More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
The Philippines has received a $24.9-million grant from the World Bank (WB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to help the country fight off animal and human health threats.
The Philippines is one of 50 countries chosen to benefit from the two institutions’ Pandemic Fund Grant worth $547 million, intended for strengthening disease surveillance and upgrading laboratories, among others.
The Philippines’ grant for the Resilient Philippines project forms part of the second funding round by the WB and FAO to beef up pandemic prevention, preparedness and response of many recipients worldwide.
The project calls for implementing the One Health approach, recognizing the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture said the grant would help the Philippines invest in early warning systems, laboratory infrastructure and the development of a skilled health workforce.
“This grant will not only enhance our pandemic preparedness but will also strengthen the nation’s agricultural sector, which is vulnerable during outbreaks,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Constante Palabrica said.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the grant was a “game-changer” for the Philippines.“It will not only reinforce our capacity to respond to future pandemics but also ensure the continuity of essential sectors, such as agriculture,” Tiu Laurel said.
“By investing in disease surveillance and health infrastructure, we safeguard food security, protect our farmers and secure the well-being of the entire Filipino community,” he added.
The FAO said last month said it was “timely” for the Philippines to secure the grant as it topped the World Risk Index for the third consecutive year.
“The rapid decline in biodiversity—driven by deforestation, ecosystem destruction and habitat loss—has triggered the emergence and re-emergence of transboundary animal diseases and zoonoses, or diseases transmitted between species, such as from animal to human,” FAO country representative Lionel Henri Valentin Dabbadie said.
The G20 launched the Pandemic Fund in 2022 as a direct response to the global vulnerabilities caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
It finances vital investments to beef up the pandemic preparedness and resilience of most at-risk countries.
It's only a game-changer if the money is used properly. So it's a wait and see game. Everyone is preparing for the next pandemic which means it could only be a matter of time.
The tourism forecast for 2024 has been lowered because targets are not being met.
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| https://www.panaynews.net/ph-24-tourism-arrivals-forecast-cut-to-6m/ |
THE volume of tourist arrivals in the Philippines is expected to reach just 6 million by the end of the year, according to BMI Research, a unit of the Fitch Group.
This is a downgrade from an earlier projection of 6.6 million, as the sector is yet to fully recover from the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
BMI Research said that while tourist arrivals hit 4.5 million from January to October, which was higher than the 4.1 million tallied in the comparable period in 2023, it was still not enough to pull up the numbers to what they were before the global health crisis hit in 2020.
“This is just 66.5 percent of the tourist arrivals during the comparable period over 2019, highlighting how the sector is still in a postpandemic recovery phase,” the report read.
“With 10 months of tourist arrivals data published for 2024, we maintain our view that arrivals over the year will fall short of a full pandemic recovery,” the report also said.
The latest projection would still mean a 19.5 percent growth for 2024, although still considerably less than the 8.2 million recorded in 2019 and short of the government’s target this year of 7.7 million.
Bank of America said in an earlier report that the Philippine tourism sector’s recovery has been hampered by the lack of Chinese tourists, with arrivals from China just at 20-30 percent of prepandemic levels.
Global inflation that has reduced discretionary spending is another factor.
4.5 million tourists is still not enough to get those numbers up. That means the tourism sector "is still in a post pandemic recovery phase" and has not fully recovered.
Health allowances for COVID-19 frontliners in the BARMM are just now being released by the Bangsamoro government.
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| https://www.philstar.com/nation/2024/11/14/2400137/allowances-barmm-2020-2023-anti-pandemic-medics-released |
The Bangsamoro government has started releasing allowances for 4,000 frontline medics involved in COVID-19 mitigation efforts in the autonomous region from 2020 to 2023.
Radio reports in Cotabato City on Thursday, November 14, stated that among the recipients of the Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) are barangay volunteer emergency responders, personnel of different Army battalions and brigades and members of units under the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
The Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao started releasing on Monday, November 11, the HEA from the national government, ranging from P3,000 to 9,000 per health worker, depending on the extent of services of each to the local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Employees of the municipal and provincial health offices and hospitals in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao shall also receive HEA, according to BARMM’s health minister, Kadil Sinolinding Jr.
The physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding, a concurrent member of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, said they are grateful to the national government for providing the HEA funds earmarked for health workers in the autonomous region.
That is rather shocking. Funny that the lack of pay for BARMM health workers was not mentioned in all the other news about the situation.
Much has been said about how the Philippines economy has recovered from the pandemic and is now robust. But according to outside observers that is not the case.
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| https://fulcrum.sg/so-near-yet-so-far-the-philippines-lower-middle-income-country-trap/ |
If you listen only to the Philippines’ economic managers, you’d think the country is one of ASEAN’s bright spots.
On 8 August, Arsenio Balisacan, the country’s socioeconomic planner, proudly exclaimed that the 6.4 per cent GDP growth in the second quarter of the year meant that the Philippines kept its rank as “one of Asia’s best-performing major emerging economies”. He added, “For East Asia’s economies that have released their second quarter 2024 GDP growth, we follow behind Vietnam at 6.9 per cent while leading Malaysia at 5.8 per cent, Indonesia at 5.0 per cent, and China at 4.7 per cent.”
But in fact, a disturbing number of indicators point to the Philippines lagging behind the region.
First, we need to go back to the start of the pandemic. In 2020, the Philippine GDP dropped by nearly 10 per cent, the worst recession among all ten ASEAN countries (Figure 1). This is hardly surprising, given the mismanagement of the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte, which led to one of the world’s longest pandemic lockdowns.
Because of this, the pandemic scars on the Philippine economy are now permanent. The Philippines needs GDP growth in excess of 10 per cent yearly to return to its pre-pandemic GDP trend. This puts the perceived “high” growth of 6.4 per cent into proper perspective.
Second, Vietnam officially overtook the Philippines in per-capita income during the pandemic. This is a remarkable development because just a few decades ago, Vietnam was economically worse off than the Philippines. Even Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar have made significant strides. When we contrast all 10 ASEAN countries, the Philippines’ trend of GDP per capita sticks out as a sore thumb: the country’s trend line is distinctly flatter compared to the rest of the region (Figure 2).
The Philippines’ slow progress is underscored by a frustrating failure to transition into an “upper-middle-income country”. The economy has been stuck in the “lower-middle-income” category since 1989 when the World Bank first developed its country classification by income.
To be sure, growth in recent decades means that the Philippines has been inching closer to the upper-middle-income status. Most recently, Balisacan said the Philippines will be upper-middle income “towards the latter part of 2025 or early 2026”. However, the Philippine government has been promising this status change every year since at least 2017. Every year, too, this promise has been broken.
The Philippines is by no means unique in being a perennial middle-income country. But its case is special because the Philippines has been stuck in lower-middle-income status for at least 35 years. This long period allowed several ASEAN countries to overtake the country economically.
When we contrast all 10 ASEAN countries, the Philippines’ trend of GDP per person sticks out as a sore thumb: the trend line is distinctly flatter compared to the rest of the region.
What gives? How can the Philippines escape this lower-middle-income trap?
Sound macroeconomic fundamentals would be key, and in this regard, the Philippines has no major problem. It has come a long way since the gross economic mismanagement during the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986), which culminated in the country’s worst post-war recession from 1984 to 1985. Growth is steady, overall inflation has been in single digits for decades, and unemployment recently reached a historic low.
The bigger sticking point lies in the economy’s structure and how it is transforming. Figure 3 shows a spurt of industrialisation in the 1960s and 1970s, peaking in 1981. But since then, the share of industry in GDP has gradually declined and stagnated.
By contrast, the Philippines is now a service-driven economy, with services accounting for 62.3 per cent of its GDP in 2023. The predominance of services in the Philippines is part and parcel of a growing trend in many developing countries called “premature deindustrialisation”. More and more countries have leapfrogged from agriculture to services, bypassing industry — and this is not necessarily bad.
Yet the Philippines seems to have largely missed out on the promise of industrialisation, insofar as industry — especially if export-oriented — holds out great potential technological progress and positive spillovers.
Indeed, export-oriented industrialisation has brought many Asian economies on a path towards prosperity. Vietnam, for instance, is now a manufacturing hub for many prominent tech companies such as Samsung, Intel, Apple, and LG. It is also leading in electric vehicle exports. Leaning into this export-oriented strategy has resulted in massive dividends for Vietnam, whose electronics exports amount to US$11.5 billion monthly. By contrast, the Philippines’ exports remain stuck in low-value-added semiconductors and other electronic components. Its total exports are a little over US$6 billion monthly.
A recent World Bank study showed that Vietnam’s booming exports have made ripples across its economy so that even workers in non-export-oriented industries have benefitted. The export boom has lifted wages and promoted employment across Vietnam, especially among lower-income groups. The export boom also tended to reduce the premium on college degrees while fostering wage growth for non-degree-holding workers, allowing better chances for economic mobility for those with lesser education. Women, too, benefitted a lot more in terms of wages.
Vietnam’s experience offers hope for countries like the Philippines, which are stuck in a rut. Some economists have argued that the Philippines has lost its chance at industrialisation. But Vietnam’s case suggests it may not be too late for the Philippines.
The first step is to address the dearth of investments, especially in export manufacturing. As early as 2007, South Korean investments flocked to Vietnam, attracted by cheap labour, good infrastructure, and a host of incentives. By contrast, the Philippines’ foreign direct investments of late have declined steadily since 2021, precisely because of opposite factors: expensive labour, bad infrastructure, and insufficient incentives.
It is not too late for the Philippines, but its leaders must step up and not be lulled into complacency by the sparkly growth figures.
According to this article "the mismanagement of the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte, which led to one of the world’s longest pandemic lockdowns" and "because of this, the pandemic scars on the Philippine economy are now permanent." Who would have thought?
In a bid to cut costs and increase benefits elsewhere PhilHealth has reduced COVID-19 benefits.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2006410/philhealth-reduces-covid-19-benefits-amid-calls-for-better-fund-use |
The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has cut case rates for “severe” and “critical” COVID-19 amid calls for the overfunded state health insurer to increase its benefits.
Retroactive to Nov. 1, PhilHealth began to cover only up to P590,000 in expenses for adults who contract critical COVID-19, a 25-percent decrease from the previous P786,384.
For children who get critical COVID-19, the new benefit package is P275,000—down by 65 percent from P786,384.
Severe COVID-19 benefit packages were also reduced: P250,000 for adult patients and P230,000 for pediatric patients (down by 25 percent and 31 percent, respectively, from the previous case rate of P33,519).
The case rate cut stemmed from PhilHealth Circular No. 2024-0026, signed by PhilHealth president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. on Oct. 30, which listed separate benefit packages for adult and children COVID-19 patients.
The rate for moderate COVID-19 with pneumonia for pediatric patients also decreased from P143,267 to P92,500 (down by 35 percent).
Nevertheless, the new circular also increased the remaining COVID-19 rates.
For adults contracting moderate COVID-19 with pneumonia it is now P157,000 (up 10 percent from P143,267), while adults who got infected with COVID-19 without pneumonia may get up to P55,000 (up 25 percent from P43,997).For children who get mild COVID-19, the benefit package went up by 16 percent from P43,997 to P51,000.
In a message to the Inquirer, PhilHealth vice president for corporate affairs Rey Baleña said the benefit cuts were based on the minimum standards of care under guidelines established by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Society of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Under the new rules, Baleña said COVID-19 patients admitted to basic rooms or ward accommodation in government hospitals shall not be charged more than their PhilHealth coverage under the no-balance billing policy.
“However, patients admitted to nonbasic accommodation may be charged a copayment or out-of-pocket payment for services beyond the essential health services,” he noted.
From April 2020, when the benefit packages for COVID-19 were first implemented, to June 2024, PhilHealth paid almost 7 million claims, amounting to more than P76.3 billion.
The state health insurer paid the most claims in 2023—when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and its subvariants caused surges of cases in the country—amounting to P35.4 billion, or 14 percent of PhilHealth’s total claims payments.
In May 2023, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency of international concern, although health authorities clarified that the pandemic itself was not.
In June this year, the DOH reported a surge of COVID-19 cases in the country, which it attributed to the so-called “FLiRT” COVID-19 subvariants.
These are the JN.1.18, JN.1.7, KP.2 and KP.3—which are considered variants under monitoring and descendants of JN.1, an earlier detected subvariant of Omicron.
The DOH has stopped publishing cumulative COVID-19 data since January this year, with the country’s number of cases stuck at 4.1 million, with 66,864 Filipinos who died from the disease.
The real question is, with the DOH no longer publishing cumulative COVID-19 data, how many people have had to avail of these benefits? How many people are actually being hospitalized for COVID and how many of those people have pre-existing co-morbidities.
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