BONIFACIO, ALLAN HOVER O.

04 OCTOBER 2021
BSCS IRREGULAR
PURPOSIVE COMMUNICATION
MR. LEO CARAVANA

THOUGHT EXPRESSION ACTIVITY 3

“Presidential leadership as the driving force behind the success and failure of the Philippines in
terms of resiliency from the Pandemic”

As the Novel CoronaVirus rose here in the Philippines last year 2020, the Duterte
administration was shocked and did not prepare anything for this kind of situation. They only
prepare risk reduction and preparedness for calamities like typhoons and earthquakes but
infectious diseases aren't. When the first two Chinese were detected with the virus the
Department of Health did not make any travel ban protocols for the safety of the other people
from this disease. Then the virus transmissions rises and rises till the national government and
the national health department can’t control it anymore. They didn't know how to start protocols
due to the surprising percentage of the transmission, even the hospitals aren't ready for this kind
of situation. This one of the presidential failures, for me not only the president itself but also
those cabinet members that became confident about these diseases that this will not break from
the quarantine facilities.

Next problem is when President Duterte, announces the national emergency on

infectious diseases, he announces that he is declaring national lockdowns on selected areas
where the virus has highly transmissions. He uses the militarism tactics on implementing the
health protocols given by the Task force created by the president, this task force called the IATF.
Maybe he uses the military, police and the barangay police to have peace and order during the
implementations of the protocols. They issued curfew protocols, boundary checkpoints just to
make sure no infected person crossed the boundaries. But the people were shocked at how
they handled this situation, they thought that the president was only using this situation for him
to declare martial law, thankfully it didn't happen.

How about those employees and businesses affected by the lockdowns due to the
pandemic? How about those people affected by this pandemic?

Last March 2021 the PSA statistical report was estimated at 8.1 percent in August 2021,
as of year 2021 the unemployment rate was lower than those reported in January, February and
April this and the higher estimates reflected in the month of March, May, June and July 2021.
We experienced a higher rate from last July 2020 in the first semester of this pandemic, where
the government shocked from March 2020 first slump of the disease.

How the government responded to this situation?

 The Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Social Welfare and
Development, the National government and the Development Bank of the Philippines made a
communication between them to have budgets for the reliefs of the unemployed Filipinos and to
those business owners, and common Filipinos affected by the pandemic. At the first pace of the
relief, they also called it “AYUDA”, it is a cash relief given by the government amounting to P4,
000.00 which they are not able to cover up the expenses of the people. In the first quarter of the
pandemic, Filipinos were so affected and shocked and panicked also because of the lockdowns
and they didn't know what to do. The people rushed onto the supermarkets and do panic
buying. At first the dispensation of the AYUDA government only prioritized those who are
unemployed employees and senior citizens. The problem is some of them haven't received their
part in the AYUDA, because of the anomalies and corruption by the barangay officials. The
National government gives power to these barangay officials to dispense the large amount of
budget for the relief which leads to large scale corruption.

What did the government do to stop “kuno” the anomalies and the corruption in the Local
government units? The president directed the DSWD that this is the only government agency
that has the power to dispense and to divide per households the corresponding budgets coming
from the DBP. Now the year 2021 entered and is starting to count, the government created
again another budget hearing for the second trance of the AYUDA. Many of the Filipinos
received their corresponding amount, but still this amount can’t feed them for how many months
to go. Filipinos are seeking the resumption of the businesses here in the Philippines so that they
can go back to their jobs, for them to sustain their daily lives. Filipinos said to the government,
the AYUDA that they give in is not, or cannot pay the other bills, so they need jobs.

This is where the DOLE entered. This agency made a communication letter addressed
to the office of the president to give them powers and a budget for these unemployed workers.
This agency starts from making statistical reports of the unemployed, and laid off workers here
in the country, so that they can estimate the amount needed for the budget and for them to
defend the request to the president. The president responded without hesitation, he signed the
budget request and then the DOLE dispensed it to the unemployed, and laid off workers. But
still, this amount can’t cover up other expenses of the people.

As time goes by, the unemployment rate here in the country drops sharply in the month
of September 2021, as the country’s economy recovered from the covid 19 slump. The
economy as of now is slightly recovered.

In the health sector of the government, the public officials had some flaws and made
wrong decisions especially on the first day of the transmissions. They hid it from the public and
didn't take any actions to prevent it from spreading. They didn't release any travel bans in China
to control the transmission. The public health sector was shocked by the fast spreading of the
virus in the NCR. What are the steps the public health sector took? They made some health
protocols suggested to IATF. They implement the social distancing protocols, wearing of the
face mask at all times when outside, the wearing of face shields. They give information drives to
the public using over the air advertisements, posters, and per barangay information drive.
 The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine is trying to make an antiviral medicine to
control the spread of the covid 19 virus when the vaccine isn't yet discovered by the other
medicine technology companies. The government and the public health sector is trying to
mitigate the budget for the public health workers. The Department of Health communicated with
the President to give the powers to make budgets for SRA’s (Special Risk Allowance) of the
health workers fighting between life and death due to this pandemic. Some of the health
workers didn't receive the reasonable amount of said allowance, they had no choice but to
make rallies just voice out their need and complaints, because the national government and the
DOH did not respond to their grievances.

The DOH, just lately gave the respected amounts of the allowances in the health
workers. When some of medicine technology companies discovered vaccine to control the fast
spreading of this virus, the philippine government is requesting vast amount of the vaccines and
they issued Emergency Use Authorization from some of the medicine companies so that only
government and the said companies have the authority to dispense and acquire those vaccines,
because these vaccines are does not have full research and investigations regarding the side
effects, etc. When the first batch of the vaccines arrives the government makes prioritizations,
first is the front liners, government officials, second the senior citizens, third is the rest of the
population, and lastly the children ages from 12 to 18 years old.

Government must also focus their attention on mental health during this pandemic.
Why? Most of the Filipinos experiencing depression due to lack of freedom, for having no jobs,
the mode of studies here in the country strikes the mental health of the students.

On the education side, the Department of Education implements the modular mode of
learning where the students will study learning modules in their homes and they will answer it
and send it back to their corresponding schools. The president also gives them powers to have
a budget and to dispense it to their corresponding needs like photocopying machines used for
the photocopying of the modules, laptops for the teacher who have not, pocket wifi and load
allowances for the teachers. Deped also implemented the online classes which have some
flaws because of the status of the internet speed here in the country. President Duterte signed
with MISLATEL and DICT to have a third telco company to serve Filipinos with fast internet.
Some of the problems in online education, some of our students can't afford to subscribe to an
internet service nor to buy data loads. Until now students are still experiencing this kind of
problem.

For me President Duterte supports all of the efforts, suggestions and critical thinking of
every cabinet member, including the IATF. But, he can't avoid some decisions that are not
correct for the eyes of his countrymen. Our president is trying to be successful in controlling and
stopping the fast transmissions of the virus but contradicted also by some of his decisions are
the failures of protocol implementations because of some of his advisers.
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