Third NCR ECQ: Media holds back on criticism of government unpreparedness

JEERS TO the media for failing to question the government’s lack of preparedness in implementing the third enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in NCR during the pandemic. Having seen all the problems in 2020, media should have been ready to list the areas on which government should have been working for the ECQ to work. The most important of these is the provision of assistance that will enable the communities to comply with the restrictions. As one expert noted: “A lockdown is supposed to starve the virus, not the people. “ 

The media should have focused primarily on how government is going to distribute the funds to low-income families and displaced workers, daily wage earners and other  economic sectors. 

With so many already deprived of livelihood, government should have been alert to the massive work to be done as the threat of the Delta variant loomed. The country’s National Capital Region is staring into a dark tunnel of strict lockdown from August 6 to 20. 

News reports recalled ECQ protocols concerning individual mobility, public transportation, interzonal travel, business operations and allowances for scheduled vaccinations. But national officials had little to say about what the public could expect regarding the roll-out of cash aid. 

Reports seemed stuck to merely quoting what officials had to say, even when they could not provide real answers. Up until the end of last week, the administration had not said anything to assure government’s funding for cash aid or “ayuda” which is obviously the paramount concern. 

On July 29, the Palace assured affected residents of cash aid worth PHP1,000 per person or a maximum of PHP4,000 per family, amounting to over PHP10-billion for 80 percent of Metro Manila’s population. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque admitted government had not yet identified the source of the fund. “Siguradong ibibigay yan, ang hindi lang sigurado, saan kukunin. Pero ang mandato ng Presidente, humanap kayo ng pera (The cash subsidy will definitely be given, but it’s unsure where the funds will come from. But the President’s mandate is to find funds),” he said during his August 2 press briefing.

Media seemed completely without any background information about these issues and did not ask why there was no readily available funding for the cash aid program, given the allocations provided by the laws passed to address the pandemic. 

The Budget Department clarified on August 4 that the cash aid would be sourced from government agencies’ savings in 2020 as identified in AO 41. Usec. Tina Canda added that the DBM was targeting release of funds on Thursday, August 5. Commendably, Rappler and Philstar.com pointed out that a release date did not mean the beneficiaries would be given  the cash aid then. CNN Philippines quoted Mayor Joy Belmonte (Quezon City) who confirmed that based on her meeting with DILG, the distribution will face indefinite delays. 

CMFR had criticized the media’s failure to look deeper into the bureaucratic muddle of the social amelioration program last year. The challenge to journalists remains the same: Reports must get government to specify when aid will be distributed, keep track of the fund for subsidies, follow the trail of distribution to check whether they are received by the intended beneficiaries. 

Media have chosen not to point a finger at the failure of government to learn the lessons from the first two ECQs it imposed from March 17 to May 15, 2020 and from March 29 to April 11 of this year. They have continued to hold back in calling out the lack of urgency on the part of government to address the crises flagged by the experience of other countries. Despite the surge of the Delta variant in some ASEAN countries, government only banned travel from Malaysia and Thailand on July 23, the day after DOH confirmed local transmission of the more contagious virus. In the preceding month, government seemed bent in pushing all kinds of inter-zonal travel and local tourism.

Laid back is too kind a term to describe government’s conduct. The IATF has failed to develop the needed state of  readiness despite the lessons of the past and it is evident not only  in health care but also in providing socio-economic safety nets for those most in need.