By Jose Maria Sison, NDFP ChiefPolitical Consultant
Let us see how fast the emergency powers and the lump sum of more than Php 200 billion will be used to provide promptly and adequately free mass testing and free treatment to those sick with Covid-19, food assistance and compensation for the working people who have been prevented from earning their subsistence.
Let us watch out whether the public money will feed the insatiable appetite for corruption of the tyrant, the corrupt bureaucrats and military officers. The Duterte regime is responsible for the entry and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and has failed to use already available funds to fight the pandemic.
But the regime is quick to take advantage of the pandemic to grab more powers and more public money for its discretionary use. If we go by the track record of the regime, it was culpable for the unnecessary destruction of Marawi city but it is the corrupt bureaucrats and military officers who have pocketed most of the rehabilitation funds.
What happens next after giving more powers and more money to Duterte is quite predictable. These will serve to aggravate repression and corruption and will further plunge the country into the vortex of economic and political crisis. The broad masses of the people must be alert and ready to fight both the deadly Covid-19 and the far deadlier Duterte virus.
