Urban poor call for financial aid, moratorium on evictions amid pandemic
MANILA, Philippines — As Metro Manila and nearby provinces shift to a second general community quarantine, urban poor groups on Wednesday sounded the alarm on the coronavirus situation in their communities and called for urgent measures for poor Filipinos, 17.7 million of whom live in poverty.
In a statement sent to Philstar.com, non-profits Urban Poor Associates and Koalisyon ng Samahan ng mga Maralitang Tagalungsod called attention to the situation of families hit by 'no work, no pay' arrangements and lack of access to basic needs.
Alice Murphy, Urban Poor Associates (UPA) executive director, said, “I hope the government will listen to poor families who are the hardest hit from the pandemic. These communities are doing what they can to help promote awareness on COVID, provide masks, food for families under quarantine, and provide water for their communities. But they can only do so much."
Murphy called for a moratorium on evictions and demolitions and an extension of the government's social amelioration program until the end of the lockdown, along with "increasing long-term resilience of poor communities to COVID by ensuring access to clean water, building handwashing facilities, improving housing conditions through slum upgrading and site development, and capacitating urban poor groups of infection and prevention control.”
READ: Coping in quarantine: A hard time for all but inequality makes it worse
'Situation has worsened for urban poor'
The call comes as the government said it has recalibrated their approach to handling the pandemic and taken into consideration the calls of medical societies, which included more effective social amelioration distribution for families affected by the community quarantines.
Recent surveys by the Social Weather Stations have found that as some 5.2 million families have experienced involuntary hunger and that as much as 79% of adult Filipinos felt that their quality of life has worsened. The pollster foudn that 45.5% became jobless over the coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, some 43% of Filipinos expect their life to still get worse in the coming year—statistics felt in the experiences of poor families on the ground.
Jeorgie Tenolete, president of Kabalikat ng Kaunlaran sa Baseco,said in a statement: “The situation in Baseco has worsened especially for those of us who have family members that tested COVID positive."
"Those positive patients will be put in isolation facilities while the family members need to observe the 14-day quarantine. As of today, 18 families are subjected to a 14-day home quarantine without any aid from the government. Since they cannot go out to work, they suffer from hunger, loneliness, and fear of the repercussions of COVID,” Tenolete added.
READ: 'Duterte's SONA had no plans for the urban poor'
Roberta Abrea, treasurer of People’s Solidarity in Isla Puting Bato, said that the higher prices of food couples with mass unemployment has led to a dire situation for the families living there.
“Many of us lost our jobs because of the 'no work, no pay' policy. Before, we could eat meat in a day. But now we barely survive with anything that we can afford to buy since the lockdown. Food became expensive compared to before the pandemic. Food is not our only problem here in Isla. Many of our neighbors suffer from lack of water and electricity disconnection,"
"Our ‘patubig’ (organization’s communal faucet) bill went up because many of the residents asked us if they can continue receiving water to be paid when they get their jobs back. But how can they pay? They are not even sure if they still have work to go back to. So our organization is shouldering the cost. We don’t know how long we can manage to pay our ‘patubig.’"
Abrea also called for the local government to install handwashing stations to help the community build resilience against the pandemic: “Water is very essential. The government always reminds us to wash our hands. How can we do that if we have no access to clean water?"
Social amelioration
Marilou Aquino, Camarin Balikatan Community association secretary, also urged the government to hasten the release of the second tranche of its social amelioration aid, which Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said would be fully distributed by August 15.
The social amelioration program, led by Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista, was touted as assistanceplight of vulnerable sectors affected by the quarantine but has suffered from delays in distribution.
"We have been waiting for it since June, but until now there is still no SAP. We urge the government to distribute the second tranche. It can help alleviate the sufferings and anxiety that we are experiencing in the community,” she said.
Even healthcare professionals and researchers, such as the OCTA research group of the University of the Philippines, have called for better access to social amelioration program especially for the poor. If not, they said, coronavirus cases in the country could skyrocket to as high as 230,000 by the end of the month.
President Duterte has highlighted in his public addresses that the government is short on cash, leaving them with just one solution: to sit and wait for a vaccine to solve the coronavirus crisis.
“We hope that the government can assist families under home quarantine because without food, there is nothing to strengthen their immune system," Tenolete said.
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