After the quarantine
PURITA, 41, is apprehensive about her partner Dionisio going back to work as a truck assistant delivering goods to Laguna. However, with three children, the couple perceives deprivation as more threatening than the risks from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after two months of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Cavite had reduced them to using up their savings and borrowing from neighbors.
Their community in General Trias in Cavite is largely Visayan, with many coming from Davao and Cebu. The Luzon-wide implementation of the ECQ on March 17 affected many of the male breadwinners in the compound, who did not work in food production and delivery or other essential services that remained operational during the ECQ.
Cavite’s shift on May 16 to general community quarantine (GCQ) brought some relief. Return to work for those fortunately on furlough meant shelling out from their pockets to secure the necessary permits. Daughters of Purita’s landlord, who work at a mall, personally spent P1,500 each to be tested and certified free of Covid-19.
Two days after GCQ, all Cavite malls were ordered closed by the governor for failing to implement safety pr ot ocol s.
Minus Dionisio’s expenses for meals and other necessities while on the road, the remaining amount from his salary is allocated for food and utilities for the family of five. Since their landlord also hails from Purita’s hometown in Alegria in the south of Cebu, he granted the couple a concession to pay off their rent in installments.
Surviving the ECQ required loans. No family in their compound received cash assistance from the Special Amelioration Program (SAP). Many families whose members were unable to work and earn are eligible for the emergency subsidy. Purita messaged a barangay councilor to inquire about the compound’s schedule for interviews with the social welfare workers collecting and validating data for SAP beneficiaries.
The compound was visited twice in two months by barangay and municipal workers distributing rice and canned goods. No one from the Department of Social Welfare and Development showed up to conduct SAP interviews and distribute SAP cash aid. Is it because many of the compound residents are not voters, having lapsed as voters in the hometowns they left but also failing to register and vote in the barangay they now reside in? So speculates Purita and her n ei gh bor s.
After Cavite shifted to GCQ, their community is no longer covered for the next tranches of SAP assistance. According to government planners, the “bayanihan spirit” at the heart of Republic Act No. 11469
we can no longer count with our fingers the number of political parties nationwide, and more so if we include the local parties that mushroomed in most provinces. Our poltical system became chopsuey.
With the party list system, the population of the lower House of Representatives ballooned from the 104 members in the late sixties to almost 300 members now.
There is a considerable view that the party list system is only an added cost shouldered by taxpayers' money.
And by the looks of it, the additional party list members are enjoying the perks, and no way they will budge from their seats.
Today