...[t]he task of shaping the “new normal” should come from the actions of the people; it should be the outcome of our political organizing. We should claim the narrative of the “new normal” in order to reclaim our right to enjoy a better future.
“It pains me to see (tarpaulins) of politicians and partylists claiming to represent our voices, even using images of nurses to boost their campaign. But the truth is, most of them were nowhere to be found when we were fighting for our rights and welfare,” Filipino nurse Pauline Budy said.
Instead of implementing a restrictive and discriminating policy, the Move as One Coalition said the Philippine government should instead focus on ensuring proper ventilation in public transport and terminals, increasing public transport supply and allowing more public transport to operate, increasing the budget and distributing the financial aid for 2022, and the monitoring of the minimum public health standards.
Anakpawis Party-list First Nominee Rafael Mariano said, “We have been calling for free mass testing and medical support since 2020. These are the fundamental concerns of poor families, they are not able to take the test immediately and still want to work so that the family can have something to eat.”
Programs for both health and education services were slashed while billions are allocated for the government’s infrastructure program, red-tagging operations of government agencies, and the big lump sump under the Office of the President.
In the proposed budget, the epidemiology and disease surveillance program is set to receive P113 million in 2022. This is 33 percent lower than this year’s P158.6 million budget, and even way lower than the allocation set for this program before the pandemic.
“Where is the plan for the safe return of classes for teachers and students? To say that there is a ‘victory’, the facilities should be adequate and safe, all children can go to school, and they are able to receive a good quality of education.”
While waiting for the government’s stingy and slow aid, they have to activate their survival mode by pooling their resources to help each other. All these, the people have to do amid militaristic community quarantines. And as they say when it rains it pours, calamities from typhoons, earthquakes, farm infestation, among others, did not stop afflicting communities.
With the government’s inability to control the rise of COVID-19 cases in the country, community health advocates are up in arms over the government's response that, for the last 500 or so days, mainly resorted to stricter lockdowns.
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