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“The problem with the current policy is that we are operating under the premise of very little budget, that’s why there’s a shortage of COVID-19 test kits. And people would have to pay for it first."
From 2016 to 2019 alone, the public health program’s total budget allocation has been reduced significantly, varying from 15-percent to 28-percent cut.
For one, the budget for Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, the lead public hospital in the government’s effort to address the looming outbreak, has been slashed from P263 million in 2019 to P115 million in 2020.
Frenchie also exposed the terror caused by military encampment in 167 communities in the region under the guise of “community support program.”
“How will we strengthen our immune system when our primary problems here are the lack of food, clean water, and shelter?”, Jonathan Manesia, 38, answered when asked on how he prepares for the infectious corona virus disease (COVID-19).
Under President Duterte’s first year in office, the reported rape cases has also increased by 53 percent compared to its 6,480 annual average in the past decade.
A day before the International Women's Day, Bulatlat is featuring four Filipino women journalists who have been subjected to attacks for using her voice and pen to call out those in power as well as how they stood and remained steadfast in their cause for press freedom.
“The [anti-terror] bill provides powers to the executive branch that properly belong to the judicial branch.”
“Don’t we have the right to seek protection for ourselves? And perjury? We are God-fearing. We are not liars. They are the ones who lie.”
“They dragged us to the garrisons, made us do their laundry, ordered us to cook and iron their clothes and when the night fell, several Japanese soldiers took turns raping us. They were vicious during the war and they needed women for their recreation. They treated us as sexual slaves.”
Gender disparity in wages remains to this day, which ranges from four to 25 percent. The CWR cited “implicit biases” continue as capitalists discriminate women’s work as “just add-on to the entire household earnings.”
“Removing or lowering these penalties gives State authorities a free pass, if not outright approval and endorsement, for violations on human rights and civil liberties...”
Who is exempted from being labeled “terrorists?” Rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, Church people, peasants, indigenous peoples and workers have been publicly vilified by state security forces as such.
President Duterte may look like he is merely copying the atrocities of the Marcos dictatorship. But a deeper scrutiny shows the system that allowed the Marcos dictatorship to rise prevailed even after his ouster.
“In both communities, the farmers and fisherfolk are being deprived of their right to produce food and sources of livelihood, and consequently throwing them to hunger, essentially violating their right to food.”
"...rather than give firefighters guns, it would be better if they are given better fire fighting equipment against forest and industrial fires."
“Eleven percent of households in Hong Kong have domestic workers but it seems the HK government and some employers continue to overlook this vital fact in enforcing preventive measures. Most are underfed and overworked.”
The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) described the SolGen’s move as an “obvious attempt to not only silence ABS-CBN but also those who opposed the government’s push to shut it down.”
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