After the weekend, at least 48 LSIs tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Philippine Inquirer.Wilson Fortaleza, spokesperson of Partido Manggagawa (Labour Party) and one of the convenors of Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, told VICE News that the LSI crisis, brought forth by a poorly planned lockdown, showed that the government had failed to provide the most basic of needs to its people.The government said it “chose the lesser between two evils” in prioritizing shelter from the rain over social distancing for the LSIs. “In the past days, all those people were in the streets. They were rained on for two days, they were exposed to heat, and we had to make a decision in order to give proper shelter to our countrymen,” said Hatid Tulong lead convener Joseph Encabo. Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said that “mistakes were made.”
“These people have no other means, they have no money. To keep them in such a place is inhumane,” he said. “Do we ask too much from the government? We simply ask for the most basic things.”
“I don’t have work here. There is no one to ask for help, no one to ask for food. What will I do here? I’ve been stranded for almost five months,” Sarifah told VICE News. “I don’t have any money to support myself. Even the food is very hard to provide.”
In March, the Department of Health announced that it did not “see the need” for mass testing, and only began targeted testing on April 14, when over 200 people were getting infected daily. The Metro Manila intensive care unit capacity was stretched to its limit by April, and by July several hospitals were unable to accept new COVID-19 patients.Rather than investing in effective strategies proven by other countries, some experts say the government reverted to containment through military tactics when lives were already at risk.“My orders to the police and the military, if anyone creates trouble, and their lives are in danger: shoot them dead,” Duterte said in Filipino in a televised national address in April.“Lockdowns are supposed to be the most blatant and immediate way of at least containing the spread of the virus, to be complemented by mass testing, contact tracing, and strengthening the state's public health capacity,” he said, adding that the Philippines is “lagging behind” on the latter three points.
He said that while an estimated one-month-late implementation of quarantine measures contributed to widespread infection, the “game changer” was the government’s early easing of quarantine measures—particularly in the National Capital Region on June 1—without sufficient safeguards to prevent a surge of cases.Dennis Blanco, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines, told VICE News that the COVID-19 solution does not require a military approach, but instead a medical professional-led and civilian approach based on medicine and science.
Abante, citing the government’s past statements that blamed the outbreak on a population that is “not disciplined,” said it’s not Filipinos that are the problem. Rather it is the government’s lack of direction and clarity.“You need a system and a plan for people to be more disciplined and follow out of their will—and follow because they choose to follow, rather than forcing people to unsustainably follow you,” he said. “For me that is what we have to contend with in the Philippines.”Find Sammy on Twitter.This refusal to find fault in his government’s response is a major barrier for any improvement in the Philippine administration’s management of the pandemic.