Gruesome Echoes

It has been well-established that disasters, including a pandemic, put women in a more vulnerable position in society1. During the lockdown, hundreds of researches led us to conclude that the pandemic created a wider gap between men and women in employment, health care benefits, peace and security, and mental wellness2 . Citizens and critics have expected that the national government, the institution that they know should weather them through storms, would at least rely on hard facts and evidence-based science and gender-responsive strategies to deal with something as grand and disastrous as a pandemic. However, 25 years after the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) was signed, women still find themselves lost at a crossroads and still struggling to be heard and seen primarily in a country with a misogynistic and macho-feudal president like Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte’s pandemic response was simple: the military should take charge; men should take control. In March 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., a retired military man, as the country’s national policy’s chief implementer against Covid-193 . Galvez shall “ensure strict compliance and adherence of both the public and private sector to guidelines and protocols issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.” Aside from having the military take over a health crisis, it should be noted that the lack of women members in the IATF did not help in forwarding genderresponsive strategies in the health guidelines and protocols. Except for Tourism Secretary Bernadette RomuloPuyat and Education Secretary Leonor Briones, women are underrepresented in the cabinet and definitely, voiceless. Right from the beginning, the Duterte administration perpetuated a wide gender gap in decision-making. It also did not include a guarantee for genderequal representation in creating the National Task Force against COVID-194 . When the entire Luzon was placed under quarantine, the Filipino nation was caught off guard, and women were in a precarious position. What they hoped to be a 2-week lockdown became the longest-running lockdown in the world. Many industries and sectors were advised to shift to alternative working arrangements such as work-

Women are underrepresented in Duterte’s cabinet meetings. Photo from GMA News.

from-home, reduced work hours, rotating shifts, etc5. Coincidentally, the industries that were unable to shift to such modes of work were industries where women are highly represented, which included the informal economy, the hospitality and management sector, the retail, manufacturing, and tourism industries6. In the recent survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in October 2020, it was reported that the Philippines’ unemployment rate was at 8.7% or equivalent to around 3.8 million jobless Filipinos7. However, in the National Capital Region (NCR), the unemployment rate was at 12.4%. Out of the 43.6 M Filipinos in the labor force, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for men was at 72.3%, while it was only 45% for women. Employment rates for men were also higher at 91.3%, while it was 91.1% for women.

It was only at the end of March 2020 when the government rolled out a plan to provide financial assistance to vulnerable Filipinos who were greatly affected by the pandemic. The Congress drafted and approved Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act which provided funding to the social amelioration program (SAP). While the Joint Memorandum Circular No. 1, s. 2020 or the Special Guideline for the SAP expressly stated that it would be gender-responsive and genderinclusive, its planned programs did not live to the standard. The emergency subsidy program (ESP) or ‘ayuda’ amounting to Php5000 to Php8000 was not enough for the target beneficiaries. On top of that, the distribution of aid was significantly delayed and questionable.

The social amelioration programs also included distributing food and non-food items to households highlyaffected by the lockdown. However, feminine hygiene products, infant food and needs were not considered as essential relief goods8. The social amelioration program also did not provide the means to help parents with the extra burden of caring for their children and additional household responsibilities. No consideration was made for providing child support benefits and allowances. The extreme prolongation of the lockdown meant that problems for women just kept on compounding and compounding. Filipino women, especially those who are the leaders of their households, were left to fend for themselves. On the other hand, the OFW sector where women form a majority of, only received a measly single payout of Php10,000 financial aid from the government.