Million’s of people were expected to stay at home but how to handle an abrupt lockdown in such a vast, complex and unequal country. Across the country as the lockdown started a lot of people got panic like buying food , medicines and other supplies for the upcoming days, but how about the poor people? They don’t have enough money to stock food for the lockdown , they are worried about their livelihoods and the homeless people wondered where they might shelter.Throughout the coronavirus pandemic in the Philippines, filipino’s have been seen rallying for help and begging for donations and for residents of poor communities, where most people do not qualify for exemptions, the lockdown signified less to no income.
The poverty and food insecurity that the crisis is generating in low-income family may end up claiming more work than being scared of the virus itself, millions of people already living under such conditions, and whose incomes will also be affected.On the other hand, the number of people in the Philippines with acute hunger will double the situation resulting from COVID-19 will annoy the situation of people who, either because of conflict, hunger, disease, famine or simply low income, were already facing acute food insecurity. The reason or the purpose of this paper is to know the hardship they experienced while on lockdwon and the real dilemma of the poor in Philippines and what the main aspects behind this impact will be . The simmering frustrations of the poor are one of the major considerations in a crucial question for the Duterte government in these critical times: how can the government save people from both hunger and COVID-19?
During the peak of quarantine , public transport was controlled , Police were guarding municipal and city boundaries to prevent entry and exit , malls , schools , offices and tourist spots got close and also other Businesses were closed, some lost their jobs and just stayed in their respective home due to lockdown in thier places ,While all these are sound reminders or to prevent spreading the so-called virus , there is one glaring problem ,the poor will not be able to afford to follow all of these because there are a alot of filipinos specially the poor one affected during the pandemic so they need to go to work and make a living or else they will die because of hunger.
As you can see Thousands of families across the country are starving since the lockdown does not allow them to work, the pandemic calls for a choices between life, death and the economy.That, in turn, results in a massive increase in poverty, extreme poverty to be exact.Workers in the informal economy may not have the luxury of staying at home , People living in or near poverty often lack disposable cash and cannot easily stock food so they need to chose between staying in but dying or to escape from and stay out of poverty .