Covering CoViD-19 Archives | Page 4 of 7

Covering the CoViD-19 Pandemic

Making the uncounted count: ABS-CBN looks beyond official COVID death toll

THE DEPARTMENT of Health updates the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, as well as recoveries and deaths daily. Cases in the Philippines have breached the 15,000 mark and continue to increase. The rising number of infections naturally gets the most emphasis in news reports. Some groups have questioned the...

PWDs in media: Overlooked and left out

LIKE MANY poor Filipinos, persons with disabilities (PWD) are among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They, like everyone else, have suffered the brunt of the inefficiency and lack of resources of the government’s response to the health crisis. CMFR cheers Rappler and Philstar.com for their focus on...

Criminalizing criticism: More hardships for suffering public

THE INHUMANE treatment of people violating quarantine protocols has exposed the Philippine National Police (PNP) as an agency without heart. (See monitor: “Editorials assail abuses during lockdown”) The administration has shown another aspect of its heartlessness, wielding the law to silence criticism and with uniformed officials at the forefront...

Mass testing as policy: Still no plan in sight

AS THE government eases restrictions to start up the economy, cash-strapped Filipinos are eager to return to work. On May 16, modified quarantine conditions were set for some areas, and some 14 million people across the country braved the risk of COVID-19 by leaving their homes to earn a...

Inquirer blasts DILG drive for charter change amid pandemic

PUBLIC OPINION polls have again and again found that federalism and Charter change (Cha-cha) are not priority issues for Filipinos. The shift to federalism was among President Rodrigo Duterte’s promised changes when he took office in 2016, but the bills filed by his allies that tried to do that...

Media report ECQ shift to modified quarantine as just another “carmageddon”

AFTER TWO months of lockdown, the government decided to ease quarantine restrictions in some areas. Modified levels were announced for different jurisdictions from May 16 to May 31. Modified levels of the ECQ included the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified general community quarantine...

Have we “flattened the curve?”

IN APRIL, as the clamor for COVID-19 mass testing intensified, the government scrambled to scale up its testing capacity. On the 30th, during the regular press briefing of the DOH, Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that the DOH had failed to meet its target of conducting 8,000...

GMA-7 airs one-sided interview against ABS-CBN

ABS-CBN’s 25-year franchise expired on May 4, 2020. The House of Representatives had not decided on the network’s application for its franchise renewal. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN late in the afternoon of May 5. The network aired its evening newscast...

Editorials assail abuses during lockdown

CHEERS TO the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Manila Standard for editorials calling attention to the strong-arm approach of the government on violators of quarantine regulations, assailing it in the time of the pandemic. The Inquirer’s “Crackdown” on April 28 referred to recent incidents, among them the warrantless arrest of...

Muddling through aid distribution mess

THE EXTENDED community quarantine (ECQ) has pushed more Filipinos deeper into poverty. The government’s aid has been slow to trickle down and at the rate that things are going, it may not reach those who need it the most in time. On April 2, the government rolled out its...