"This crisis has revealed who among our officials are failing to get the job done."
"This crisis has revealed who among our officials are failing to get the job done."
It’s a shame that there is a move to raise the amount of PhilHealth contributions of overseas Filipino workers, especially during these critical times when OFWs are among the hardest-hit sectors.
Whoever thought of deducting more from the OFWs measly earnings and charging them aP2,400 membership fee is a nincompoop and callous about the welfare of our modern-day heroes.
This is why our friend, ACT-CIS Party-list Representative Eric Yap, has called on his colleagues in the 18th Congress to take steps to reverse such a policy and repeal whatever basis it has in law.
This developed as thousands of land-based OFWs and seafarers return to the country after being displaced by the global crisis brought by COVID-19 pandemic.
I believe that President Duterte will not allow such an injustice to be done to OFWs. For decades, OFWs have helped keep the country’s economy viable.
By the way, Manong Digong may wish to get an update on the status of the cases of massive irregularities at PhilHealth, and whether anyone has been charged or gone to jail.
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How time flies. It has been 50 days since the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) officially began last March 17. Here we go again with the countdown to May 15, the end of the extended ECQ in Metro Manila.
We look forward to get over with the lockdown or get into general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila where selected business and labor groups may be allowed to return.
Much as we would like a 100-percent prevention of deaths from COVID-19 complications by means of continued lockdown, some 1.8 million people have to return to work sometime soon. Otherwise, we would be counting Filipinos literally dying from hunger, not from coronavirus infection.
At least three senior citizens have reportedly died and another suffered a stroke while waiting for cash assistance from the government Social Amelioration Program (SAP) administered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Mind you, it is not due to the lack of funds that over millions of families have not received their SAP benefits, even as President Duterte ordered that five million households more will be awarded the cash aid.
It is rather the inefficiency in the implementation of the SAP and the distribution of the initial P100 billion dole authorized by Republic Act 11649 or Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of 2020 in answer to the massive job losses resulting from the ECQ.
The DSWD and the local government units (LGUs) have been wrangling over the list of beneficiaries, and have engaged in blame game instead of putting their heads together and figuring out how to get the job done.
After missing the deadline of SAP cash distribution last April 30, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has extended the deadline to May 7.
You see, if there is one thing else that we are getting out of this whole pandemic crisis, it is to have discovered how certain government agencies and institutions are able to fulfill their mandated duties and responsibilities.
Besides exposing the ailing state of the country’s public health system, how unprepared and incapacitated it is in dealing with the COVID-19, this whole crisis has exposed the incompetence and the incapability of government officials in responding to the dire needs of the poor people. They have failed to accomplish their mission.
These nincompoops and incompetents have been unmasked by the COVID-19.