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Families coped using different strategies, including purchasing food on credit, borrowing food from relatives or neighbors, while some adults reported that they limited their food intake in favor of children.
With the proposed aid for displaced workers and poor families still far from getting the presidential nod, allies of the administration in the Lower House have been pushing to open up the country’s resources to the plunder of big, foreign powers and to perpetuate Duterte’s rule.
Lawmakers under the Makabayan Coalition are calling for the prioritization of the passing of a new law that aims to provide financial assistance to those affected by the pandemic.
Kadamay called for the dropping of charges against the urban poor leader, saying that the criminal charges boil down to red-tagging and political persecution.
In a statement, Pamalakaya leader Ronnel Arambulo said a P15,000 ($300) subsidy will ensure farmers can “keep up with the increasing demand of fishery and marine products amid the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic.”
Urban poor group Kadamay is currently pooling legal funds for an arrested community organizer who has yet to post bail amounting to P140,000 ($2,900) over what they said were politically motivated cases.
Pason’s family hailed from the municipality of Toboso. Their family later moved to Silay City, where he took on all jobs possible to make ends meet. As a dedicated uncle, he sent his nieces to school.
In a statement, urban poor group Kadamay said police presence is "definitely not needed" in the community pantries, adding that their atrocious record will scare away people who badly need food.
In time for the Catholic tradition of fasting during the Holy Week, a peasant advocates group led a protest action assailing how the government "has virtually imposed hunger on the poor and the marginalized amid the apparent absence of any concrete plans for economic relief and the strengthening of the public health system."
An urban poor group is demanding the Bulacan police to surface arrested urban poor leader Concepcion Opalla, who continues to be denied her right to lawyers and relatives three days since her arrest.
Instead of addressing homelessness, the Philippine government has recently lifted its earlier memorandum, ordering the postponement of demolition and eviction of poor communities.
Urban poor leader Mimi Doringo said studying their rights and how to assert them made her more confident in working for their welfare.
“We are but ants to these businessmen, ants they can crush,” Tatay Ricky would later on tell me of their struggle for their homes. “The government should be focusing on us.”
Kadamay said the country's economic decline is brought by the government's "mismanagement" of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, with the Duterte administration prioritizing infrastructure projects amid a health crisis. Kadamay said these infrastructure projects often lead to demolition of urban poor communities, pushing the already vulnerable to homelessness.
“I’m a pork vendor, but my viand is just leftover pork ribs. I can’t even afford to buy what I sell.”
Thirty families were told to vacate the land where they have lived for decades to give way to the 576-hectare reclamation project of San Miguel Corporation.
It's as if the greed and neglect piled upon more greed and neglect has turned into something thick and viscid, and like mud threatens to harden into something more permanent. I can only hope that that something is awakening, and not despair.
Under existing policies and government priorities, there seems to be no safe place for displaced poor of Metro Manila. They have been deprived of the right to city, to adequate housing, and to decent life. Typhoon Ulysses (international name: Vamco) has again brought to the fore the government’s criminal neglect.
After surviving yet another raging flood that took away their home and belongings, Kasiglahan residents are at a loss as to how to start again.
While middle class citizens in the Metro have started tending to plants as a way to cope with their isolation, urban poor communities, with no option to work from home, collectively cultivated gardens to put food on their tables.
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