Chapter I

Introduction

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

COVID-19 pandemic had greatly affected our country, Philippines by disrupting

the normal life of Filipino citizens. With over 440,000 confirmed cases and 8,500 deaths,

the Covid-19 had spread throughout the country. Direct health effects from transmission

is not only the proof of COVID-19, there is also increasing evidence that the pandemic,

and the actions taken to control and prevent the virus from spreading, have caused severe

social and economic effects.

The effects of COVID-19 Pandemic are expected to be severe in the province of

Manila or National Capital Region (NCR) which experienced a disproportionately large

share of cases and, as a result, has also suffered to the strictest lockdown measures. And

within the NCR, for poor urban households especially with children, are particularly

vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic.

 Poor households within the country are typically have less space on their house to

follow safety protocols specifically social distancing, the families have also lower access

to water and sanitation facilities which resulted to unhealthy environment, and hold jobs

in which working from home is not an option. And with the early closing of school year

SY 2019-2020 and the policy to suspend face-to-face classes for the school year 2020-

2021 to prevent the spread of the virus, added a burden to parents and guardians to

provide childcare and intensive attention to their children’s education.

Many Filipino families show that the COVID-19 pandemic has a larger impact on

their income than they expected. In May of 2020, United Nations Development

Programme (UNDP) found that 83 percent of respondents to their survey in NCR and

Cebu faced a decrease in their income, with 40 percent of respondents having lost all

income. By their new survey, conducted September of the same year, they found that the

income amongst households in this sample had recovered somewhat with only 25 percent

of respondents having lost all income. From the results, it suggests that the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic on employment is really great, even with the Filipinos who retained

their jobs faced a decline in their earnings.

Many Filipino have been forced to reduce their food consumption to cope with

the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the loss of jobs of the family members who
are working the income for the food and other necessities had greatly decreased or worst

have been lost completely. With the help of the government, the poor families are

provided with ration of food that they can consume for several days. But even with the

help of government, it is not enough to completely solve the problem of hunger of the

poor Filipino families. The results from the Social Weather Stations show that reduced

food consumption has led to decreased food security: according to the data from Social

Weather Stations Survey, 20.9 percent of the Filipino households faced hunger in July

2020 compared to 8.8 percent in December 2019. These issues are especially concerning

given the high rate of child malnutrition in the Philippines prior to the COVID-19

pandemic crisis.

The effects of COVID-19 pandemic in terms of mental health are not the priority

of the government given the high increase in number of being affected by the COVID-19.

This pandemic forced the Filipinos to stay on their home because of the implemented

lockdown and quarantine. Distress and other mental health issues are the often results of

this especially on individuals that is not used to stay to their own house. With the lack of

connection with the outside world, many individuals feel being alone. Data of the effects

of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health are limited but the data that do exist reveal

worrying results. In June 2020, Warren et al. found that 30 percent of households

reported that one on their household members had developed mental health symptoms.
The effect of the lockdowns on mental health can be severe based on experts. The effects

of this issue for the Philippines may be particularly acute, given the country’s high rate of

mental health issues prior to the crisis.

The new way of learning of the children in the household is one of the major

issues that concern the Filipinos especially the poor families. Many children are

unwilling or unsure if they will continue their studying mainly because of the challenges

of the new learning system. Many of the Filipino children especially, those who came

from poor family anticipated the challenges of using online platforms and the lack of

internet access. The top concerns of the parents regarding the new way of learning

(distance learning) are internet connection, gadget and the ineffectiveness of online

platforms on learning of their children. Based on World Vision Philippines, 47 percent of

the parents are concerned with the lack or slowness of internet connection, 33 percent for

the lack of gadget and 20 percent for ineffectiveness of online learning.

The effects of COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines on household level

includes issues on employment, income, food consumption, food security, mental health

and the new way of learning of the children. Many Filipino household faced these

problems especially those poor who are likely most affected by the crisis. In view of this,

the researcher felt the need to conduct a study regarding the effects of COVID-19
pandemic among the Filipino families especially those poor to broaden the knowledge of

many people involving this topic.

Statement of the Problem

Specifically, this study attempted to answer the following questions:

1. What are the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on Filipino families along the

following:

1.1 Employment;

1.2 Income;

1.3 Food consumption;

1.4 Mental health;

1.5 New way of learning of children?

2. What are ways of Filipino to cope with these different effects of COVID-19

pandemic?

3. How do these different effects of COVID-19 pandemic affect the life of Filipino

families especially the poor families?

4. What are the programs implemented by the government to the Filipino families to

cope with the effects of COVID-19 pandemic?

5. What are the implications of this study to government specially to Local

Government Unit (LGU)?