More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2024898/fwd-marcos-vows-support-for-vaccine-institute-building |
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday expressed support for the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines (VIP) facility and vowed to look for funding.
Marcos made the pronouncement after the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) requested funding for the project to prevent delays and avoid structural deterioration of the VIP Administration Building during a meeting at Malacañang.
“I think in the immediate future, okay. We prepare for the big one, the big pandemic, President Marcos, as quoted by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) in a statement, told Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum Jr.
“But really it’s for the animals and the plants,” he added.
According to Solidum, the 2025 national expenditure program of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) did not allocate a budget for the VIP, which was established to research viruses and viral diseases.
In response, Marcos assured that it would find ways to secure funding.
Solidum then assured Marcos that the VIP would not be limited to human health concerns, but would also address viruses affecting animal and plant health.
He told the President the VIP needs P680 million to pursue its plans including the development of vaccines for humans, animals and plants.“There are more balikbayan scientists [now] na gusto tumulong sa atin (who wants to help us). We just need this facility (VIP),” he said.
It's really for the animals and plants? What!?
Yes!
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/01/17/2414820/government-implement-249-milion-pandemic-fund |
A ranking official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday said the government is expected to start implementation of the $24.9-million Pandemic Fund in the first quarter this year after the Philippines was able to secure the grant to boost the country’s campaign against future animal and human health threats.
“We expect to implement (projects under the fund) this first quarter or maximum of second quarter, so we are now coordinating with the Department of Finance and the National Economic and Development Authority,” DA spokesman Arnel de Mesa said in an interview.
De Mesa said the grant will be jointly implemented by DA through the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the Department of Health (DOH).
“The funds are now with the World Bank. It’s a joint project between DOH on human health, and then BAI, DA for animal health. We are now facilitating the release from the World Bank to the DA,” he added.
He said the funding will help the country improve laboratories and capacity building of veterinarians.
“It will help handle pandemic threats like African swine fever, transboundary diseases, avian influenza and the like,” De Mesa added.
The DA has said the Philippines is among 50 countries selected to receive a Pandemic Fund Grant, which totaled $547 million.
The Pandemic Fund was launched in 2022 by the G20, composed of the world’s biggest economies, as a direct response to the global vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic fund which has been implemented is for the animals and plants! What about the people? Is African Swine Flu really that big of a problem?
A new survey says Filipinos are hungry.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/01/15/2414394/hunger-rate-its-highest-pandemic-sws |
The number of Filipino households experiencing involuntary hunger has jumped to 25.9%, the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic.
For December 2024, 25.9% of Filipino families have experienced being hungry and without food at least once in the previous three months, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Tuesday night.
“The December 2024 hunger figure was 3.0 points above the 22.9% in September 2024, and the highest since the record high 30.7% during the COVID-19 lockdowns in September 2020,” the SWS said.
With the December 2024 hunger rate, the resulting annual hunger average is almost twice the annual hunger average from 2023. The 2023 hunger average was 10.7%; the 2024 hunger average is 22.9%.
The 2024 annual hunger rate is a mere 0.9% higher than the record high 2020 annual hunger average of 21.1%, where COVID-19 forced countless Filipinos out of work.
The SWS said that those hungry were often poor.
“Hunger occurs at different rates among the Poor and the Non-Poor. At any single point in time, hunger is usually higher among the Poor. From quarter to quarter, however, the hunger rates among the poor and the non-poor may change, either upward or downward. Hunger is highest among the food-poor,” the SWS said.
The SWS survey was conducted from December 12-18, 2024 with face-to-face interviews. A total of 2,160 adults were surveyed across the country, with 1,080 of respondents from Balance Luzon and 360 each from Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao.
This has to be a result of the inflation caused by the economically crippling lockdowns.
Trash piled up during the lockdowns which led to a boom for informal workers looking to make some money.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2025114/ph-zero-waste-bid-relies-on-informal-workers |
Plagued with discarded face masks, plastic bottles, and other trash during the COVID-19 pandemic, a small riverside community in Manila created its waste management service, giving its workers, mostly women, a chance to boost their livelihoods.
The Tagumpay 83Zero Waste Association’s network of street sweepers, drivers, and creek rangers cleans up waterways and collect recyclable waste from the community’s 5,700 residents as well as 24 nearby villages and five schools.
They also run a junkshop where they earn money by selling collected trash, such as single-use plastic bottles and hard plastics, to recycling facilities.
“Aside from reducing plastic waste in our community, we also help our members earn extra income for their family,” Catherine Gabriel, president of the association of informal waste workers in the district of Barangay 830, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The association is one of two community groups in Manila chosen by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, to receive training on waste management and funding to expand their operations.
Most communities struggle to collect and repurpose waste in a country that devotes insufficient resources to tackle the mountain of trash it produces every year.
The Philippines is among the top waste generators in Southeast Asia, with 18.05 million tons of garbage in 2020 which is projected to reach 23.61 million tons in 2025, according to the National Solid Waste Management Commission.
Local administrations in villages and barangays, or neighborhoods, are tasked with garbage removal but often lack the money, skilled labor, and infrastructure to support such operations.
Community organizations often fill the gaps, but their workers earn low pay and lack job protection.
So, trash is good? Good business anyway.
I tried to download this paper and read it but was not able so all I got is this summary.
Local government units (LGUs) are at the forefront of the Philippine government’s COVID-19 pandemic response. One of their crucial functions is crisis and risk communication to ease public fear, mitigate the pandemic’s damage, and promote the adoption of health and safety protocols. However, only a few studies have examined LGUs’ COVID-19 experience, and no study has delved deeply into the crisis and risk communication strategies of Philippine LGUs. To fill this gap, this study investigated how LGUs communicated with their residents during the pandemic, particularly from 2020 to 2021, following the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model. It utilized a mixed method approach encompassing desk review, a cursory audit of national COVID-19 plans and policies, key informant interviews with representatives from Pasay, Manila, Caloocan, and Navotas, and a content analysis of COVID-19-related Facebook posts from these LGUs. The results revealed the LGUs’ lack of a strong preparation phase, highlighting their reactive approach to the pandemic.
All four LGUs did not have a communication plan and a monitoring and evaluation system, which hindered the systematic implementation, monitoring, and assessment of their communication strategies. A closer look at their interventions showed that they used a combination of traditional, electronic, and digital communication channels. Digital channels, such as social media, virtual meetings and groups, and online messaging platforms, were largely used and proved useful amid mobility restrictions and the need for physical distancing.
Traditional channels remained useful, particularly face-to-face communication whenever possible, printed materials, and interpersonal channels on the ground like barangay officials and health personnel.
While social media was largely used, LGUs failed to maximize its potential to combat fake news and enhance their responsiveness to the public. The analysis of the LGUs’ Facebook messages indicated a need for clearer communication by using local languages more frequently, simplifying technical terms, and increasing the use of visual communication. Several contextual factors affected the LGUs’ communication functions during the pandemic. These included delays in receiving official memos on new policies from the national government, rapidly changing guidelines, difficulty in communicating a novel disease, inadequate training in science, risk, and crisis communication, insufficient resources, personal health risks of COVID-19, and spread of false information.
Wow. LGUs were not prepared for the pandemic and had bad communication systems. Shocker.
Filipino puppeteers were hit hard by the pandemic but they found a way to survive.
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| https://philstar.com/nation/2025/01/18/2414722/through-sticks-and-strings-pinoy-puppeteers-struggle-survive-post-lockdown |
Ricky always arrives in General Luna, Intramuros, at four in the afternoon in a distinct ensemble: a colored camisa de chino (most of the time maroon), a loose pair of shorts, a belt bag wrapped around his waist and a patterned fedora.
Alongside Fort Santiago’s parking lot, he picked up the marionettes hanging from a rack he made out of wood, strips of rubber from old bike interiors and an attached fluorescent light he can use when nighttime falls. It teetered from a decade of use. Perhaps, a new one is in order.
“It wasn’t that easy to assemble,” Enrique “Ricky” Paez, 57, said, pointing to the flock of bird-like puppets resting on the foot of his rack.
“Sometimes you just sleep for two hours and then you have to make another one again.”
For almost 30 years, Ricky has been selling and puppeteering his handmade marionettes in a spot outside the gates of the historic Fort Santiago, in Intramuros. The rigorous work in crafting them has prompted him to sell only in the early evening, since a piece may take three to six hours in assembly alone, depending on the size.
It has become a routine for Ricky to store his rack and about 15 pieces of marionettes in an eatery situated in the area’s parking lot. Every day, from morning to noon, fellow vendors look after his merchandise while he makes a small batch at home. A portion of the sales then goes to the vendors in return, chipping 15 to 20 percent off his usual profits.
This, for Ricky, is nothing compared to what the pandemic has cost him.
It has been months since lockdowns were lifted in Manila, and while Ricky is more than happy to have been back in business, he cannot help but look back to how things were pre-pandemic. He used to earn P6,000 a night before COVID-19 hit the Philippines.
“Sometimes, all my merchandise would be sold quickly after some transactions with a few customers,” Ricky said, as he carefully arranged each string puppet: big ones in the back, smaller ones in front.
“Now, sales are weak. I don’t earn P1,000 all the time. Sometimes, I don’t sell anything at all.”
After six hours of crafting marionettes at home, Ricky would prepare himself — a few back stretches and three shoulder rolls on each side — for another four hours of selling them on the streets.
“Puppets, mamser,” Ricky would call out to passing tourists.
When lockdowns swept the pavements of Manila clean, so were Ricky and his only means of living.
But it was not just him. The same fate befell the other half of the industry: puppeteers.
“During the pandemic, because live events were almost zero, of course, puppetry arts was also zero,” ventriloquist and Philippine Ambassador of Puppetry Juancho “Wanlu” Lunaria said, in Filipino.
“But that is true only for the live performances.”
The closure of streets, malls and theater venues forced the puppetry arts to run where everyone else did — online.
Performers like Wanlu found hope in livestreams and online shows. Initially titled “Puppet Stories,” which eventually turned to “PuppetBahay,” the program he hosted featured different puppeteers from all over the world and from varying cultures, a way for him to promote puppetry arts offstage.
Aside from this, festivals and events found a new space in the virtual setup, signaling new opportunities for Philippine puppetry arts.
“Despite the fact na we were in a pandemic that time, there were two international puppetry festivals in Thailand, and we participated in them,” Wanlu said.
He and his fellow puppeteers began to welcome different social media platforms as their newfound podiums and stages, producing content online even after the government eased pandemic restrictions.
However, while some performers were able to find solace during lockdowns, puppet maker Ricky could only depend on a few marionettes sold to some friends every once in a while.
“During the pandemic, my friends took pity on me. They would say, ‘Friend, bring me some of your marionettes’,” he said.
Left with no other choice, Ricky would accept construction work in nearby areas and collect metal and bottle scraps to get by.
(It was difficult. Selling was not allowed, right? There were no people on the streets then. If you earn P300, you would be happy already.)
In more desperate times, Ricky was forced to run to some friends.
(If you have nothing, you have to rely on guts. You go to your batchmates who have money. They will give you rice.)
On Aug. 3, the Republic Act 11904, or the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act, was passed into law in an effort to help the creative industry sector grow and to make the country the number one creative economy in Asia.
Its principal author, Pangasinan fourth district Rep. Christopher de Venecia, said the new law would develop Philippine creative industries into something that is globally competitive.
“This is a sector that has managed to survive and even thrive on its own, but with institutionalized support from the state, it will really help the creative industry sector grow and accelerate to the point where we want it to be, which is by 2030 the Philippines will be the number one creative economy in all of Asia,” de Venecia said.
As with many performers they used social media to survive. Now that the pandemic is over they can go back to live shows. The downside is that with the bad economy they aren't making as much money as before.
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