84%

"Our resiliency and adaptability as a people are robust and abiding."

Eighty-four percent of Filipinos believed that the strict stay-at-home anti-Covid 19 measures with calibrated easing, now going into its third month of implementation, were worth it to save lives and prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

This is one of the major findings of the SWS mobile survey conducted from May 4 to 10. Results were released last Friday, June 5. Not surprisingly, the number of respondents who said the measures were worth it was high across all classes even those areas under the strictest quarantine level, ECQ, at 84 percent and at the eased GCQ at 83 percent.

The results confirm what many have always been saying for sometime – our resiliency and adaptability as a people are robust and abiding. That despite our seemingly happy-go-lucky appearances we are capable of discipline and united action in the face of a given threat to our very existence. This “que sera sera” trait bordering on fatalism has carried us through many hard times as a nation and is now carrying us through under the eight of this outbreak. No less than SWS founder, Dr. Mahar Mangahas, in a recent article summarized the results of the survey in one word: the endurance of the Filipino people.

This summation is borne out by a series of topical reports the survey firm issued from that “SWS May 4-10 2020 Covid 19 Mobile Phone Survey” ranging from: a) the public’s fear of infections and the need for health protocols; b) public’s sense on prevalence of hunger; c) restrictions on mobility; d) relief and need for public transport and e) on the restrictions on seniors. Here’s Mangahas’ summation:

“The public’s fear of infection by COVID-19 is tremendous, exceeding all fears in the survey records. Thus, the survey showed that the great majority of Filipinos are aware of the proper precautions, and actually practice them; deviants are only few. Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, 77% of Filipinos always use a face mask, 68% always wash their hands, and 64% always keep ‘social distance.’”

“The survey showed that the proportion of families suffering hunger doubled from last December. It was because the government-ordered lockdown throttled the people’s livelihoods, not because of problems with the food supply. Food deprivation would have been much worse were it not for the social amelioration. But such a program cannot continue indefinitely.”

“The people have been patient. Conscious of the need for cooperation to limit the spread of the virus, the people were still very patient about the restrictions put on their mobility, as fully 84% say strict stay-at-home measures due to COVID-19 are worth it.”

“While patient with the regulations, the people were nonetheless chafing for release. Personal lives and livelihoods normally entail leaving home from time to time, to go to fairly many establishments—which should therefore be allowed to operate—and having assured means of transportation to get there and return home. After two months of quarantine, four out of every five Filipinos were anxious for relief. The suspension of public transport is burdensome for 77% of families; the shutdown of private businesses and stores is burdensome for 80%. At present, with the government’s ban already lifted on so many activities, it’s no wonder that the people are frustrated with the government’s reluctance to likewise release its controls over the normal means of public transportation.”

As an aside, Mangahas reiterated what he had written sometime back when he said “Of all the restrictions laid down by the government’s lockdown policy, the one that causes sacrifice to the great majority of people is the total shutdown of jeepneys and tricycles from public operation. Why discriminate against jeepneys. Covid 19 is transmitted through people not vehicles.”

Finally, the SWS founder railed against the IATF restrictions on seniors. He noted: “Why discriminate by age? The fact that the very old and very young are relatively more vulnerable to COVID-19 does not justify draconian government limitations to their mobility. They themselves will not venture out for flippant reasons. Senior citizens have leadership responsibilities. Children need professional dental care from time to time. Pregnant women who are employed do not deserve to be deprived of their livelihood. Neither should healthy employees of age 15-19 (the legal working age is 15), who contribute to family income.”

The SWS survey though just a snapshot of public sentiments at a given point in time is instructive. It showed that we as a people can be trusted to live and work in an organized, disciplined and purposeful way. But we, like all others, have our limits. The developments since that survey was conducted should be enough to get our officials on notice that such limits can be breached; they can explode, like what’s happening in the United States. Just one incident or a serious breach of trust on the manner by which the imposed responses in battling this outbreak can ignite a wildfire. Or a lifeline situation similar to the outbreak can emerge to such an extent that people just have to take their chances. The confluence of events these past two weeks bears watching.

First, the specter of unemployment looms large in the horizon. The two-and-a-half-month lockdown has resulted in a record breaking unemployment rate of 17.7 percent, triple that of the January record of 5.5 percent. That means, just after 75 days, almost 7.4 million Filipinos have been out of work. That means no income, no or limited economic activity and precipitous government fiscal position.

Yesterday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced an unemployment rate of 17.7 percent. This figure does not include the 300,000 OFWs expected to return home from hereon to December as global trade, travel and economic recovery continue to suffer.

Second, the robust and abiding social compact which this administration has enjoyed with the public principally attributable to President Duterte’s continuing high approval ratings is displaying some cracks. One such crack is the “whiff of corruption” rule which the Chief Executive himself imposed early in his term. Up to now, the public and even die hard Duterte loyalists remain aghast at the continued “exemption” of Health Secretary and a number of other senior officials from that rule while lower-ranked employees get the harshest treatment just on the mere smell or whisper, a whiff of corruption as the administration is wont to point out.

Then, there is the just passed Anti-Terror Act which a growing number of sectors have denounced as unabashedly anti-people and draconian. The just-passed bill, which was the Senate version of the bill and fully adopted by the House of Representatives, may not be as drastic or anti-people as the critics would like everybody believe. But it has a number of provisions which may be prone to abuse and lead to unintended consequences if not properly clarified and reined in as even some members of the Cabinet are suggesting. There is still time left to do some revisions without of course eviscerating the entire bill and the government’s bid to protect the people from the damage which terrorists and their advocates, in and out of government, bring in their wake.

After all, it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that our existing laws have been so inadequate in our continuing quest to limit to the littlest possibility the damage which terrorists by their very nature want to inflict on the masses of our people.