Miclat, Ann Krizelle Y.

A221
Do you think that our present government’s programs specifically during this Pandemic is just
and fair to all its citizens? Why? Provide evidence/research based scenarios.
Word count = 478
As I have come to learn through the years, some if not most of the policies of our
government are aimed to serve the rich under the guise that they are for the betterment of the
general public. Three scenarios that I could think of are the TRAIN Law, Anti-Terror Law, and the
quarantine guidelines that our government has set. First, the TRAIN Law was promoted as the
government’s “best Christmas and New Year’s gift” for the citizens. With this, according to
Punongbayan (2019), a study conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies
showed that this law has worsened both poverty and the disparity between the rich and the
poor. For example, excise taxes for luxury cars and real estate were lowered but surely the only
ones who will benefit from these are those that could afford it, which are the rich. Meanwhile,
those who are below the poverty line will just get poorer as the minimum wage cannot keep up
with the inflation of the prices of basic commodities.
Next, the Anti-Terror Law is one of the recent laws that many opposed. Why? It is unfair
for the people because the law uses a very broad and vague definition of terrorism and gives
rise to the possibility of warrantless arrests as mere suspicion could be marked as terrorism, as
well as this law allows authorities to lock up a person for weeks without charges (Ratcliffe,
2020). These are violations of one’s human rights, you cannot detain someone for undue cause.
This is especially worrying as the Duterte administration has been a known red-tagger, they
easily brand activists as terrorist, what could stop them now from detaining activists and
tagging them as NPAs? This heavily favors those in power and their supporters, and I think one
of their main objectives was to silence the people who are asking for better treatment which
they deserve.
Lastly, at the onset of the pandemic, the marginalized sector has been greatly affected.
Unemployment was at an all-time high, and the government was mindlessly quarantining the
country without proper aid and countermeasures for COVID. According to iLead, a whopping six
out of ten Filipino families were hungry by the end of 2020 and about 5.5 million may be
pushed to poverty if not given proper aid (Suzara et al., 2021). The government also failed to
secure vaccines early thus depriving the millions of Filipinos, the much-needed immunity.
Frontliners were given insufficient or even no hazard pays and are given substandard PPE. I
could go on and on about all the injustices that are dealt to us but the bottomline is, we are
being exploited. They continue to raise our taxes, but we get nothing in return because those in
power are pocketing our money and that is the biggest injustice and most unfair treatment that
we could ever receive.
References:
Punongbayan, J. C. (2019, April 25). [ANALYSIS] How the TRAIN law worsened poverty,
inequality. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/how-tax-reform-
law-worsened-poverty-inequality-philippines
Ratcliffe, R. (2020, July 9). Duterte’s anti-terror law a dark new chapter for Philippines, experts
warn. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/09/dutertes-anti-
terror-law-a-dark-new-chapter-for-philippines-experts-warn
Suzara, Z., Abad, L., Punongbayan, J. C., & Sanders, R. (2021, June 6). In this pandemic, Duterte
has his priorities all wrong. Business and Economy | Al Jazeera.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/6/dutertes-many-pandemic-
failures