Almost two years after the first cases of COVID-19 were recorded, the whole country is still desperate to recover from the devastating effects of the disease. As this year’s start, the Philippines is suffering from a potential fifth wave of the virus due to the “Omicron Variant”, logging nearly 3 million cases of the virus and resulting in over 52 thousand deaths. Moreover, with another surge of infections underway, the already-struggling economy is about to take another beating. The country has a track record of poor socio-economic recovery when it comes to variant surges. It can be recalled that during the Delta variant outbreak, the Philippines ranked last among 121 countries in the Nikkei Asia’s COVID 19 Recovery Index, which assesses infection management, vaccine rollout, and social mobility of economies.
The state’s inconsistent response has also revealed shortcomings and inefficiencies in alleviating the losses brought about by COVID. Over the past few months, government agencies tasked to provide medical and social welfare have been criticized for their mishandling of essential funds, manpower, and material used to keep the fight going against the virus.
The road to post-pandemic normalcy is an issue of concern for most of the presidentiables. It is apparent that the next administration will inherit the issues and problems concerning COVID 19 and be compelled to craft campaign platforms addressing pandemic recovery. With the list of presidential candidates already finalized by the COMELEC, we take a look at the narratives some of them present in tackling the next steps for the country’s pandemic response. This article will not feature all the candidates’ narratives, instead, it will just feature those who have already presented clear pandemic recovery plans to the public.
LEODEGARIO “KA LEODY” DE GUZMAN
Ka Leody’s plan, dubbed the “Manggagawa Naman Policy”, primarily focuses on job generation, labor security, and integrated worker salary and benefits for the different worker sectors in the country, primarily the health and agriculture sector. The plan focuses on proper worker compensation as the tool to effectively sustain Filipino workers as the country recovers from the COVID Pandemic. De Guzman explicitly states that taxes from the rich and the recovery of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth will be used to fund these plans.
The plan is divided into two parts, with the first phase focusing on generating a 1-trillion-peso state-driven economic recovery plan centering around worker welfare development. The plan involves allocating P475 billion on a “public jobs generation program”, P400 billion on health stimulus centered around the workers and their families, and a further P125 billion stimulus package dedicated to supporting the generation and sustainability of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which constitute 99.5% of all established businesses in the country. De Guzman mentioned that the funding for these initiatives will come from “the 20 percent wealth tax of the 500 richest in the country”.
The second phase is centered around the institutionalization of worker generation and security in the country. De Guzman cites his plan to create an annual P500-billion formal program dedicated to securing jobs for 2 million Filipinos. It also includes a P90 billion-fund dedicated to a P500-insurance program that 1.3 million unemployed Filipinos can avail themselves for a total of 6 months. This phase also includes a P250-million “single-payer” healthcare system for proper compensation to Filipino healthcare workers. Asked how all these would be funded, De Guzman said that all these plans will be financed by the financial asset tax and the annual 5 percent real property tax.
PANFILO “PING” LACSON
Although he has never formally mentioned a detail-specific plan on pandemic recovery, Lacson promised a stronger pandemic response focusing on “united citizenry” for a sustainable recovery. He mentioned that this can be done through a “stricter public service sector” and an “overall sustainable pandemic recovery strategy”.
To address the lack of government manpower affected by the pandemic, Lacson urged to push for an emergency employment program, offering college students and graduates internship positions in different public sector offices.
FERDINAND “BONGBONG” MARCOS JR.
Bongbong Marcos's “Tawid COVID, Beyond COVID” Program is a medico-economic strategy for the post-pandemic Philippines. The plan focuses on improving the welfare and capability of the Philippine health sector. It aims to increase the overall budget of the public health sector, primarily on the country’s disease research agencies like RITM and UP BIOTECH, to increase wages and benefits for our medical workers, and to boost our local research on COVID 19 and disease management. The strategy hopes for the country to mass-produce its own vaccine for public use.
The program also aims for economic recovery in the micro and macro scale, by launching initiatives to help generate and sustain MSMEs. Marcos mentioned giving out financial compensation and vaccine priority to employees in these specific enterprise sectors.
FRANCISCO “ISKO MORENO” DOMAGOSO
Isko Moreno centers his pandemic strategy on the “Bilis-Kilos” economic relief to kickstart the economy, primarily focused on the generation of MSMEs. Dubbed as “Iskonomics”, the two-pronged plan aims to generate spending down from the individual to the government level through a series of strategies involving job generations, lower taxes, support of the housing and construction sector, and financial compensations to the worker, student, and senior citizens sectors.
The first phase, ISKOnomics 101, focuses on the 50 percent cut on fuel and electricity taxes. This is designed to enable consumers to allocate more savings and to cut financial pressures on MSMEs. This would incur more consumer purchases and a greater flow of money, leading to more job generation.
Meanwhile, ISKOnomics 102 refers to Isko Moreno’s policy for local government units (LGUs) to invest their Mandanas Ruling-incremented income on banks and low-interest loans to be given to their constituent MSMEs. This approach would enable LGUs to assist small businesses in generating jobs and output while generating income for themselves to be used to invest in public projects such as housing, schools, and public utilities. Moreno also mentioned that the income of the LGUs can also be used to provide cash aid to vital sectors of society.
MANNY “PACMAN” PACQUIAO
Although Pacquiao hasn’t mentioned yet any consolidated pandemic recovery plans, He and his running mate Lito Atienza’s past statements reveal their plan to ameliorate government systems to improve the provision of basic services, most importantly healthcare.
Pacquiao and Atienza’s plan would prioritize battling corruption to ensure that government agencies can efficiently perform their specific mandates, It would also put first modernizing barangay-level health capacities to ensure that more people can be efficiently diagnosed and treated by localized health sectors, and to alleviate pressure from bigger government health facilities.
Corruption is one of the utmost focuses of the tandem. It can be recalled that even before the filing of candidacies, Pacquiao, as a senator, began accusing numerous executive agencies of misallocation and mishandling of public funds. The presidential aspirant also promises to create a special court that would handle cases of graft and corruption. Such an agency, however, is already existent in the form of Sandiganbayan. Moreover, the tandem also would call for better government procurement of materials by dissolving the Department of Budget - Procurement Service, and to rely on local agency cooperatives for government supplies. They claim that the move will also benefit MSMEs as they will get better opportunities to attract purchases from such cooperatives.
Pacquiao also would opt to implement a “one student, one gadget” program, given the possibility of prolonged blended mode of learning in the country. This would enable all students to keep up with the educational requirements in this “new normal” set up. Along with it, he also plans to urge the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to revise the educational system of the students, in order to fit with use of digitized modules and platforms of teaching.
LENI ROBREDO
Leni Robredo’s plan, called “Kalayaan sa COVID”, is a P500-billion budget response to the issues and problems brought by the pandemic. Her plan will focus on three aspects: Public Health, Essential Resources, and Education.
Robredo’s strategy to strengthen the public health system is through the reformatting of the systems used by our public insurance agency PhilHealth, to ensure that it will be ready to provide universal access to healthcare for all Filipinos. The plan also calls for better securities for medical workers, hospitals and other medical facilities, and medical supplies. Lastly, it aims for increased procurement of antigen and RT-PCR testing tools, and vaccine material for the government to provide free testing and to continue its free vaccination program.
Moreover, the plan also calls for security of essential resources amidst an increasing hunger percentage in the country. P216 billion will be allocated from the national budget to provide basic necessities such as food, clothing, and hygiene materials for the needy. Robredo also discourages opting for national lockdown policies because of their grave implications for the poor.
Robredo also prioritizes the improvement of the country’s educational conditions in her strategy. She would focus on the resumption of physical classes in low-risk areas of the country. For students in high-risk areas, the presidential aspirant promises to organize a mass distribution of free devices and other materials necessary for online learning. She also mentions the establishment of public internet facilities around the country for students with no access to an internet connection.
BEYOND THE BLUEPRINT
Looking at all the mentioned platforms of these specific presidential candidates, some observations can be made. Firstly, it can be seen that there is a great variance in the degree of planning already made among the candidates. While some are still generalized, others have already crafted concrete and specific details in their strategies for the pandemic response. Nonetheless, two main themes are present in most of these candidates’ platforms: (1) economic recovery centered around labor force regeneration, and (2) the necessity to improve the country’s healthcare sector.
Moreover, there is no unanimity on the problem of corruption as a significant obstacle in pandemic recovery. While these specific candidates manifested that government handling of the situation could’ve been better, only a few explicitly manifested to tackle bureaucratic corruption and inefficiencies in the presidential agendas, with some manifesting a little, if not at all, about it.
Lastly, regarding issues on education, only Robredo and Pacquiao explicitly opened up to the importance of planning for educational policies in the post-pandemic setting, including Ligtas na Balik Eskwela, and the possibility of mixed-mode learning in educational institutions.
Overall, while it can be argued that the candidates do not have the opportunity to concisely lay down their full specific plans in public, we can already foresee who among them prioritizes pandemic recovery as their primary agenda when elected, and what strategies and methods they would use. It is important for us voters to carefully tread how our future leaders would approach the looming problem of pandemic recovery. In knowing the way they answer the whats, whos, hows, wheres, and whys, we thoroughly understand how they see the problem and its implications. Through their words, we get to clearly see the priority of their leadership; and as Filipinos, we must demand the solution that is the most effective, and the one which would encompass the future Filipino people.
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