As the lockdown continues in full and in part across the nation crazy things continue to happen.
With street vendors forbidden from hawking their wares and people forbidden to drink and hang out outside their homes the balut industry is taking a hit.
In Pateros City, around 300 balut or fertilized duck eggs have hatched into ducklings in what could be a reminder of how long the enhanced community quarantine has been in effect.
Known for its balut and salted eggs, the city is feeling the impact of the lockdown that started on March 17, which has halted almost all economic activities as a way of containing the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Deo Reyes, who is in the balut business had to give away the ducklings and his stocks of around 15,000 eggs because of slow sales, according to Bam Alegre's Tuesday report on 24 Oras.
"Hundred percent. Wala talagang pinakinabangan the last two months. Lumaking sisiw, eh. Papunta na siya doon and then imbis na masayang, pinamigay namin sa mga taga-Pateros," Reyes said.
He said some of the eggs were given to health workers and other frontliners.
With a population of 70,000, the municipality of Pateros did not receive a large budget which can be used to give aid to balut makers as most had gone to relief goods for residents.
With no one to eat the duck embryos
they have
hatched into full ducklings. But what will healthcare workers do with the ducks? Where will they raise them?
Many small businesses like balut sellers might never come back due to new strict DOH protocols.
The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) on Wednesday said small and micro businesses may just close their operations altogether than comply with the strict health protocols against the COVID-19.
Interviewed on Dobol B sa News TV, ECOP chair Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said these businesses, which makes the 90% of enterprises in the country, do not have enough resources to continue their operations unlike large businesses.
“Yung mga medium saka large company, walang problema ‘yan, pero 'yung small at micro natin, malaking problema 'yan. Sa dami ng ihahanda mo, baka ayaw na lang magbukas ng mga yan,” he said.
According to ECOP, 90% of businesses in the country are micro and small enterprises, 8% are medium, and the remaining 2% are large.
Could
the Philippines really see 90% of the economy
vanish? Is the Philippines on the verge of an economic apocalypse?
Duterte has set aside more reward money. This time it's P20 million for any Pinoy who can develop a respirator.
President Duterte is offering a P20-million reward to any Filipino who develops respirators for patients infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Malacañang announced yesterday.
The respirators should “outlast the lives of the patients,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
Duterte made the offer amid the global shortage of respirators and ventilators due to the high demand in treating patients severely infected with COVID-19, according to Roque.
Perhaps he means a ventilator? It should be an easy reward to claim since respirators were invented long ago. Ventilators too!
Deaths continue to mount from COVID-19. What to do with the bodies until they can be cremated?
The Quezon City (QC) government has created a “mobile morgue” to temporarily house bodies that are awaiting cremation.
According to a 24 Oras report by Saleema Refran on Tuesday, the Baesa Crematorium has cremated 140 bodies since March 24, including 13 which were confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
Since COVID-19 hit QC, the local government noted that at least 10 families go to their one-stop-shop to process death certificates every day.
As deaths continue to mount due to the pandemic, QC has converted a 40-foot-tall refrigerated container van into a mobile morgue that can house 40 to 45 bodies.
It seems only one mobile morgue has been deployed which is in stark contrast to
New York which has deployed 45.
The lockdown has not been kind at all tricycle and jeepney drivers. With a total ban on public transportation some of them have lost everything and have ended up living in their tricycles and jeepnies.
A tricycle driver and his family have resorted to living inside a tricycle after he lost his only source of income amid the enhanced community quarantine.
According to Bernadette Reyes' report for "24 Oras," the family could no longer afford to pay rent and opted to endure living in the cramped space. They eat inside the tricycle and cook on the streets.
Joel, the driver, collects cardboards wherever he could find them and sells it to junk shops just to feed his family every day.
Some netizens put up a Facebook group called "SuperTsuper" to facilitate donations for PUV drivers
In the jeep that a driver and his family live in after they couldn't pay rent and lost their home since all passenger car travel was stopped. They rely on passing motorists to cross the food daily. In this jeep they sleep and eat while on the side of the road they cook and do laundry.
That is really just awful. While there is a Facebook group to raise donations for these people who knows if they will get that money when the government is having a hard time distributing the SAP funds.
Could you take in an old homeless man? One family did. Turns out they were already homeless and living in a cart!
A homeless family took in a tired and hungry elderly man they met amid the enhanced community quarantine.
According to Bernadette Reyes' report for "24 Oras," Genesis Cunanan lives in a cart with his wife and child.
When the lockdown was imposed, they came across Lolo Gerry, who was already weak and starving.
"The man had his belongings, and then of course we were sorry because we were heavy, we rode," Genesis said.
"Blessing it, eh, share your blessings is not there so that's what I'm doing," he added.
This man living in a cart with his family is talking about sharing your blessings! Doesn't that make you feel like an unappreciative jerk?
Part of the new normal will be that the elderly and the young, those 20 and under and those 60 and over) will not be able to leave their houses even under a general quarantine. But there is something else that will be part of that new normal.
ECOP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said government’s rule of not allowing senior citizens or those aged 60 and above, as well as the young or 20 years old and below, to leave their homes during GCQ may lead to people losing their jobs.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said shopping malls that will reopen in areas under relaxed quarantine are required to set their air-conditioning units at higher thermostat to prevent crowding. “The general rule is unlike in the past when we go to the malls for recreation and leisure, they (mall owners) will keep the temperature rather warm at 26 (degrees Celsius) so that people will not be loitering in the malls,” Roque told ABS-CBN News Channel. ?Restrictions in areas with low to moderate risks will be downgraded from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to GCQ by May 1.
Warmer malls! The malls will be kept at a warm 26 C of 78 F to keep people from loitering.
Imagine you live way out in the middle of nowhere. You are going about your business when you hear a whirring sound growing louder and louder. It's a helicopter! Is it blasting Fortunate Son or Flight of the Valkyries as it drops face masks and leaflets all over the countryside and your remote village?
The Philippine Army dropped leaflets on coronavirus disease and facemasks in remote villages of the Agusan and Surigao provinces this week.
Major Francisco Garello, civil-military operations officer of the 402nd Infantry Brigade said they used a Philippine Air Force Huey helicopter and two MG-520 gunships to drop 10,000 leaflets and 200 facemasks on Wednesday and Thursday.
“This was part of our COVID-19 information awareness campaign to remote communities unreachable by vehicles,” Garello said.
He said the airdrop concentrated on the remote villages of the towns of Kitcharao, Jabonga and Tubay in Agusan del Norte, and the towns of Alegria and Gigaquit in Surigao del Norte.
He said they reached out to residents of these remote villages to urge them to observe the guidelines of the Department of Health on the virus.
How many of those 10,000 leaflets and 200 masks are littering the countryside?
Do you know what to do with your disposable face mask once it is finished being used?
The Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines (SWAPP) asked the public on Wednesday to separate used masks in a yellow garbage bag to allow waste collectors to know that a medical waste is included in the household waste.
“I hope that households do not include (used) face masks in the municipal waste picked up by our garbage collectors,” SWAPP president Grace Sapuay said in an interview on DZBB.
Medical wastes, such as face masks and gloves, are being dumped with the household garbage, while garbage collectors unknowingly pick up the medical waste that further poses the risk of infection.
“We specifically call on all households who have members identified as persons under investigation or persons under monitoring (of COVID-19) to take extra precaution in handling their special wastes by initially disinfecting it with chlorine based solution prior to collection to prevent any further spread of the COVID-19 virus in the community,” the EMB said.
Practicing proper waste segregation is in accordance with the Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act 2000.
“Proper handling of household healthcare wastes, such as used face masks and gloves that are considered as special wastes will help stop the spread of COVID-19,” the EMB said.
How is the public supposed to separate medical waste (face masks) from their normal garbage when they don't segregate garbage now and too many practice open burning? RA 9003 is a joke and is hardly enforced or put into practice.
Some folks have not gotten their SAP money yet. One man will never get it.
Residents of Dumanjug, a southern town in Cebu, are being reminded to bring with them umbrellas or have someone accompany them when they run errands to avoid heatstroke this summer season.
This, after a 59-year-old man who was supposed to receive his social amelioration program (SAP) assistance, was unable to claim them after he died of heatstroke while walking home for lunch in Barangay Lawaan, Dumanjug, Cebu on May 1, 2020.
Police Major Ardioleto Cabagnot, chief of Dumanjug Police, said that the victim, Lolito Ferrer, from the same place, was found dead on a farm field about 300 meters away from Barangay Lawaan Hall at past 1 p.m. today.
Responding medical personnel Dr. Josefina Malana, declared Ferrer dead due to heatstroke.
It was found out that Ferrer might have been dead for hours before his body was found.
Cabagnot said that prior to the incident, Ferrer was lining up to get his SAP, but he decided to go home to eat lunch when his name was not yet called then.
Just how far did he have to walk to get home?
Truly COVID-19 is the great equalizer. All around the world rich and famous celebrities are hunkered down in their mansions just like us! Some of them even got the virus just like us! They also get bored and post quarantine selfies on Instagram just like us! They also have to go shopping for groceries and then disinfect when they return home just like us!
Alden is the household’s designated “runner”: He’s the one who goes out grocery shopping and takes care of utilities. As such, it’s crucial, he said, to take extra precaution, especially since he’s living with his grandparents. “I can’t risk their health and welfare,” he said. “I can’t let them get sick.”
“Upon returning home from the grocery, our Ate Virgie (house help) would be waiting for me in the garage, where I change clothes. I disinfect my exposed body parts, especially my arms, before entering the house through the backdoor,” he related. “Then, I go straight to my room and take a bath.”
One of the realizations Alden has had during this pandemic is that the virus has been an equalizer of sorts. “Regardless of who you are or what you have, when it comes to life and death… It has been an eye-opener for everyone. There’s a lot at stake. We have to be selfless,” he said. “What’s happening right now is something we can’t fully understand, and feels unfair, sometimes. But maybe there’s a reason for everything,” added Alden, who has been using his free time to “reestablish connections” with family and friends.
Wow! He's just like us!
One stressed out NYC-based OFW has been using her spare time to destress by manufacturing face masks.
A Filipina based in the United States, as a form of stress relief, started making face masks which she then donates to those in need.
Based in New York, Chona Villacorta started making face masks with prints that she donates to her friends and family, as well as her colleagues.
"We have so many reasons how we can help during this pandemic and you know... we can also pray for other people," she said in a report on GMA's 24 Oras Weekend" on Sunday.
Villacorta currently makes 15 masks in an hour and could do as much as 60 during the weekends. She has given these out to her colleagues, including her boss' family.
That's nice but will that fabric really protect anyone from contracting COVID-19 or any other virus?
The nationwide lockdowns have been hard on everyone even the Aetas. Some volunteers have taken it upon them to provide them with what they need.
Tarlac province, along with the rest of Luzon, has been under strict quarantine since March 17, as the government tries to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Locking down the population will starve the virus of hosts, saving thousands if not millions of Filipino lives. But it’s a big-picture approach that can have dire consequences for those living in the margins.
Thus, community workers like Arby (who asked to be identified only by his nickname for security reasons) are worried that hundreds of quarantined Aeta families in Capas might starve first as their income sources vanish and food becomes scarce.
Arby said he tries to make deliveries to over 250 families in Santa Juliana and Bueno every other week. But with the supply of goods running dry in Cristo Rey, Arby is urging donors to ship powdered milk directly to his house instead of cash.
“There are so many families to feed,” he said. “We focus on the children. But sometimes even the elderly approach us asking for food to eat. How can I say no?”
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Aetas of Capas made money as tour guides or traveled to towns such as Cristo Rey to sell kamote, ginger and banana heart harvested in their own lands.
Among the estimated 10 to 20 million indigenous peoples (IPs) scattered across the Philippines, the Aetas cope with poverty, lack of economic opportunities and discrimination.
Their isolation means they have no easy access to basic social services. In many cases around the country, IPs receive less priority when it comes to local government aid, private donors have told the Inquirer.
Like most of the poor, they are bearing the brunt of the lockdown.
Unlike Capas, the Aetas in Zambales are more isolated. Ammay said she worked hard to earn their trust.
“It was different before we came here in 2015. If someone was very ill, they just wait for the person to die if their herbal medicines are not effective,” she said. “Today, I can coordinate with the local government and they now allow us to treat their sick.”
“Tourism gets them out of the hunger zone. But the land has to produce something,” Dionisio said in an interview.
Before the lockdown, money generated from tourism helped pay the Aetas to plant fruit trees such as sampaloc, guyabano and jackfruit. These will later create a sustainable source of income.
How did the Aetas, who are indigenous people, survive for hundreds of years but now cannot do without tourism bucks?
Tired of dancing yet? These cops aren't!
Patrolman Christian Dabuco, currently assigned to the City Mobile Force Company (CMFC) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) and a member of the PRO-7 dance troupe says he and his fellow police-dancers have come up with ways to migrate their thoughts from the challenges posed by COVID-19 like dancing with his colleagues during their free time.
“Amoa nalang gyud isayaw amoang kaguol aning virus (We just dance our sadness caused by this virus),” said Dabuco.
Then last May 1, Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of PRO-7, asked the dancers to come up with a dance presentation with a twist.
And the twist is: the dance steps should help remind the public about the rules of ECQ and proper hygiene.
The performance must then be filmed and uploaded in social media since social gatherings are still prohibited.
Dabuco said that his fellow dance troupe members were ecstatic about the idea of encouraging the public about following the ECQ rules and practicing proper hygiene through their dance.
And so on the evening of May 3, after the video was edited, it was immediately uploaded online.
Who knew the PNP had a dance troupe? Like busy bees these cops are dancing out an important
message about proper hygiene. You can
watch it on Facebook here.
The liquor ban is still in effect and people are getting mighty thirsty.
“We sensed that something was wrong because of the speed of the hearse and especially when the driver maneuvered when he saw a checkpoint,” he added.
Authorities chased after the hearse until they were able to intercept it at Barangay Biec this town.
“Upon inspection, we saw inside the casket three boxes of liquor (gin). Each box contains 24 bottles of gin,” Palisoc said.
That's not a dead body! Hopefully it's real gin and not some bootleg poison.
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