Democracy Watch Philippines strongly supports the solidarity statement released by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Philippines (CBCP). We call on all Filipinos to join the call for nationwide cooperation amidst this contagion and for the Government to act with urgency to plug the emerging policy gaps and further fine tune urgent interventions to prioritize frontline operations and the welfare of the most vulnerable sectors of society.
Food and medical assistance should be made available to the daily income earners and poorest communities whose hand-to-mouth livelihood has been disrupted by this crisis. Adequate resources must be mobilized for extensive testing, disinfection, and debt free social amelioration.
As these times call for compassion and cooperation, we must still be vigilant against any attempt to leach our limited public resources and demand accountability and transparency in the disbursement of the billions of pesos in government funds that have been allocated to fight COVID 19.
As these are our hard-earned taxes, we deserve competence, efficiency, and most of all honesty from the government bureaucracy.
Paco Pangalangan
Convenor
Democracy Watch Philippines