Duterte Administration fails to protect the Filipino Workers amid the Covid 19 pandemic
Signed, Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza D.D. Bishop of San Carlos Co-Chairperson, Church People-Workers Solidarity
On the occasion of the 5th SONA of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Church People-Workers Solidarity is in unity with different sectors in denouncing the current administration’s failure to address the miserable condition of the Filipino people amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With actions that are oppressive, irresponsible, and irrelevant to the country’s most pressing needs, it has, instead, worsened an already dire crisis.
Today we call attention to how the administration, in particular, failed to protect the Filipino workers amid the coronavirus crisis.
First, the administration implemented community quarantines of varying stringency nationally without proper implementation guidelines and adaptation frameworks. The suspension of mass transportation, in particular, was and still is a heavy burden especially for essential service and healthcare workers whose continued reporting to work is necessitated by the pandemic. Many of our frontliners were made to walk to or from the hospitals and establishments they work in for hours, even as they are already overworked and severely exposed to the disease due to the lack of manpower and provision of protective equipment.
