From December 2020 to December 2021, there have been at least 29,782 human rights violations, or an average of 82 per day, committed by state forces of the Rodrigo Duterte administration.
Under Duterte, the youth has been one of the most targeted by state-sponsored attacks. However, these attacks fueled the youth to persevere in fighting for their rights that is evident in the campaigns they forwarded, and the dismissal of charges against them.
For Joshua San Pedro, co-convenor of the Coalition for People’s Right to Health, corruption will persist until a comprehensive public health care is established and there are no more gaps in social services that may be taken advantage of and profited from.
Under Duterte, red-tagging is used as a weapon to silence dissent and as justification for human rights abuses.
To identify close contacts up to third or fourth degree, community health advocates said that contact tracing has to rely on an already robust public health system which the Philippines does not have in the first place.
Restricting mobility is meant to give government the time to build its capacities to stop the spread of the virus. But what happens when a government only resorts to a lockdown and nothing else?
Aside from the fact that the biggest chunk was not used specifically for the COVID-19 response, it is the taxpayers who will suffer the most in paying off these debts.
With the pandemic still raging on, the crisis in the Philippine educational system has been further exposed. Instead of addressing the concerns of the education sector, the Duterte administration has chosen to neglect it even more by not providing enough budget for distance learning.
The learning modalities recommended by the education department are not suitable to students with special needs.
Public school teachers spend for their basic protection such as alcohol, face masks, face shields and gloves. The Department of Education admitted that there is no budget allocated for the hospitalization of teachers who will be infected by the virus.
President Rodrigo Duterte will deliver his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 27. Bulatlat examines Duterte’s policies on the economy and foreign policy, his COVID-19 response and track record on human rights and the attacks on press freedom and expression since the lockdown.