon nagsimula ‘yung idea, at lumawak na lang siya (That is where I got the idea, which expanded as time went by). In the past weeks, after talking with friends who share the same vision and passion, an idea was developed, hence the birth of Doorbell Technologies,” he said.
“’Yung riders na gagamitin natin, ‘yung nawalan ng trabaho dito sa industriya namin (The riders we are going to hire are those who lost their jobs in our industry),” he added.
Dantes has yet to announce when the app will exactly be launched, but Rivera has already given fans a teaser for DingDong PH via Instagram on June 7.
So it's just a motorcycle delivery service that will be staffed by those in the entertainment industry who have lost their jobs. But what happens when they get recalled to their jobs?
OFWs have been particularly
hard hit by the lockdown and pandemic.
Since June 1, around 400 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs) have been forced to camp out in front of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) and under the airport’s elevated expressway while waiting for their flights to their respective destinations.
Most of the stranded workers spent days and nights sleeping there, hoping to catch a flight home, before officials finally swept them up on Friday.
While the last batch of OFWs and probinsyanos stranded for two weeks at Naia were finally transported on Friday to a quarantine facility here in Manila, their sorry ordeal brought to the fore anew vague and contradictory policies for these stranded individuals.
For days, their bags and clothes were their only refuge against the elements, relying on the kindness of strangers who dropped offrelief goods for them.
“We really couldn’t do anything, even when we requested that officials at least accommodate pregnant women and give them a comfortable place to sleep in,” Reiza Daquitan, an OFW hopeful who was supposed to fly out to Macau last March before the lockdown, told Radyo Inquirer in an interview last Wednesday. “Instead we’re living like pigs, like garbage here.”
Most of them were OFW hopefuls like May Ann Cayog whose prospects of employment abroad were dashed by the pandemic.
Cayog, who hailed from Davao, was supposed to fly out to Saudi Arabia via Manila to work as a domestic worker when President Duterte declared the entire island of Luzon under lockdown in March 17.
Last month, Cayug successfully booked a flight back to Davao scheduled on May 23, she said. Her flight was later moved to June 1, then June 4, and then June 8, until she was told her next schedule was on July 1.
“It’s like they don’t have any conscience, no hearts,” she said in an interview.
As of Friday, transport officials swept up around 175 people toVillamor Air Base to be quarantined and be tested for the coronavirus.
They would also be temporarily housed there while the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of the Interior and Local Government worked out travel accommodations for them.
They were likewise provided facilitation assistance to secure necessary travel documents as required by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, according to the Department of Transportation.
They were already brought home via Cebu Pacific flights to Visayas and Mindanao.
Another 250 who took shelter under a flyover near Naia, are slated to be transported by the PCG transport team to appropriate accommodation facilities.
Well at least the government got those people out of those conditions. But why were they allowed to wallow in the mire for so long?
Why do the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise? DICT undersecretary Rio has an answer.
"Last Sunday, June 7, I have to break my silence to reach out to the IATF that if they only depend on StaySafe as the government contact tracing app, we would never be able to flatten this pandemic curve which will mean more deaths and may damage our economy that may take years to recover," he said.
"It is also to point out to IATF that had they approved the Covid-19 Central Platform endorsed by both [DICT Secretary Gregorio] Honasan and [National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) chief implementer Secretary Carlito] Galvez submitted to them last April 29, this rise in the curve that we are experiencing now would not have happened. For the sake of our people and country, I hope IATF will listen this time," he added.
The DOH says the cause for the rise in cases is more testing and the clearing of a backlog of thousands of tests already done. They claim there are at least
2,200 more cases to clear.
According to the CHR the forced quarantines have lead to an increase n domestic abuse.
“Around the world, there is emerging evidence that violence, abuse, and neglect of older persons increased due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In the country, we are still unaware of their actual situation within homes, institutions, and communities,” Karen Gomez-Dumpit, Focal Commissioner on Aging and the Human Rights of Older Persons, said in a statement, coinciding the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
If the CHR Is unaware of the actual situation then why are they making such statements? The don't provide any evidence whatsoever to bolster their claim.
A Filipina in Dubai has been recognized for her efforts helping to feed people affected by the pandemic.
An unemployed Filipina living in Dubai that has been giving 200 free meals every day to the city's jobless migrants during the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was given a grant to cook 10,000 more meals for her Good Samaritan initiative.
"Every day since Eid Al Fitr, the mother of three has been taking out more than Dh500 from her own pocket to feed over 400 people, who have lost their jobs because of challenges arising from the pandemic," Khaleej Times said in a report today.
"She buys over 50kg of rice, 60kg of chicken, and nearly 25 dozen eggs to cook two meals a day. People in need can pick up the food directly from her apartment, practising social distancing at all times. But for some expats who cannot afford to pay for transportation, Feby personally delivers the free meals to their homes in Dubai's Satwa area."
According to Khaleej Times, Feby calls her personal project "Ayuda" (Filipino for "help"), which began when she saw fellow Filipinos lining up for free food outside the building where she lives. She said she felt for her fellowmen because she thought, "What if it was my family who lost our income during the pandemic?"
"We're poor, to be honest. But it's not a reason for me not to help, you know?" Feby told South China Morning Post in an earlier feature.
"Life is so hard and they don't have anyone to depend on."
Feby recalled that she started the effort when she was able to buy about 500 dirhams' worth of groceries, including 30 frozen chickens and sacks of rice, from her own family's month's worth of allowance.
At first, she relied on her husband's income. But when the word spread about her initiative, many are now donating, including a famous Emirati blogger who donated 10,000 dirhams.
This lady who has no job and money of her own and admits her family is poor used her husband's income to pay for her project. At least now people are donating and she does not have to take her husband's money.
Some teachers were got on video doing a very stupid stunt.
A viral video featuring pupils and their parents in what seemed like a graduation ceremony at a small village in Camarines Norte’s capital town of Daet is now being investigated by the Department of Education (DepEd) for possible breach of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) protocols.
A source, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak to the media, confirmed that the video showing children being made to share a single face mask for their “graduation” photo happened at a makeshift graduation shed in Dogongan village.
The source, a DepEd local employee, said the department’s provincial office had directed the school’s principal to explain the incident in writing.
In the video, at least three students who donned white togas were made to stand one by one in front of a tarpaulin as a graduation march song played.
A woman was orchestrating the event. She posed with the first boy, who was wearing a face mask, for the photo with the boy holding what looked like a graduation certificate.
The tarpaulin in the background for the photo session read “Daet North District, Dogongan Elementary School, 58th Graduation Exercise” with the time of 8:30 a.m. and date of June 10, 2020.
Instead of leading the boy out with his mask on, the woman asked him to remove the mask to be passed on and worn by the next “graduate.” After the second pupil’s photo was taken, she removed the mask and placed it on the face of the next pupil waiting to be photographed.
Instead of giving each child their own face mask the teachers had them share a single one! Pretty stupid.
Robot doctors will be helping human doctors in Bulacan monitor their COVID-19 patients.
In this Bulacan capital, medical doctors will be getting an extra pair of hands, albeit robotic, to monitor the health condition of COVID-19 patients.
These roving robot doctors are equipped with a camera to allow doctors and nurses to monitor their movements and sensor arms that can be controlled remotely to adjust to the position of the patient.
The “Rovidocs” are programmed using a computer tablet and are outfitted with a thermal scanner to detect fever, a tray for medicines and a nozzle spray, and a liquid tank for disinfection.
In effect, they will reduce the exposure of doctors and nurses to COVID-19 patients, said Prof. Jayson Victoriano, creator of the Rovidocs.
“The robots will still be customized to get a patient’s pulse rate, blood pressure and body temperature,” Victoriano said while presenting the prototype at the provincial capitol here.
The robots can make sure medicines are delivered on time and monitor the hourly status of the patients.
Three of these Rovidocs will be commissioned by the provincial government and stationed at the Bulacan Infection Control Center in Bulacan Medical Center here. Each robot costs P150,000.
The future has finally arrived in the Philippines.
You know what the only way to fight COVID-19 is? Duterte does!
“The only way to fight COVID is [by taking a] vaccine — or maybe a miracle pill that would kill it, just as an antibiotic would kill bacteria. But this virus cannot be killed by an antibiotic. It really your body that will produce ng antibodies,” the President said, speaking partly in Filipino, in his late Monday night briefing.
“Now there’s a pill — I hope it’s true — that will fight and it can, maybe, kill the virus. That’s good. When that arrives, when its already available, I will order it. I will distribute it I will personally supervise the distribution,” he added.
Well perhaps China will come through with a vaccine and distribute to the Philippines first!
