The past year has been the hardest time of my life.
Since my loved ones who are front liners could not get their PPEs from the government last year, I have spent almost all of my time working or volunteering with communities on COVID-19 response efforts.
We've organized efforts in public budgeting, public transport and mobility, FOI, and in our local COVID-19 prevention, testing, monitoring, and vaccination programs.
I witness everyday the miracle of engaged citizenship: the power of everyday people working for everyday change.
If you'd like to support these movements, please consider making a donation to:
1. @covidbudgetph, so we can fight for a better National Budget in 2022 that truly funds COVID-19 efforts, and not Congress's pork barrel like this 2021 Budget. Please send me a PM if game to donate.
2. @MoveAsOnePH (Move As One Coalition), so we can continue to push for better mobility and public transport for all Filipinos, not just the rich minority with cars.
Please see the attached photo for the donation details.
Dyos mabalos po. 🙂
Hoping you could retweet these calls for donation.
Yay for people's movements! <3
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FITCH'S NEGATIVE CREDIT RATING OUTLOOK is the direct result of Duterte's political leadership that has lost touch with the everyday realities of our suffering people.
1/ President Duterte and his top appointed officials have failed to listen and learn from their deadly blunders which caused this negative outlook.
Duterte's deadliest blunder is a 2021 budget that has set us up to fail in managing this pandemic.
2/ Duterte's 2021 budget is a budget that kills. Duterte put pork barrel and bullets first, and has given very little cash aid to families to encourage people to test, trace, isolate, treat, and prevent COVID-19 surges.
[DOWNLOAD: Philippine Open Covid Contracts Dataset v1]
We (@wesolveph@covidbudgetph@HivosROSEA)
are releasing for public use our study+dataset+code on P20 billion worth of covid-related government contracts in the Philippines.
1/ Our open contracting dataset covers:
- 581 contracts with 120 variables
- 2,832 items with 11 variables
- worth P20 billion (60% of value of publicly available contracts as of 3 Aug 2020)
- internal + market prices
- code for price analysis
- raw files
- data documentation
As of end-June 2020, gov't raised P3 trillion in cash from revenues (A) and debt (C). Gov't "spent" P2 trillion (B).
Net cash raised (A+C-B) is P988 billion.
2/n
1.1. We should thank our career officials for raising P3 T in cash:
P1.45 T is from tax and non-tax revenues
P1.55 T is financing from domestic (80%) and external (20%) sources
Borrowing cash is okay as long as: 1. We need the money. We do. 2. We can pay it back. We can.
3/n
1.2. Gov't spent P3 T in cash. P410 B of this is cash transferred to LGUs' bank accounts.
We urge LGUs to follow Gumaca, Quezon's example and report COVID-19 spending. In the last President's Report (June 29) only P5.5 B of P37 B in Bayanihan LGU Grants is reported spent.
1/ All of us want to "change the system". But my teachers and mentors taught me early on that changing the system is often NOT A GLAMOROUS, FLASHY act.
It's a A SERIES OF BORING DAILY ACTS of citizenship.
2/ First, it means LISTENING to others and knowing who they are and what they need. It means suspending judgment so there is a safe space for dialogue.
Systems change only lasts with the support and inclusion of people. It starts with a genuine desire to LISTEN.
3/ Second, it means LISTENING to ourselves and BEING AWARE of our strengths and limitations. This is an EVERY DAY question we live out.
How much time can we commit? What skills and networks can we contribute? What privileges and biases do we have? Where do our ethical lines lie?
1/ I recall my own "conversion" from the moving cars to the moving people perspective in public transport.
It was uncomfortable. I had to admit that whenever I rode a private car, I was slowing down other commuters who took public transport.
2/ My riding a car slowed down the poor: 88 percent of households cannot afford a car. My riding a car also slowed down other cars. My riding a car slowed down EVERYONE.
3/ I had to admit I was wrong. That I made a mistake. That my earlier view of measuring traffic as the flow of cars, and not as the flow of people, was anti-poor.