Women (In)Securities and the Pandemic
By: Ram Bernal and Lemuel Deinla
It has been well-established that disasters, including a pandemic, put women in a more vulnerable position in society. During the lockdown, hundreds of research led us to conclude that the pandemic created a wider gap between men and women in employment, health care benefits, peace and security, and mental wellness. Citizens and critics have expected that the national government, the institution that they know should weather them through storms, would at least rely on hard facts and evidence-based science and gender-responsive strategies to deal with a disastrous pandemic. However, 25 years after the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) was signed, women still find themselves lost at a crossroads and still struggling to be heard and seen primarily in a country with a misogynistic and macho-feudal president like Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte’s pandemic response was simple: the military should take charge; men should take control. In March 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., a retired military man, as the country’s national policy’s chief implementer against Covid-19. Galvez shall “ensure strict compliance and adherence of both the public and private sector to guidelines and protocols issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.” Aside from having the military take over a health crisis, it should be noted that the lack of women members in the IATF did not help in forwarding gender-responsive strategies in the health guidelines and protocols. Except for Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and Education Secretary Leonor Briones, women are underrepresented in the cabinet and virtually voiceless. Right from the beginning, the Duterte administration perpetuated a wide gender gap in decision-making. It also did not include a guarantee for gender-equal representation in creating the National Task Force against COVID-19.
When the entire Luzon was placed under quarantine, the Filipino nation was caught off guard, and women, especially, were in a precarious position. What they hoped to be a 2-week lockdown became the longest-running lockdown in the world. Many industries and sectors were advised to shift to alternative working arrangements such as work-from-home, reduced work hours, rotating shifts, etc. Coincidentally, the industries that were unable to shift to such modes of work were industries where women are highly represented, which included the informal economy, the hospitality and management sector, the retail, manufacturing, and tourism industries. In the recent survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in October 2020, it was reported that the Philippines’ unemployment rate was at 8.7% or equivalent to around 3.8 million jobless Filipinos. However, in the National Capital Region (NCR), the unemployment rate was at 12.4%. Out of the 43.6 M Filipinos in the labor force, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for men was at 72.3%, while it was only 45% for women. Employment rates for men were also higher at 91.3%, while it was 91.1% for women.
“Coincidentally, the industries that were unable to shift to such modes of work were industries where women are highly represented, which included the informal economy, the hospitality and management sector, the retail, manufacturing, and tourism industries.”
It was only at the end of March 2020 when the government rolled out a plan to provide financial assistance to vulnerable Filipinos who were greatly affected by the pandemic. The Congress drafted and approved Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act which provided funding to the social amelioration program (SAP). While the Joint Memorandum Circular №1, s. 2020 or the Special Guideline for the SAP expressly stated that it would be gender-responsive and gender-inclusive, its planned programs did not live to the standard. The emergency subsidy program (ESP) or ‘ayuda’ amounting to Php5000 to Php8000 was not enough for the target beneficiaries. On top of that, the distribution of aid was significantly delayed and questionable.
The social amelioration programs also included distributing food and non-food items to households highly-affected by the lockdown. However, feminine hygiene products, infant food and needs were not considered as essential relief goods. The social amelioration program also did not provide the means to help parents with the extra burden of caring for their children and additional household responsibilities. No consideration was made for providing child support benefits and allowances. The extreme prolongation of the lockdown meant that problems for women just kept on compounding and compounding. Filipino women, especially those who are the leaders of their households, were left to fend for themselves. On the other hand, the OFW sector, where women form a majority of, only received a measly single payout of Php10,000 financial aid from the government. Those who repatriated back to the Philippines got stranded in halfway houses and hotels for weeks because of delays in the processing of RT-PCR results and the government’s failure to anticipate the enormous volume of returning OFWs.
“Filipino women, especially those who are the leaders of their households, were left to fend for themselves.”
The government’s incoherent policies and the ensuing economic recession led some women, and more alarmingly, young girls, to sell their bodies to get them through everyday expenses. There have also been reported cases of students selling explicit photos and videos online and even engaging in prostitution to afford laptops and other learning tools. A surge in signups among young Filipino women in the sugar dating platform, Sugarbook, was recorded at the height of the lockdown. OnlyFans, a popular site where people can earn money by selling nude content, saw the number of its users and content creators drastically increase during the pandemic.
The pandemic did not only cause distress to the students but the teachers as well. Teachers, who are mostly women and mothers too, were burdened with creating and delivering modules, transitioning to online classes, and orienting parents on how to teach their children at home. The Department of Education’s mantra of “no student left behind” did not resonate well with the pandemic when the Department failed to recognize the need to increase the annual teaching allowance of teachers to compensate for the cost of internet connectivity and module printing. Teachers and school administrators have launched different donation drives to raise money for printers, inks, bond papers, and internet load. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) demands to increase the Php3000 to Php5000 for teachers’ expenses for distance education had fallen to the deaf ears of DepEd.
The government thought that the shift to distant learning and online modules was a safer option for students and teachers alike. However, according to the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) in the Philippines rose by 264.6% or a total of 202,605 more reports during the lockdown compared to the number of cases reported in 2019.
Sexual exploitation and abuse also happen to adults, especially to adult women. The United Nations (UN) even tagged violence against women as a “shadow pandemic.” The UP Population Institute estimated that by the end of 2020, “there will be an estimated 839,000 women who are married or who have been married at least once in their lives who would experience GBV during this pandemic.” To add fuel to the fire, another problem that the Duterte administration failed to address is the number of unplanned pregnancies. The Commission on Population and Development or POPCOM said that “the long-term lockdowns and disrupted family planning services due to the pandemic may lead to a rise in unplanned pregnancies and cause the population to swell at 111.1 million in 2021.”
As if the pandemic is not disastrous enough for women and Filipinos in general, the Duterte administration proves to be a strong contender. This administration’s lack of priority and urgency in dealing with the health crisis is a disaster in itself. The Duterte administration also chose to intensify its crackdown on activists and critics during a pandemic, and it has directly affected women and mothers like Reina Mae Nasino and Amanda Echanis.
Although Duterte’s crackdown on activists is not focused on capturing women, women are still in much more distress. Reina Mae Nasino was an activist and political prisoner who was accused of trumped-up charges. When she was imprisoned, she was also pregnant with her child, baby River. After giving birth, she was separated from her child, who soon died. Baby River’s death was because the state deprived her of motherly care and attention. Reina Mae Nasino was only given three days by the court to grieve for her dead child in a move so cruel. During the procession to the cemetery, the police sped up the hearse, almost snatching baby River’s dead remains. The whole incident was a heartless and evil projection of macho-feudal domination and fascism. This scenario was repeated when Amanda Echanis, daughter of slain activist Randy Echanis, was also separated from her newborn baby.
The physical, socio-economic, and psychological detrimental effects of the pandemic on women are all established and backed up by research and science-based facts. All the government has to do is turn to credible sources and legitimate claims. The Duterte administration’s failure to recognize the merits of gender-sensitive policies and strategies in dealing with a health crisis resulted in a pandemic response that did not only sidelined women but also actively hurt them.
Our call is for the government to create avenues for women’s participation and representation in decision-making bodies. Our call is to reiterate that gender-blind policies can do the same harm as misogyny and sexism. Our call is for the IATF to turn to science and research-based steps in the creation of resolutions, guidelines and health protocols.
Politically motivated actions have no space in a health crisis.
