UNMASKED – A narrative told by urban

poor women amid Duterte’s lockdown

By COURAGE National Secretariat | April 16, 2020

It was midday of April 7, 2020 when Lena* came out of their house upon hearing that the
anticipated relief goods from our organization, the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and
Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) have already been dropped in the
makeshift office of the local chapter of Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY). Lena,
her husband, their six children and a relative reside in a coastal urban poor community in
Market III, Barangay NBBN, Navotas City.

Market 3 Community’s households depend on the trade in the Navotas Fish Port Complex
(NFPC) for livelihood. Upon the implementation of the lockdown-style Enhanced Community
Quarantine (ECQ) on March 16, 2020 in the entire island of Luzon to supposedly combat COVID-
19 spread, restrictions have direly affected business in the fish port. Only small fishing vessels
were allowed to set out; fishing operations in the time of ECQ are policed by elements of the
Philippine Navy. Some families will just make do of the limited bounty from smaller vessels.
Lena’s husband works in a larger fishing vessel. Hence, the implemented ECQ left him jobless
and the family further struggling for food and other basic necessities daily.

Already at worst – a community’s situation even before lockdown

The word ‘squalid’ is not enough to describe the pitiful state of the Market 3 Community in
Navotas City. Housing more than 700 families including Lena’s, sanitation is a big problem for
the community as there is no functioning sewerage system. Households have to share toilet
and bath facilities. The residential area is flanked by the market’s garbage dumpsite and
factories of fish products. The air quality is terrible as it reeks of the mixed stench of refuse and
fish. According to veteran community organizers of KADAMAY, the odor already toned down as
the fish processing plants are not operational amid the ECQ. But it does not necessarily do more
good as there are residents who are also workers in those facilities. The halting of production
meant no pay for workers and less trade for artisanal fisher folks.

To make things worse, the Market 3 Community is one of the many threatened to be evicted in
Navotas to make way for the state’s NFPC Rehabilitation and Modernization Program. No clear
plan was laid out for community development or relocation in the program; residents were only
offered cash assistance of unspecified amount to find new places to dwell upon. A fire also
ravaged the community on October 2019, reducing the residential are into its current state of
scrap lumber, iron and tarpaulin shanties.

Even on days before the ECQ, Lena has said that

her husband – the sole breadwinner of their family
of nine, barely makes up for the family’s cost of
living.

Minsan meron, minsan wala (sometimes there is,

sometimes there is none) – that is how Lena
describes her husband’s income. Lena tells that for
the usual three-day fishing trip, her husband gets
paid 500 pesos. And there are times that her
husband brings nothing home when the vessel
needs repair or the catch is not enough to pay for
the wages of the crew. Those times, in her words
are lugi (at a loss).

According to the think tank IBON Foundation, the

The sorry state of housing in Market 3
Community, Barangay NBBN, Navotas City
health, education and leisure1.
daily family living wage in the National Capital
Region (NCR) is 1,022 Php as of February 2020. The
estimate is enough to afford decent living for a
family of five – enough budget for food, utilities,

That is while the family of Lena has to make ends meet with her husband’s meager income and
the monthly cash dole-out from the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
With the current scheme2 and her six kids, Lena can only get as much as 4,000 Php per month
through the so-called pindot (slang for availing the cash aid through 4Ps, denoting the ‘pressing’
of the automated teller machines’ buttons to withdraw the money). Still, the combined income
of Lena’s family is a far cry from the estimate of decent living wage. And her family’s continuing
residence in a public service-forsaken place in Market 3 Navotas tells a lot about the way they
live – the way all residents here exist.

1
See IBON Media’s The Family Living Wage, as of February 2020 - https://www.ibon.org/the-family-living-wage-as-
of-february-2020/
2
The current scheme of 4Ps according to the state’s Philippine Information Agency: “P300 per month for a child in
kindergarten and elementary school for a maximum of ten months per year; P500 per month for ten months for a
child enrolled in junior high; P700 per month for ten months for every child enrolled in senior high school and a
health and nutrition grant of P750.00 per month for 12 months per year.”
Bearing the unbearable – double burden of women in the informal
sector

Women are one of the most disadvantaged sectors in a socioeconomically underdeveloped

society like ours. Women are more likely to be unemployed worldwide at any age according to
UN Women. So it is not surprising that women are the most involved in the informal economy –
over 80 percent of women in South Asia are in informal employment 3.

Reni* is a middle-aged woman, a street food vendor by trade and 4Ps beneficiary have
compounding problems under the lockdown. She sells the street delicacy known as helmet –
deep-fried chicken heads in her locality – Commonwealth-Fairview area in Quezon City. Her
husband, a mechanic at a facility in the farther city of Valenzuela, is among the laborers
rendered jobless by the ECQ. Reni is also a member of the urban poor organization
Pinagkaisang Lakas ng Mamamayan – Commonwealth (PLM-Commonwealth).

Reni’s meager income in selling her merchandise is primarily expended on rice. However, prices
of basic commodities are also rising as observed by Reni. Market vendors told Reni that prices
soar as the lockdown causes delay of goods delivery and supply replenishment in Metro Manila.
As sales of her helmets are also negatively affected by the enhanced local social distancing and
curfew regulations, Reni’s family of seven has become even more reliant on government aid.

The COVID-19 further exposes structural faults in Philippine governance and public health
system, and Filipino women’s sectoral vulnerability. Women beneficiaries of 4Ps like Lena and
Reni are instantly relegated to being sole breadwinners as the men in their households are
jobless during the lockdown. Women, especially those long engaged in the informal economy
such as Reni also have to bear the brunt of the paralysis of the formal economy due to the
implementation of the ECQ.

The dismal story of government response to the crisis

As COURAGE hands over relief goods to community leaders in the Commonwealth-Payatas

area, we asked one, Nanay Tinay* to pick a rallying call printed on bond paper placards and air
out her sentiments with regard to government response in the crisis. She chose Ayuda ng
Gobyerno – Ibigay Ngayon Na! (Distribute Government Aid Now!). She expounded in an
agitated manner:

3
Ibid.
Kailangang ibigay na ngayon nila kasi wala na halos makain ‘yung mga tao eh, nagkakaroon na
ng hindi pagkakauunawaan, kung saan-saan na pumupunta, may nagnanakaw na, so
kailangan na nilang maibigay itong ayuda lalo na itong amelioration

(The government should already

distribute the aid as there are
people who no longer have anything
to eat. There are already instances
of misunderstanding, people
violating quarantine rules by going
to places, and even robbery. So that
it is why they have to give the aid
now)

On March 23, 2020, the Congress

passed Republic Act 11469 or the The placard chosen by Nanay Tinay to register her stand on
the delayed government aid
Bayanihan We Heal as One Act – the
touted legislation that will grant 275
billion pesos and a set of emergency powers for the perusal of President Rodrigo Duterte. Mr.
Duterte have assured in his midnight press conference on March 30 that ‘he has the money’ to
help out families, laborers and small business entities that are negatively affected by the
lockdown. As stipulated on the Office of the President’s first report to Congress dated March
30, 2020, about 160 billion pesos is allocated for COVID-19 relief programs to be managed by
the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH) and
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). By April 3, 2020 only did the actual cash relief
distribution started primarily through the so-called Social Amelioration Program (SAP), already
three weeks in the lockdown.

DSWD heads the management of SAP. Through the said program, about 18 million indigent
families are to be given 5,000 Php to 8,000 Php depending on the prevailing regional minimum
wage. And through the DOLE, COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) offered wage
subsidies and alternative livelihood projects for disadvantaged laborers during the lockdown.

First to receive SAP relief are the 4.4 million 4Ps beneficiaries including Lena, Reni and Nanay
Tinay, through the established system operated by the DSWD. But Nanay Tinay still is deeply
concerned. As she is also a worker in the local health unit, she finds it hard to answer the
persistent question of her needy and non-4Ps beneficiary clients – ‘when will the government
aid finally be distributed for the rest of them?’
Uncertainty of aid on the lockdown extension

As decided by the Duterte Administration’s Interagency Task Force on Emerging Infectious

Diseases (IATF-EID) last April 7, the lockdown - initially set to end on April 12 was extended until
the end of the said month. Cabinet Secretary and IATF-EID Spokesperson Karlo Nograles
explained that the two week extension will give enough time for the government to ‘ramp-up
the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity’.

A month in the lockdown, the Office of the President’s has reported to the Congress that about
16 billion pesos worth of SAP aid was already given to indigent families through the 4Ps
distribution system. DOLE on the other hand has already handed 118,086 laborers of livelihood
assistance, amounting to a total of 206 million pesos by April 13, 2020. On April 14, the DSWD
reported that amounting only to 4,782,383,104.20 Php was distributed as cash relief for non-
4Ps beneficiary families.

With such dismal figures at this point in time, it is not certain if the government can even reach
all its intended aid recipients even with the lockdown extension. To add, the Philippine Health
Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has already declared on April 14, 2020 that it will
discontinue covering all of the expenses for treating COVID-19. The current policy states that it
can only cover as much as 700,000 Php, while there are reported cases of COVID-19 patients’
hospital bills reaching up to 1.4 million pesos.

A new avenue of dissent – activism goes online even for the urban poor

As community leaders, Nanay Tinay, Reni and Lena are very aware of the possible repercussions
of airing their grievances through the conventional rally protest amid the very militaristic
enforcement of the ECQ. A harrowing precedent is the response of armed elements from the
Quezon City Police Department to the sudden protest on April 2 by the indigent residents of
Sitio San Roque Community. The protesters demand of immediate food aid from the
government, only their gathering to be brutally dispersed by the police. The scuffle resulted in
the arrest of 21 residents for violating social distancing and quarantine rules; all are currently
freed on bail.
 However, people’s organizations such as the
KADAMAY Market 3 Chapter and PLM-
Commonwealth is firm on their belief that the
plight of the starving masses must come to
the attention of President Duterte and the top
implementers of the ECQ in the IATF-EID by all
means possible. That is why these
organizations, with the assistance from
COURAGE, have now been maximizing the
social media to popularize their just demands
for food and economic aid. Through
COURAGE’s fan pages in popular social media
sites Facebook and Twitter, the urban poor
together with distressed government
employees have launched online selfie
protests or kalampagan (to make noise).

The online kalampagan mechanics are simple

– one can improvise a placard demanding any
of the following – immediate food and
economic relief for poor families, free mass testing and treatment for COVID-19, provision of
personal protective gears for frontline public sector workers, or cessation of the militarist
enforcement of the ECQ. One must take a selfie and submit it to the COURAGE National Office
page for publishing.

To counter the sentiment peddled online by the Duterte Regime’s supporters on openly
criticizing the government in the time of crisis as ‘divisive’ or a result of ‘lacking sense of
discipline’ among dissenters, Ms. Roxanne Fernandez, a contractual government employee and
spokesperson of the COURAGE-affiliate Kawani Laban sa Kontraktwalisasyon have words to say:
“criticism, no matter how scathing it is, is essential to policy making in a democracy. The right of
citizens to free speech (and) grievance serves as an instrument in ensuring checks and balances
of the bureaucracy and institutions. Furthermore, the administration can silence its critics by
proving the efficiency of its policies especially in these very critical times."

*Real names of the respondents were hidden for precaution amid the militaristic lockdown of
the Duterte Regime