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Netizens criticize Duterte’s midnight address, support health workers’ plea

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By ALYSSA MAE CLARIN

MANILA– Netizens are angry after hearing President Rodrigo Duterte rant against health workers during his midnight address on August 2, after health workers demanded for a more concrete plan in the country’s response with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Duterte even called out health workers who are criticizing the government’s plans and dared them to “stage a revolution” against him, adding it would give him the free ticket to conduct a ‘counterrevolution.’

They are also against the administration’s decision to put certain areas in modified enhanced community quarantine without first establishing any concrete plan to follow the two-week quarantine.

Celebrities have also shown their contempt towards Duterte’s way of addressing the issue, and showed support towards our frontliners who have been fighting the battle since day one.

The post Netizens criticize Duterte’s midnight address, support health workers’ plea appeared first on Bulatlat.

Karapatan hits regulation of social media under terror law, continuing online attacks vs public and rights defenders

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Instead of using the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act to “regulate” social media, human rights watchdog Karapatan strongly retorted that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should “instead regulate and police the social media platforms of their own ranks and other law enforcement agencies, which have been known for spreading malicious lies and violent, terroristic threats against the public without letup and with rampant impunity.”

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#QuarantineVisualDiary | Another first day of MECQ

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Today is the first day of re-imposed modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila from August 4 to 18. All mass transport is suspended, some businesses are closed and quarantine pass or ID for work is required again of people who go outside their homes. Metro Manila was under strict militarized quarantine from March […]

The post #QuarantineVisualDiary | Another first day of MECQ appeared first on Manila Today.

Infected 1

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Infected 1
“Doc, we all tested positive. Hospital operations are suspended.”

By DEE AYROSO
(https://www.bulatlat.com)

The post Infected 1 appeared first on Bulatlat.

‘We are not calling for a revolution,’ says healthcare alliance spox

Pinoy Abrod
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‘We are not calling for a revolution,’ says healthcare alliance spox

By: Christia Marie Ramos – Reporter / @CMRamosINQ

INQUIRER.net / August 03, 2020

MANILA, Philippines — Contrary to President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent pronouncement, healthcare workers are not calling for a revolution when they aired out their pleas publicly amid the coronavirus pandemic.

This was according to Dr. Antonio Dans, spokesperson for the Healthcare Professions Alliance against COVID-19.

“Emergency ho ito e. Magli-lift na sana tayo this week (ng quarantine),” Dans said in an interview over dzMM’s Teleradyo on Monday.

(This is an emergency. We were scheduled to lift the quarantine this week.)

He added that it would not be easy to seek an audience with the President to state their concerns with him privately.

“Gaano kadali bang kumuha ng audience with the President? Gano’n lang ba yun? ‘Pag sinabi namin, may audience kaagad? May isang buwan kaming mai-schedule, e ‘di ano nang nangyari nun ‘pag ganon?” Dans said.

(Is it easy to seek an audience with the President? If we say we wanted to talk to him, will we be allowed immediately? We would probably have to be scheduled for a month, then what would have happened?)

“Hindi ho kami nagtatawag ng rebolusyon…Sana naman naiintindihan nila ‘yan. Wala naman hong nagtawag ng rebolusyon,” he added.

(We are not calling for a revolution…I hope they will understand. Nobody called for a revolution.)

In a speech aired late Sunday, the President warned healthcare workers not to “demean [the] government” after health professionals publicly grieved about their plight during the pandemic instead of seeking an audience with the administration.

This, as they appealed for a reimposition of a strict lockdown in Metro Manila to give them time to recuperate from exhaustion due to the continuous surge of COVID-19 cases nationwide, which had already breached the 100,000 mark.“Then you threaten a revolution. This is our country. You want us to destroy it? Start it now,” Duterte had said.

But Dans said healthcare workers have been repeatedly making the same appeal to the government.

“Kasi kami ho kausap naman namin lagi ang DOH (Department of Health), ang IATF (Inter-agency Task Force), ilan beses na ho kaming nag-present sa implementation task force. Nakikipagtulungan kami sa Department of Transportation, DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government), DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority). Nasa meeting naman kami lagi at tumutulong naman ho kami lagi naman ho namin itong sinasabi,” he said.

(We are always communicating with the DOH, the IATF; we’ve repeatedly presented this with the implementation task force. We are coordinating with the DILG, DTI, NEDA. We are always present in meetings and we are helping with the response and airing out the same concerns.)

“Kaya lang ano ho, e para sa amin masyadong mabagal ang pag-react e lumalala na yung pandemic so we said ‘Let’s ring the alarm signal.’ Kung magri-ring ka ng alarm signal ala nga namang kumatok ka muna at mag-schedule ng audience, hindi ho ganon kadaling mag-audience with the President, di ba?” he added.

(But we find that their reaction is not fast enough and the pandemic is getting worse so we said ‘Let’s ring the alarm signal.’ And if we are raising the alarm, we cannot just knock and seek an audience with the President, right?)

Following the plea of the medical community, President Rodrigo Duterte, nevertheless, approved the reimposition of a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila and other nearby provinces as the country continues to see a surge of COVID-19 cases.

The reimposition of the MECQ will make a “big difference” for healthcare workers, Philippine Medical Association (PMA) president Dr. Jose Santiago, meanwhile, said.

“That will make a big difference and a big help for the healthcare workers,” Santiago said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

Santiago said the two-week MECQ can be used “to redefine our pandemic control strategies and to draw up a consolidated definite plan of action” to address problems in the country’s COVID-19 response.

He said the two-week MECQ will also help in curbing further transmission of the virus, which would minimize the strain of the pandemic in the country’s medical workforce.

“As of the moment, we have enough doctors to really man our frontlines and we just have to really limit the transmission of virus. That’s why the very purpose of MECQ…is to really limit the transmission of the virus,” he added.

IN PHOTOS: Metro Manila given only 24 hours before lockdown, sent into a frenzy

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A scene reminiscent of the first time the lockdown was imposed in Metro Manila in March was seen on the day before the region was placed back into a stricter quarantine or lockdown, where people are ordered to stay at home, only essential workers and industries allowed to operate and public transport is suspended. This […]

The post IN PHOTOS: Metro Manila given only 24 hours before lockdown, sent into a frenzy appeared first on Manila Today.

‘Without policy change, stricter lockdown will fail in curbing COVID-19’

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‘Without policy change, stricter lockdown will fail in curbing COVID-19’
Health workers from Pasig General Hospital (Photo courtesy of Filipino Nurses United)

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — With over a hundred thousand positive COVID-19 cases, the Philippines has reverted Metro Manila and neighboring provinces to a stricter lockdown for the next two weeks but critics say that without changes to the government’s pandemic control strategies, this would be useless.

“The continuing increase in COVID-19 cases is proof that the Duterte government failed in curbing the spread of the virus and in heeding the calls of the people and frontliners. Instead of conducting mass testing, contact tracing, providing medical facilities, and ensuring protection for health professionals, the Duterte administration prioritized curtailing of human rights and their livelihoods,” said peasant group Amihan chairperson Zenaida Soriano.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced the modified enchanced community quarantine Sunday, following calls of medical frontliners  for a timeout amid increasing positive cases, overwhelming the country’s health system. Their call, critics say, is an indictment to failed government response on COVID-19 that community doctors and progressives have long been assailing.

Read: Call of health workers ‘an indictment of government’s COVID-19 response’

Under the MECQ, movement of residents will be limited to accessing essential goods and services while several offices or establishments will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity and at skeletal workforce. With stricter lockdown, however, the poor and daily wage earners will bear the brunt as government social protection remains scant.

Read: SAP exaggerated, millions left behind

Apart from Metro Manila, the provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan will be under the MECQ from Aug. 4 to 18.

In a statement, the Citizens Response to End COVID-19 (Cure COVID) said they are both dismayed and frustrated at President Duterte’s response to the pleas of our medical frontliners as it did not address the urgent problems they are facing.

In his late night address, Duterte lashed out at health workers, saying they should “not try to demean government.”

“Then you threaten a revolution. This is our country. You want us to destroy it? Start it now,” Duterte added.

“The President had no basis nor right to scold our medical frontliners who have sacrificed so much already in the fight against Covid-19. Anyone who read their open letter or watched their press conference would know that they were neither demeaning in their attitude towards government, much more calling for a revolution,” Cure COVID said in a statement.

Community doctors and health advocates, from day one, have been calling on the government to conduct mass testing, contact tracing, isolation, and treatment of COVID-19 patients and those they have close contact with. They, too, have called for due social protection for the poor, especially displaced workers and urban poor who have lost their sources of income.

Cure COVID reiterated their call for health secretary Francisco Duque III to resign, and have former military generals who are currently running the government’s main agency handling COVID-19 response replaced.

The group said, “our doctors, nurses and other medical frontliners don’t deserve such scolding and our people don’t deserve such a President.” (https://www.bulatlat.com)

The post ‘Without policy change, stricter lockdown will fail in curbing COVID-19’ appeared first on Bulatlat.

MINDANAOANS VS ANTI-TERROR LAW

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Rights defenders, journalists, Moro and Lumad defenders gather at Ateneo de Davao University to signify their opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 by filing their petition to the Supreme Court through electronic filing on Monday August 30, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Atty. Mary Ann Arnado)

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