2020: The Year that Was (Part 1)

By Art Jimenez

All-Year Round: COVID-19

Covid-19 was imported into the Philippines on January 30 by a 38-year old woman from Wuhan, China, the virus’s ground zero. On February 2, we had the ignominy of recording the first Covid-10 death outside China. On March 15, Sunday early morning, the first in a series of community quarantines (aka lockdowns) was enforced by President Duterte’s executive order. The first quarantines lasted for 15 days and began to take a monthly tenor starting October.

As the year comes to its end, every Filipino’s wish is for the invisible disease to subside and bring in our “new normal” life. Recently however, a new strain of COVID-19 has surfaced in the UK and ignited fears of newer and faster transmission.

Here’s the end-of-quarter terrifying rampage of COVID-19 cases and deaths in our country.

All-Year-Round: Bong Go

I first thought of him as an extremely close-in Duterte bodyguard during the latter’s presidential campaign. Then he announced he was running for Senator and I noticed he was often in the newspapers, especially the front page of Daily Tribune where he appeared DAILY on Page 1. Some items about him were newsworthy, while the majority won’t even pass the cruel pens of our Ilonggo deskmen. I quite naturally foresaw his loss but Duterte pulled him to the Number 3 position! He promised he would resign his special assistant to the President (SAP) position upon being sworn in as senator. He did resign but he was still ever-present wherever the president was. And he is still being covered by the Daily Tribune. In fairness to Senator Go, he is doing much better than many of his colleagues in the Senate.

January 8. Salary increase of civilian government personnel

President Duterte signed the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 or R.A. 11466 raising the monthly pay of 1,762,301 civilian government employees as of August 31, 2020. (Western Visayas has the fourth largest number of employees at 116,800. The increase is divided into four annual tranches, from 2020 to 2022. The pay hike “covers all regular, contractual, or casual, appointive or elective; and on full-time or part-time basis.” DBM Asst. Sec. Rolando Toledo said P31.1 billion of the 2020 funding requirement is included in the 2020 national budget.

Scot-free. Ex-PNP Chief Alan Purisima

January 21. the Sandiganbayan has acquitted former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Alan Purisima and ex-PNP Special Action Force chief Getulio Napeñas of graft and usurpation charges for their involvement in the January 2015 anti-terrorist operation that led to the deaths of 44 SAF commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in 2015. The commandos, however, killed their target, terrorist Marwan.

February 28. Just the following month, the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division found insufficient evidence in the eight counts of perjury filed against Alan Purisima in 2018 over his alleged failure to declare for six years in his SALN his four firearms and properties in Nueva Ecija and Ilocos.

February 11. Phl rescinds Visiting Forces Agreement with the US

On orders of President Duterte, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin notified John Law, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Manila that the Philippines will terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States and will take effect 180 days after the latter receives the notice. The VFA is a 1998 pact between the two countries on the protocol of the US military personnel in the Philippines. Among its onerous provisions are the lax visa policy for American troops and the authority given the US government to retain jurisdiction over military personnel should they commit crimes locally.

However, the announcement was rescinded by Manila on June 1, 2020.

February 15. Duterte inaugurates Sangley Airport

President led the commercial opening of the newly built Sangley Airport in Cavite. The project is one of the “Build, Build, Build” programs of the administration and is aimed at reducing the congestion at the Manila International Airport. The airport was constructed at the cost of P486 million. For its initial cargo operations, the airport would first handle turbo-prop aircraft.

March 25. Bayanihan to Heal as One takes effect

On March 25 the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (aka Bayanihan Act) Or Republic Act No. 11469 took effect. It gave the President three months to exercise powers to carry out urgent measures related to COVID-19. This included Duterte’s emergency power to realign still unused 2019 budgetary appropriations totaling some P275.0 billion. This was deemed necessary as the 2020 General Appropriations Act was already a law when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. For transparency and accountability, Bayanihan One required President Duterte to render a weekly report on the fund disbursements and accomplishments of his mission to a congressional oversight committee.

July 27, 2020. Bayanihan to Recover as One (or Bayanihan II Act), aka R.A. 11494 was passed into law. It is a mirror image of its predecessor but only on a larger scale and smaller budget. Goals are more inclusive and achievement bars raised higher. It also has an eye toward a calibrated opening of the economy, stimulate the business sector, and provide the impetus for economic growth.

However, its total budget amounts to only ₱165.5 billion that’s divided into two parts, namely regular appropriation of ₱140.0 billion and a standby fund of ₱25.5 billion. The ₱165.5 billion is ₱109.5 billion lower than the Bayanihan 1 allocation of ₱275.0 billion.

May 5. NTC orders ABS-CBN off the air

The National Telecommunications Commission ordered ABS-CBN to shut down operations for lack of a franchise to operate as a broadcast network. The Order included the network’s five AM stations, 18 FM stations, and 42 TV stations.

ABS-CBN followed the usual sequence sign on-sign off sequence of a broadcast station. It first aired the national anthem and then signed off at 7:52 pm after enumerating its licensed engineers and TV stations.

To be Continued