Position Paper on the Use of President Duterte’s Special Power by Francine Senapilo

12 – Uzziah

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte downplayed the threat of COVID-19 in

February 2020, imposing that there was no need for the people to be "hysterical".
Hence, he did not immediately implement travel restrictions on people coming to and
from nations with confirmed cases of COVID-19. However, when the virus started
spreading, and the cases were rapidly increasing, he suddenly tightened its grip over
the Philippines. On March 25, upon the President's request for Philippine Congress to
give him emergency powers, the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (RA 11496) was
passed into law. It was effective until June 25, 2020, but until then, he was granted
special powers to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. This law allowed him
to extend his power on narrower sectors of hospitals and public transit. He also gained
authority to reallocate this year's national budget. For the past three months, he has
taken complete control on the operations and measures in the fight against this
pandemic. These actions have gained concerns and criticisms from some citizens; as
they imply that the said measure is just Duterte abusing the pandemic to impose an
autocratic rule. Additionally, the legislation was restrictive, since it allowed for penalties
that add to those already enacted through existing laws. Critics have also said that this
Bayanihan Law, including Duterte's consolidation of power, has not been successful in
achieving its public health goals—for some of the law's most important policy objectives
were not even met. To put it in another way, the special powers granted to the President
through this law was not used responsibly in response to this pandemic.

The goals and objectives of the law enactment were unfulfilled. Over a week after
the President was granted special powers, dozens of people from the city slums of Sitio
San Roque gathered to demand answers from the government when they would receive
promised relief (Gutierrez, 2020). The government failed to meet their basic needs
during the lockdown and police officers resorted to force, once again failing to meet
Bayanihan Law's objective to "promote and protect the collective interests of all Filipinos
in these challenging times”.
Position Paper on the Use of President Duterte’s Special Power by Francine Senapilo
12 – Uzziah

Following this, from March until now, medical workers were publicly complaining
about the failing strategies and lack of protective equipment. From a statement from an
emergency ward worker, patients were even waiting up to six hours to be seen, and
inexperienced staffs were treating critical patients due to manpower shortages (Lema,
2020). To put these in numbers, Philippines, which on average sends 19,000 trained
nurses overseas each year, has only 10 beds and 14 doctors per 10,000 people (WHO,
2020) On Sunday, August 2, healthcare workers wrote a letter that was supported by
100 medical groups, to President Duterte—enumerating the reasons why they have
come together to raise a distress call to the government. In summation, policy
objectives were once again not met—firstly, they failed to “undertake measures that will
prevent the overburdening of the healthcare system”, and also to “immediately and
amply provide healthcare, including medical tests and treatments, to COVID-19
patients, persons under investigation (PUIs), or persons under monitoring (PUMs)”.

While for the month of April, yet another goal was hardly met, and that was to
“immediately mobilize assistance in the provision of basic necessities to families and
individuals affected by the imposition of community quarantine, especially indigents and
their families”. Many Filipinos were openly complaining about the delay in the
distribution of aid and lack of financial support for certain sectors hit hard by the
lockdown. According to President Duterte’s April 27 report to Congress, 6,266,522
informal sector families have received their financial assistance for that month, which is
only over one-third of the 18.05-million target beneficiaries of the nationwide emergency
subsidy program mandated by the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

As of now, October, University of the Philippines professor and OCTA Research

Team fellow Guido David said that Philippines has flattened the curve of coronavirus
cases. However, for all the months before this, the Duterte government’s objective to
"mitigate, if not, contain the transmission of COVID-19”, has been a failure. During and
months after the law’s enactment, President Duterte has failed to flatten the COVID-19
curve. Citing Department of Health's data as of October 8, the number of cases per day
started skyrocketing around late May and June, the time as the legislation was about to
expire. At the end of June, the number of cases came close to almost 40,000.
Position Paper on the Use of President Duterte’s Special Power by Francine Senapilo
12 – Uzziah

These emergency special powers came and went, yet the country’s condition is
still getting worse than ever. The Philippines now stands out for being one of the
countries which held the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world. There are very
slow improvements, and there were failures beyond saving. Basic needs were unmet as
the President continues to operationalize its coercive power. For holding the authority
on the most important operations of the country, he should be held accountable for all
the shortcomings and mistakes that lead all of us to this situation.

In conclusion, President Rodrigo Duterte should now give up on his failed

strategy. With the severe public health crisis and the economy meltdown right now, he
should start making amends by making new approaches on how to utilize his power.
But for now, since he still refuses to listen, what we can do is to just continue to push
our sentiments and opinions until his administration develops evidence-based plans to
combat the pandemic, and until they form coherent and consequential recovery
programs for the improvement of the economy.
Position Paper on the Use of President Duterte’s Special Power by Francine Senapilo
12 – Uzziah

REFERENCES:

- https://www.bworldonline.com/simplifying-the-bayanihan-to-heal-as-one-act/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/world/asia/manila-coronavirus-lockdown-
slum.html
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-philippines/like-wartime-
philippine-doctors-overwhelmed-by-coronavirus-deluge-idUSKBN21E1X8
- https://www.onenews.ph/inappropriate-tests-failing-strategies-why-the-gov-t-is-
losing-the-battle-against-covid-19-according-to-healthcare-workers
- https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/duterte-says-he-warned-filipinos-
about-covid-19-at-the-start/ar-BB12e9P0
- https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/9/6/PH-flattens-COVID-19-curve-UP-
OCTA-research.html
- https://international.thenewslens.com/article/133208
- https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-
updates/2020/03/24/820906636/concerns-in-philippines-after-duterte-given-
emergency-powers-to-fight-covid-19-s
- https://www.onenews.ph/duterte-s-bid-for-covid-19-emergency-powers-brings-
phl-to-uncharted-waters
- https://www.onenews.ph/lgus-demands-and-other-reasons-are-behind-the-delay-
in-cash-aid-according-to-duterte
- https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/2020/03mar/20200401-IRR-RA-
11469-RRD.pdf
- https://www.who.int/philippines/internal-publications-detail/covid-19-in-the-
philippines-situation-report-27