Coronavirus Lockdown: Green Revolution, Pneumonic Plague, and More!

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

Truck operators plan a three-day transport holiday starting October 6 to protest ongoing industry problems. Their leader stated that current conditions in the trucking sector are even worse than those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/10/05/2561088/truck-operators-suspend-trips-oct-6-citing-issues-worse-during-pandemic

A group of truck operators will temporarily suspend trips for three days starting Tuesday, October 6, in what it calls a transport holiday to press the government to address problems in the trucking industry.

The Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines said Monday, October 5, that high fuel costs and problems involving shipping line operations are among its biggest concerns.

"For example, if we make a trip this Monday, we don't know when our next trip will be because shipping lines don't have enough space for us to return and store our empty containers. Until we can return them and free up our trucks, we cannot make another trip," CTAP President Mary Zapata said in an interview with dzMM.

The truckers group also raised concerns over unregulated destination charges, truck ban policies that disrupt operations and a shortage of truck drivers.

"We're not making any money, and the problem has become very serious. In my personal assessment, the trucking industry is in an even worse situation now than it was during the pandemic" Zapata said.

Zapata said problems in the industry can affect the wider economy because trucks move goods from manufacturing plants and warehouses to retailers and consumers.

She said a three-day suspension of trips could have a significant economic impact. But even without the transport holiday, she said trucking operations are already limited, hurting operators' income.

The group is seeking a direct dialogue with the government and concrete solutions to its concerns.

"I hope they see the important role truckers play in our economy... Almost all government offices concerned with transportation are already aware of these issues. We have raised them, and while they listen to us, we still have not seen any solution," Zapata said.

High fuel costs, shipping line bottlenecks, and other operational issues are driving the suspension. The comparison underscores how post-pandemic challenges have intensified rather than eased for Filipino truckers.

Philippine GDP growth slowed to 2.3 percent in the second quarter, the weakest pace since 2017 outside the pandemic period. Rising inflation and a sharp freeze in public infrastructure spending are now weighing heavily on property development. Household purchasing power has weakened, making families more hesitant to take on long-term commitments such as home mortgages. 

https://www.philstar.com/business/real-estate/2026/10/08/2561792/inflation-infrastructure-freeze-seen-hamper-property-development/amp/

Rising living costs, a sharp drop in public works spending, and slowing economic growth continue to drag on property development.

This was the warning issued by Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, as fresh Senate hearings and budget deliberations bring the full weight of the downturn into focus.

In an address at the Manila Overseas Press Club, Gatchalian reported that gross domestic product growth slowed to 2.3% in the second quarter, down sharply from 5.4% a year earlier, marking the nation's weakest growth period since 2017 outside the pandemic. The downturn prompted major rating agencies and multilateral lenders, including S&P Global Ratings and the Asian Development Bank, to slash their full-year forecasts to under 3.5%.

A primary driver behind the market strain is a 32% collapse in public works construction during the second quarter, triggered by spending freezes and project delays following corruption investigations into public flood control programs. 

In recent Senate hearings, Gatchalian presented updated macroeconomic estimates indicating that these corruption-related disruptions and opportunity costs have drained roughly P2.75 trillion from the national economy since mid-2025. The abrupt halt in regional civil works has frozen land development momentum and stalled planned commercial buildouts along major growth corridors.

Simultaneously, household purchasing power is being severely eroded by elevated inflation, which reached 6.1% in August following energy price shocks caused by the Middle East conflict. At local pumps, diesel prices soared to a peak of P153.70 per liter while gasoline reached P96.50 per liter.

The mounting cost of basic goods and transport pushed real household consumption growth down to 2.8%, making families increasingly hesitant to take on long-term financial commitments like home mortgages.

The macroeconomic friction outlined by the Senate president aligns with broader industry data indicating a deepening slump in real estate. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas figures show that residential property price growth nationwide decelerated to a near-flat 0.4% in the second quarter, the weakest expansion since tracking began in 2019. Home values in areas outside Metro Manila contracted by 2.7% as high construction input costs and cautious buyer demand left developers grappling with growing unsold inventory. Major real estate firms have responded by freezing new project launches and shifting focus toward moving existing inventory.

The fallout from the infrastructure freeze has directly spilled over into current legislative budget reviews. Senate budget scrutiny led by Gatchalian flagged over 7,000 proposed public works projects due to incomplete site documentation, while the proposed flood control allocation for the upcoming national budget was slashed to P107.4 billion, its lowest relative level since 2019.

To stimulate economic recovery, Gatchalian urged the fast-tracking of priority legislative measures, including the Masterplan for Infrastructure and National Development (MIND) Bill, a proposed 30-year roadmap to restore infrastructure predictability and targeted tax relief initiatives, such as the proposed "Ginhawa Bill," aimed at rebuilding disposable household income.

The current slowdown echoes some of the economic pressures first felt during the COVID-19 crisis, though the triggers today are different.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said Filipinos need not worry about the possible pneumonic plague case reported in Russia. He assessed the chance of the disease reaching the Philippines as extremely low or near zero. 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/10/08/no-need-to-worry-over-possible-pneumonic-plague-solante

Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said Filipinos need not worry about possible pneumonic plague reported in Russia, but stressed that the country’s quarantine and safety protocols should remain in place amid continued international travel.

He said the measures being taken in Russia make it unlikely for the infection to spread to other countries.

“There seems to be zero possibility that it will reach the Philippines if the infection came from there. It really seems unlikely because they have already placed people under quarantine, are controlling it and are conducting a lot of tests. This is also something that is treatable. It seems unlikely in terms of international spread,” Solante said in a DZBB interview on Thursday, Oct. 8.

However, he said quarantine and other safety protocols should remain in place because infectious diseases can potentially spread across borders through travel.

“These microbes can potentially affect other individuals, especially now that people travel by plane and go to other countries. So there is always a potential for them to spread. But for me, this is not something that we need to worry about,” he said.

Solante also noted that the reported death in Russia has yet to be confirmed as pneumonic plague.

He explained that pneumonic plague is a rare complication of bubonic plague, a bacterial infection caused by Yersinia pestis that is commonly associated with rodents and fleas.

The pneumonic form affects the lungs and can spread from one person to another through respiratory droplets, although Solante said the risk of further infections is very low.

He said the disease can be treated with antibiotics.

“Highly effective ang gamot nito. That's why it may be different from others. The medicine is highly effective. That's why it may be different from others. If there is medicine for it, it is easier to control the situation,” he said.

“For pneumonic plague, the symptoms are not different from those of other pneumonia patients. There is cough and fever. In severe cases, coughing may sometimes produce blood, and the patient may have difficulty breathing. That's why the most common cause of death here is respiratory failure,” Solante said.

The comments come amid public sensitivity to new infectious disease threats following the COVID-19 pandemic. Health authorities continue to monitor the situation while emphasizing that the risk remains minimal.

President Marcos is calling for a revival of the “green revolution” and backyard vegetable planting to prepare for a projected super El Niño. He specifically cited the pandemic-era “plantita” trend, when many Filipinos took up home gardening during lockdowns. 

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/10/13/2562846/philippines-eyes-green-revolution

The Marcos administration will embark on a campaign to encourage the public to reuse water and revive a “green revolution” to ease the impact of a “super El Niño.”

In a media interview on Sunday here, Marcos cited the need to think about ways to collect every drop of water from dams and households and explain to Filipinos the climate phenomenon.

“Part of that public service and those public service messages will be collect, buy buckets so that when it rains, you can collect everything,” Marcos said.

“We will teach you... We will give you the filter. We’ll teach you how to do everything so you will not get sick and you will treat water properly. And it will be healthy even for little children. So that’s water supply,” he added.

Vice President Sara Duterte said, “We can no longer expect anything from the President. I will not comment on his buckets.”

An El Niño information campaign is being prepared by the Office of the Vice President.

El Niño is projected to intensify in the coming months and persist through the first half of 2027.

Marcos is pushing for a “green revolution” to ensure enough vegetable supply, which is expected to be hit hard by the dry spell due to potential water supply issues.

“Let us go back to the green revolution. Let’s encourage everybody. We had a green revolution before, a long time ago. Then, during the pandemic, the ‘plantita’ was revived. Let us continue that,” he said, referring to Filipinos who made planting a hobby during the lockdown.

“Let’s just keep that going. Get everybody to plant their own vegetables... It won’t solve the entire problem, but it will help,” he asserted.

In 1973, the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. launched a “green revolution” to boost food supply and nutrition efforts.

The project encouraged backyard planting of vegetables and fruits.

The administration wants to keep that momentum going as a way to boost local food supply. The article therefore links current climate-adaptation efforts directly to a practice that became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus Lockdown: Filipino Shoppers, Anti-Vax Posts, and More!

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

Anti-vaccine claims circulating during a Philippine child immunization drive recycled conspiracy theories such as vaccines containing harmful substances or being tools for depopulation—that gained widespread traction globally during the Covid-19 pandemic. These narratives, amplified on social media, compounded existing distrust in public health institutions that had already been strained by the pandemic and earlier vaccine controversies.

https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/771692/viral-anti-vax-posts-weaponize-philippine-inoculation-fears

When Jenette Torres Odena’s three-year-old son fell ill days after receiving a jab as part of a Philippine vaccination drive, his photograph quickly spread on Facebook alongside claims the inoculation had killed him.

Doctors found no link between the boy’s condition and the measles-rubella vaccine, and he went on to fully recover, but by then his image had appeared in anti-vaccine videos viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

“I felt like crying,” Odena told AFP.

“I kept praying for my son to recover and suddenly they were killing him on Facebook.”

The videos were part of a wave of misinformation that accompanied a child vaccination campaign this year that saw more than seven million Filipinos inoculated. Some 230,000 declined the jab.

The Department of Health said concerns about side effects accounted for 66 percent of refusals and called misinformation spread by social media influencers a “major driver” of vaccine fear.

The Philippines has struggled to restore routine childhood immunization rates after years of plummeting coverage, which contributed to a polio resurgence in 2019 and recurring measles outbreaks.

The claims circulated on social media recycled conspiracy theories that gained traction globally during the Covid-19 pandemic while tapping into lingering fears about vaccine safety after the botched rollout of a dengue vaccine in the Philippines a decade ago.

“Vaccine hesitancy should not simply be understood as a lack of scientific knowledge among the public,” Daniel Fritz Silvallana, a health communication researcher at Deakin University, Australia, told AFP.

“In the Philippine context, it is also connected to questions of trust, politics, and people’s previous experiences with vaccination and public health institutions,” he said.

Within days of the photo of Odena’s son being shared online, Facebook content creator Maharani Sona Shiloh had incorporated it into a video, framing it as evidence the vaccination campaign was harming children.

To bolster her claims, Shiloh cited Trump’s recent controversial move to reduce the number of vaccine doses administered to American children.

The video viewed hundreds of thousands of times paired the child’s image with a photograph of US President Donald Trump and the words “Everyday slaughter”.

Facebook, which did not reply to AFP requests for comment, eventually took down the page.

Three affiliated pages remain active.

Shiloh rejected suggestions she was spreading harmful misinformation, describing herself as a human rights advocate.

“People call us crazy,” she told AFP. “Why is it that human beings don’t have the right to challenge these things?”

The 44-year-old said she became involved in anti-vaccine advocacy years before the pandemic, later connecting with church groups and “advocacy circles” that also campaign against SIM card registration and other policies they associate with a treacherous “New World Order”.

Videos posted by Shiloh, some with millions of views, claimed vaccines contained harmful substances including “human placenta” and “formalin”, while warning the World Health Organization was trying to depopulate the planet.

One mother, who asked to speak anonymously to protect her children, told AFP she decided to hold off on vaccinating them after watching the videos.

“I watched Ms Maharani’s videos because I was looking for more information. They gave additional knowledge… so it helped me to think more carefully,” she said.

A week after the Facebook page was shuttered, she said she remained undecided about vaccinating her children, explaining that she and her husband worried about possible side effects.

– Rebuilding trust –

While Shiloh’s claims quickly collapse under scientific scrutiny, vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris of the University of Auckland said such videos rely on fear rather than compelling evidence.

“Recognised vaccine ingredients become mysterious contaminants. Rare adverse events become brain damage, epilepsy, organ failure and death,” she told AFP.

For health workers on the frontlines, however, the videos are increasingly difficult to ignore.

“They get scared because the vlog said vaccines are fatal,” said Wenna Mae Belen, a rural health worker in Sorsogon province.

Conversations with some parents have also become hostile, Belen added.

“They tell me if something bad happens, they’ll make me suck the vaccines out of their kids’ bodies.”

While the 25-year-old said Facebook bore “major responsibility” for the spread of vaccine misinformation, she cautioned that picking fights with content creators like Shiloh and their followers was a losing battle.

Rebuilding trust will take time and patience, she said, calling for open, non-judgmental conversations with parents.

“It isn’t enough for us to just say: ‘We’re the experts, so trust us’.”

As for trusting the experts, sudden deaths related to myocarditis, miscarriages, and other injuries occurred that were directly related to the experimental mRNA vaccine.  On the social front it turned out masking was ineffective, social distancing was ineffective, the death rate from actual covid was inflated as those deaths were due to various  co-morbidities, and shutting down society was a gravely mistaken plan of action from which the world is still recovering. Why should anyone "trust the experts?"

At least 500 GMA Network employees are entitled to P240.6 million in hazard pay for working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court of Appeals upheld the NLRC’s decision, ruling that GMA was given due process and that the payment was validly ordered.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2316387/ca-affirms-covid-pay-for-gma-workers

At least 500 employees of GMA Network are entitled to P240.6 million in total hazard pay for rendering work during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Court of Appeals (CA) ruled in a decision dated Sept. 16.

The appellate court ruled that the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it ordered GMA and its chairman and CEO, Felipe Gozon, to pay 500 employees their hazard pay and cover the legal expenses they incurred in pursuing their unfair labor practice case against the broadcasting network.

It dismissed the petition for certiorari filed by Gozon to overturn the NLRC’s multiple rulings in 2023 in favor of the employees, who were members of GMA Channel 7 Employees Union, and the award of their hazard pay covering Mar. 17, 2020, to Mar. 31, 2021.

After these rulings became final and executory in October 2023, GMA workers filed a motion for execution and recomputation more than three months later, this time asking that they be entitled as well to hazard pay for the period April 1, 2021, to July 20, 2023.

This covers the period that the country remained under a public health emergency due to the pandemic. President Marcos lifted the emergency status on July 21, 2023.

The recomputation was also granted by the labor arbiter, which brought the total hazard pay due the employees to P240.6 million. 

This prompted the company to file a motion to quash writ of execution, claiming that they were not notified of the final recomputation nor given the chance to comment on the matter.

But the CA, in its ruling, said the execution writ by the NLRC was “validly issued.”

“The NLRC aptly ruled that the petitioners failed to establish that the writ of execution was improvidently issued, much less to show that the amount of the judgment award as indicated in the said writ of execution was erroneously computed,” the appellate court said in a decision written by Associate Justice Carlito Calpatura.

Contrary to the network’s claim, CA said it was not deprived of due process because it had the opportunity to counter the recomputation of the judgment award during the mandatory pre-execution conference conducted by the labor arbiter.

“The court has consistently held that the essence of due process is the opportunity to be heard. In other words, there is no denial of the right to due process if there was an opportunity for the parties to defend their interests in due course,” CA said.

It said that GMA was aptly notified of the recomputed award because it did not complain when the new amount was attached to the court documents sent to it as party to the case, and the company’s lawyers did not point out any specific errors in the computation by the NLRC.

The broadcast giant also lost a labor case last year when the Supreme Court upheld that 94 members of the Talents Association of GMA were regular employees—not just independent contractors—who were thus entitled to monetary benefits. This covers individuals who were hired from 2003 to 2013.

The same ruling affirmed that about half of them were illegally terminated and were entitled to reinstatement and privileges, including back pay and allowances.

 The hazard pay covers the period from March 17, 2020, to July 20, 2023. The decision follows another labor ruling in which GMA talents were recognized as regular employees entitled to benefits and, for some, reinstatement and back pay.

The Philippines borrowed a record $4.1 billion from the World Bank in FY 2026, exceeding the $3.068 billion it secured in FY 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that pandemic peak, the country ranked as the World Bank’s top borrower, with the loans primarily directed toward combating the virus and addressing its severe economic fallout. 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/10/05/philippine-world-bank-loans-hit-41-billion-in-fy-2026-surpass-pandemic-era-borrowings

The Philippines borrowed a record $4.1 billion from the World Bank during its fiscal year (FY) 2026, exceeding even the loans the country secured at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and making it the fifth-largest borrower from the Washington-based multilateral lender.

The World Bank Group’s (WBG) annual report for FY 2026, which covered July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, showed that Philippine borrowings from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) jumped 43.6 percent from $2.855 billion in FY 2025. IBRD is the WBG’s lending arm for developing countries like the Philippines.

Only India, with $5.984 billion; Türkiye, $5.615 billion; Brazil, $4.546 billion; and war-torn Ukraine, $4.21 billion, borrowed more from IBRD than the Philippines in FY 2026, allowing the country to maintain its position as the fifth-largest IBRD borrower for the third straight FY.

But unlike in the previous two FYs, when the Philippines ranked seventh overall after borrowers from the WBG’s International Development Association (IDA), which lends to the world’s poorest countries, were included, the country climbed to fifth overall in FY 2026. Ethiopia was the largest IDA borrower in FY 2026, with $3.85 billion in loans, but still ranked below the Philippines overall, the report published last Sept. 25 showed.

The latest Philippine borrowings also surpassed the $3.068 billion across eight loans secured in FY 2021, or from July 2020 to June 2021, when the country was the WBG’s No. 1 borrower at the height of the pandemic.

Those low-interest loans had been mainly spent to fight Covid-19, which inflicted on the Philippines the largest pandemic-induced output gap in the region.

After the pandemic-era surge in IBRD borrowing, World Bank-approved Philippine loans fell to $1.578 billion in FY 2022, the last FY under the Duterte administration, before picking up to $2.336 billion in FY 2023, the first full FY under the current Marcos Jr. administration, and rising further to $2.35 billion in FY 2024.

The Philippines moved to upper-middle-income country (UMIC) status last July, at the start of the current FY 2027, which means it will have less access to concessional financing from multilateral development banks (MDBs) like the World Bank in the future.

The WBG’s latest annual report also showed that the Philippines received capacity-building assistance to strengthen its management of financial risks arising from interest rate, currency, and commodity price volatility.

The country was among eight economies that received such assistance in FY 2026, while the WBG executed $5.4 billion in risk-management transactions across 53 countries.

Meanwhile, the WBG annual report likewise disclosed that the Philippines was among nine countries whose World Bank-funded projects were the subject of new complaints processed by the lender’s Inspection Panel in FY 2026.

The Inspection Panel is part of the World Bank Accountability Mechanism, which allows people and communities who believe they have been or could be harmed by a World Bank-funded project to raise concerns independently of the lender’s management.

The panel processed 10 new complaints involving projects in the Philippines, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda during FY 2026.

In the Philippines, earlier World Bank documents seen by Manila Bulletin showed that the Inspection Panel received a request last March concerning the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project being implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

The $473.56-million project, approved back in 2020, is backed by a $370-million World Bank loan and aims to improve land tenure security as well as stabilize the property rights of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

The complaint was filed by two individuals, one residing in Australia and the other in South Cotabato province, who identified themselves as legal heirs to land they claimed was being affected by the project.

The complainants alleged that SPLIT failed to comply with the World Bank’s environmental and social standards on land acquisition, restrictions on land use, as well as involuntary resettlement by disregarding a 1997 DAR order that they said excluded their property from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Also, the complainants alleged violations of the lender’s standard on stakeholder engagement and information disclosure.

However, the Inspection Panel decided not to register the complaint after finding that one of its admissibility requirements had not been met, as the issues involving the alleged non-compliance had not first been brought to World Bank management’s attention.

The panel stressed that its decision did not prevent the complainants from filing another request for inspection concerning the project in the future, World Bank documents showed.

COVID-19 inflicted the largest pandemic-induced output gap in the region on the Philippines, driving the earlier surge in emergency financing. After borrowings fell sharply in the immediate post-pandemic years, the new record shows that recent lending has now surpassed even those crisis-era levels.

Filipino grocery shopping habits in 2026 reflect a more selective and value-driven approach, with consumers prioritizing essentials and cost-effective options amid rising prices, according to a USDA report. Food and beverage retail sales are projected to grow only modestly by 1.7 percent this year, a slowdown consistent with the lingering caution many households adopted after the economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/10/05/filipino-shoppers-changing-the-way-they-buy-groceries-in-2026

The country’s food and beverage retail sales are projected to remain relatively flat this year as consumer spending grows more selective amid rising costs, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In a report dated Oct. 2, the USDA said food and beverage retail sales are on track to total $123 billion this year, a modest 1.7 percent improvement from the $121 billion recorded last year.

The international agency noted that this year's muted growth forecast reflects the country’s subpar second-quarter economic expansion, which slowed to a post-pandemic low of 2.3 percent.

This reinforced softened household consumption and widening price sensitivity, especially as prices for key products remain elevated amid rising transportation costs, peso depreciation, and elevated inflation.

“Consumers are opting for cost-effective alternatives and focusing on essentials while others prioritize value over volume,” the USDA said.

Despite this year’s setback, the USDA said the country’s food and beverage retail sales are expected to grow five percent year-on-year to $129 billion in the coming year.

Apart from rising incomes and its large youth population, the growth is projected to come from the entry of new retailers, the expansion of modern retail chains, and the continued consumer shift toward e-commerce.

“Modern retailers are rapidly expanding to rural areas, offer variety of product options including imported products, and better value offers to consumers,” the USDA said.

“Some warehouse clubs, hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores are expanding into cities with high income communities offering more imported selections while offering lower-priced products,” it added.

In terms of modern retailers, the USDA said convenience stores are poised to achieve a seven-percent year-on-year growth to $2.67 billion this year from last year’s $2.49 billion.

Supermarkets are estimated to end the year with total sales amounting to $13.61 billion, slightly higher than the $13.57 billion recorded last year.

Hypermarkets, on the other hand, are projected to grow by nearly six percent to $5.6 billion within the year from $5.29 billion a year ago.

Further, sales from warehouse clubs are seen to grow by 11 percent to $2.07 billion this year from the previous year’s $1.86 billion.

The USDA said traditional food and beverage retailers remain the largest retail channel in the country, with sales estimated to expand to $39.47 billion this year from $39.02 billion last year.

Meanwhile, the agency said the Philippines remains the largest market for US exports in Southeast Asia, which shows that there is still growth potential for American food and beverage products.

Among the “best product prospects” for American exports include pork, poultry, and beef products, as well as milk, instant coffee, seasonings, frozen fries, butter, and cooking oil, among others.

The Philippines stood as the eleventh-largest market for US agricultural and related products in 2025, surpassing $3.4 billion, according to the USDA.

US exports accounted for 16 percent of the total agricultural exports to the Philippines, maintaining its status as the country’s largest single-country exporter.

The continued shift toward e-commerce and modern retail formats builds on the rapid digital adoption that accelerated during lockdowns, when online grocery purchases became a necessity for many. Even as sales are expected to rebound more strongly next year, the emphasis on value over volume shows how pandemic-era pressures have lasting effects on how Filipinos manage household food budgets.

Coronavirus Lockdown: Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response and Human Mobility, and More!

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

A recent study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic worsened existing gender inequalities in the Philippines. Women faced heavier burdens as frontline health workers, unpaid caregivers, and income earners in vulnerable sectors. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2310820/covid-19-deepened-gender-gaps-in-ph-research-shows

Research showed that the Covid-19 pandemic deepened existing gender inequalities in the Philippines, placing women under disproportionate strain as frontline health workers, income earners and unpaid caregivers, while disruptions to health services put maternal and reproductive health needs at risk.

“The Covid-19 pandemic exposed and deepened gender-related inequalities in Philippine society, particularly in access to health care, economic security and caregiving responsibilities,” Sairah Mae R. Saipudin said in the research paper titled “The gendered impact of Covid-19 in the Philippines: a call for gender-responsive public health policies.”

“Women bore the brunt of the crisis, disproportionately working on the front lines while maintaining unpaid caregiving duties,” she added.

The research paper was published in the Western Pacific Surveillance and Response Journal (WPSAR), a publication of the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Regional Office, in September 2025 as a perspective piece.

Saipudin, a researcher at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Gender Center, synthesized existing evidence from the Philippines and other countries to examine how the pandemic affected women differently from men.

Women were heavily represented among frontline health professionals during the pandemic, but their responsibilities did not stop when their shifts ended.

In the Philippines, the research found that most frontline medical workers during the Covid-19 pandemic were women. Many worked prolonged shifts in high-risk settings while continuing to perform unpaid household and caregiving work at home.

“The combined burden of working prolonged shifts in high-risk settings while also maintaining their domestic roles contributed to increased psychological strain, which disproportionately affected women compared with their male colleagues,” Saipudin wrote.

“Female health-care workers experienced substantial psychological effects, burnout and stress due to their dual responsibilities at work and at home,” she added.

The analysis cited studies reporting elevated anxiety, burnout and fatigue among Filipino nurses and caregivers. The studies associated these conditions with patient overload, insufficient personal protective equipment and prolonged exposure to stress.

It also identified gaps in job-related protections, mental health support, hazard pay and programs intended to help workers manage their professional and domestic responsibilities.

“Female health-care workers bore the burden of inadequate workplace policies because their institutions did not support them to manage their dual roles effectively,” the analysis noted.

The pandemic also affected women who needed health services unrelated to Covid-19.

“At critical moments, health-care providers overlooked essential medical care specifically designed for women. The health-care services dedicated to maternal care and birth became less important than the government’s urgent Covid-19 emergency work,” Saipudin said.

“Pregnant women became more exposed to health dangers because hospital shutdowns combined with travel restrictions compelled them to deliver their babies in risky locations without medical support,” she added.

Women in marginalized communities were particularly vulnerable, as family caregiving responsibilities often took precedence over seeking care for their own health, according to the research.

The economic fallout of the pandemic also fell heavily on women working in sectors that were particularly exposed to lockdowns and business closures.

The research stressed that the economic impacts were “most devastating” for women working in manual labor and service industries — including retail, domestic work and tourism — as these sectors experienced mass job terminations and severe financial disruption.

Lockdown measures further strained industries that predominantly employed women, contributing to greater financial instability.

Domestic workers, who were primarily women, were affected when employers canceled contracts because of pandemic-related financial difficulties, according to the paper.

“Wage subsidies and unemployment benefits helped those working in formal industries, which are often male dominated, while informal workers – the majority of whom are women – were largely excluded from economic support mechanisms,” Saipudin said.

At the same time, the limited financial assistance that reached informal workers was insufficient to offset the prolonged disruption.

A 2021 study in Quezon City also found that women working in the informal economy suffered income losses, food insecurity and psychological distress as businesses closed and school schedules were disrupted.

At home, the pandemic also meant more unpaid responsibilities for women. With schools closed, child care services suspended and more work shifting into the home, women took on a larger share of caregiving duties, the research paper noted.

The added burden made it more difficult for some women to find or retain paid work and participate in the country’s economic recovery.

According to Saipudin, existing inequalities within health systems and the wider economy could become more pronounced during a pandemic when responses do not account for gender.

The research paper noted that women played several important roles during the crisis, including as frontline clinical staff, unpaid caregivers and community health leaders. Despite this, they did not always have equitable access to essential services, including those related to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights.

“A gender-sensitive pandemic response strategy recognizes that men and women experience health emergencies differently due to their differing social, economic and caregiving roles,” Saipudin wrote.

“Adjusting health-care delivery to fit specific needs by using the perspective of gender leads to improved patient outcomes, such as by creating maternal health programmes, and providing mental health support for female caregivers and financial assistance programmes for employed women in vulnerable situations,” she stressed.

The paper also drew on evidence from previous health emergencies, including the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, to show how overlooking women’s caregiving responsibilities and economic vulnerabilities can affect recovery.

It cited examples of gender-responsive measures, such as support for women-led community initiatives, continued access to reproductive health services and inclusive health communication, as approaches associated with more equitable outcomes in previous crises.

Saipudin also noted that countries that prioritized maternal health and provided targeted support for women during the Covid-19 pandemic were better positioned for a more equitable recovery.

“Addressing gender disparities is not only a matter of social justice but also a critical factor in building stronger, more resilient health systems and sustaining economic recovery,” she said.

For future crises, Saipudin called for gender analysis to be incorporated into disaster preparedness and public health emergency planning so authorities can identify risks affecting women and design responses accordingly.

“Gender-responsive actions are essential during public health emergencies to address structural inequalities and support equitable recovery,” she wrote.

The research recommended using sex- and gender-disaggregated data to guide decisions on health care, financial assistance and psychosocial support.

It also called for health systems to preserve access to sexual and reproductive health services, particularly in low-resource communities. Where travel restrictions make regular services difficult to maintain, the research pointed to telemedicine and mobile health units as possible alternatives.

For female health workers and caregivers, the paper recommended mental health programs tailored to their specific stressors and integrated into emergency response systems.

It said economic relief programs should likewise include informal workers and low-wage earners, many of whom are women. Among the measures cited were cash assistance, subsidized child care and reskilling programs, as well as workplace policies such as paid family leave and flexible work arrangements.

Saipudin also called for women to be more proactively included in pandemic planning and decision-making, noting that global analyses had found significant gender gaps in Covid-19 leadership bodies.

She further pointed to gender-responsive budgeting as a way to incorporate gender considerations into the allocation of public resources. The paper cited Quezon City’s use of gender-responsive budgeting during the pandemic, which it said helped support targeted social services and reproductive health assistance for women and girls in vulnerable communities.

For Saipudin, the lesson extends beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Addressing these gaps is critical to designing more equitable and effective health responses,” she wrote.

“Ultimately, recognizing and addressing gender disparities is not only a matter of social equity: it is a strategic necessity for strengthening public health systems, protecting livelihoods and ensuring inclusive recovery,” she added.

Maternal and reproductive health services were disrupted, putting many women at greater risk. The study calls for gender-responsive public health policies to address these gaps in future crises.

S&P Global Ratings has cut its 2026 GDP growth forecast for the Philippines to just 2.9 percent, well below the government’s 3.5 percent target and the regional average of 4.6 percent. The agency cited weak public spending, squeezed household incomes, and a sharp drop in investment as key factors dragging down the economy.

https://mb.com.ph/2026/09/23/sp-slashes-philippine-2026-growth-forecast-to-post-pandemic-low-of-29

Debt watcher S&P Global Ratings has lowered its economic growth forecast for the Philippines to fall well below the lowered minimum growth target of 3.5 percent in 2026, potentially marking a new post-pandemic low print.

According to S&P’s fourth-quarter outlook for Asia-Pacific (APAC) economies, Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) growth stands to disappoint further at 2.9 percent from its previous forecast of 4.1 percent.

This steep downward revision places the Philippines as a laggard in 2026, falling behind the regional average output growth of 4.6 percent.

While emerging markets (EMs) across APAC expanded by an average of 5.2 percent in the second quarter, S&P pointed out that the Philippines and Thailand were pockets of weakness in the region.

According to the global debt watcher, the “solid EM average hides weakness” in the Philippines and Thailand, with the former hitting a post-pandemic low GDP expansion of 2.3 percent in the second quarter, while the latter fell to 1.9-percent growth during the period.

S&P attributed this domestic softness to a mix of drag factors onshore. “Weak public spending and squeezed household incomes are constraining the economy,” it said.

Public spending is particularly strained on the infrastructure expenditure front, but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is upbeat that the local economy will rebound due in part to an expected recovery in infrastructure spending.

Further, while broader regional capital formation remained resilient, S&P noted that “the most notable exception to the domestic demand resilience in the second quarter is the Philippines, where investment has plunged.”

Domestic demand remained subdued as investments continued to contract due to weaker public construction. Gross capital formation shrank by 9.2 percent during the period.

Despite the expectation that economic growth will remain anemic, S&P has priced in that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will continue to tighten its monetary policy as it calls for a quarter-point hike in addition to the five-percent benchmark rate set in August.

Raising the key interest rate will temper domestic consumption, which would in turn dampen overall GDP growth. However, such a move will support the BSP’s primary mandate of keeping a lid on consumer prices, particularly by keeping inflation rates within the two- to four-percent tolerance range.

S&P recalled that the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, and other economies raised their respective key borrowing rates by up to 100 basis points (bps), with the BSP raising a cumulative 75 bps since the United States (US)-Iran war flared up in the first quarter, squeezing global oil supplies and driving up oil prices.

Still, the credit rating agency expects that additional monetary policy adjustments are on the table. It expects the BSP to deliver another 25-bp rate hike before year-end, bringing the benchmark policy rate to 5.25 percent by year-end.

Monetary authorities across the region face persistent pressure from elevated commodity prices and exchange rate volatility.

S&P pointed out that consumer price growth has accelerated largely due to higher energy costs, noting, however, that it remains manageable.

It likewise observed that the Philippines and Thailand have been among the few APAC economies “where fuel prices jumped,” joining Vietnam. Inflation peaked at 7.2 percent in April, the second month of the US-Iran military conflict, and has since slowed to a four-month low of 6.1 percent in August.

S&P forecasts Philippine average headline inflation to accelerate to 5.5 percent in 2026 before moderating to 3.6 percent in 2027.

On the foreign exchange (forex) front, S&P noted that “the exchange rates of India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand lost more than five percent through mid-September,” projecting the peso to close the year at ₱62 per greenback.

Despite the soft outlook, S&P expects the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to raise interest rates further to 5.25 percent by year-end to control inflation. Headline inflation is projected to average 5.5 percent in 2026 before easing, while the peso is forecast to end the year at around ₱62 per US dollar.

On the sidelines of the UN General assembly co-hosted a conference titled “Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response and Human Mobility." Here are the opening remarks which appear to have been made by the Secretary of Health, Dr. Erwin Mercado.  

https://transcripts.un.org/en/asset/k1b/k1bm53qpv8

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to this high-level side event on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response and Human Mobility, from Global Commitments to Operational Action. It is an honor for the Philippines to co-host the discussion together with the International Organization for Migration and to welcome colleagues from governments, international organizations, development partners, and other sectors who share a common interest in strengthening pandemic preparedness.   

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the interconnectedness of our society is linked to human mobility. When such health crisis strikes, mobile populations, migrant workers, and cross-border health personnel are often among the first to face uncertainties, yet they remain to be the backbone of our essential economies. As we move forward, carrying lessons from the pandemic, we have an opportunity to strengthen a preparedness agenda that is inclusive and responsive to these realities. This means ensuring that the needs and circumstances of people on the move is not considered as an afterthought, but as part of our broader efforts to protect communities and strengthen resilience. Leveraging the gains from our rigorous pandemic response, we must act decisively to fortify global health governance, anchor health security in preventive health measures, and deepen cross-border cooperation.  

We must strengthen adherence to the International Health Regulations, reinforcing every member state's capacity and obligation to monitor, detect, and address potential cross-border public health concerns. A robust border protection begins within our communities, schools, and workplaces. which is why the Philippines, guided by our Unified National Agenda, or UNA, for health, is scaling up its access to primary care, early screening, and health promotion in different settings as the first line of our defense.  

And because health hazards do not respect boundaries, we must deepen interoperability among governments, international organizations, communities, workers, and other partners to guarantee a swift and well-coordinated response.Operationalizing this vision calls for a shared sense of responsibility and accountability, as no single nation can address a health crisis alone.    

As we discuss how to move from global commitments to operational action, I hope we can strengthen not only our systems, but also the partnership and solidarity that make those systems effective. We hope to hear from different countries and partners about what they have learned, which approaches have demonstrated value, and where stronger collaboration can make a difference.  

On behalf of the government of the Philippines, I warmly welcome all our speakers and participants, and I thank the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, and all our partners for joining us in this important discussion. Thank you, and I wish everyone a meaningful and productive exchange that will forge actionable partnership and tangible progress.

Dr. Erwin Mercado emphasized that pandemic preparedness must include migrant workers, mobile populations, and cross-border health personnel. He also called for stronger adherence to the International Health Regulations and greater cooperation among governments, international organizations, communities, and workers to strengthen global pandemic preparedness.

And here are the concluding remarks from the Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Gerna M. Manatad.

Good afternoon again. I would like to say thank you for having this opportunity to co-sponsor this event. Now, listening from the interventions from the floor, the surge capacity, the air quality, and the continuity of health services, these are really the components and some of the challenges that we need to address in our national action plan, as well as our collaborations at the regional level and then at the global level.   

Now, I'm also reflecting as to really the role also of our partners, especially in the pandemic fund. Yes, especially in the three core capacities, how surveillance, not only in human, but also in animals, including now the wildlife. And that's also one of our priorities back in the country that we could also share. among our ASEAN counterpart and globally. So we have this part of the preparedness. A second is the laboratory capacity.  

Now, learning from COVID, there were really lots of difficulty in testings and all of those necessary expanding the capacity of the country. So this is also what we need to build. And also to collaborate with our ah international partners. And yes as we are reflected and hearing also from the interventions that right now our country really is an average yearly average for the past ah ten years. Around 40 thousands of nurses are going out from the country and this is really a huge movement of our people and estimated to have around in 2024, 2.4 million outgoing from the country to work as an overseas workers, seafarers and everything.  

So this conversation now and this event is a very important event for us really to remain and highly committed to working with IOM, governments, and international organizations such as WHO and other partners to put these challenges be workable and be addressed globally and then internationally and at the national level that we could also be working closely with all of you. So thank you for this opportunity and to share also the best practices that we have back in our country.

She highlighted the need to strengthen surveillance, laboratory capacity, and health-service continuity as key components of pandemic preparedness. He also emphasized the Philippines’ health-worker migration and called for continued cooperation with IOM, WHO, governments, and other international partners to address these challenges at the national, regional, and global levels.