COVID-19 should be a People’s War as what Vietnam (one successful country being cited in the fight against COVID) is doing. For NAPC SRC and VDC (representing the 14 basic sectors), we are now pooling resources (human and our limited resources) tap resources from CBOs, CSOs, networks, citizens, to make our resolutions and proposed guidelines to work. Just hope national government decision-makers would support our proposed coordinated and participatory actions. Here are our advocacy and recommendation to the national authorities.
We don’t want to depend on the resources of the government to be able to participate. We wish to make this government to really become a Government OF the People, FOR the People, and BY the people. To make its happen, we could not just wait and rely on those in power, the decision-makers to think for us, we need to make them realize that we are here, already doing something and can do more as their partners to make the whole nation rise from this crisis.
We just need to make the government officials appreciate the role of citizens and their formed people’s structures (CBOs, CSOs, NGOs, FBOs, coalitions, networks) who should be fighting for themselves in this crisis to lighten the load of the top-heavy government structure. Besides, we are part of the government, for we are all TAX PAYERS! Making this government sustain. Hence, the government officials should not think that the responsibility to overcome this crisis only lies on their shoulders, for much more than the well-paid officials and employees of the government, those daily-wage earners and more vulnerable are much more concerned on the economic impact of this crisis for they will suffer more than those who have more in life – our decision-makers!
We may have laws in place that could enable People’s participation in crisis and development governance. But systems are not making it happen.
In the fight against COVID, no one, I would say, would like the government to fail for everybody is at stake.
Let’s make the fight a People’s War and not War on Terror!
May God have mercy and bless our Nation, our People and all the People of World in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. And may the lesson we will learn from this crisis, will make us better citizens not only of our country but of the World and better stewards of the Earth!
Regina “Nanette” Salvador-Antequisa
April 2020
