Pork is in short supply, too expensive. Eat veggies instead? Some of them are worth their weight in gold.
Eat fish? Only the rich can afford the poor man’s fish, galunggong. Now, the poor are also complaining that sardine prices could go up soon, with manufacturers asking for a 60-centavo price increase to cover the cost of the tin can.
Not only are sardine prices going up, the fish are getting smaller, like some of our babies. The former is due to overfishing, the latter due to undernourishment. A three-year-old study showing a trend in the stunting of infants is as worrisome as news that the lockdown has caused a spike in teenage pregnancies. What could be worse? Girls as young as 10 getting pregnant, that’s what.
The painful irony is that where home is where to keep them, and keep them safe, young girls and little girls are suffering the worst of those so-called unintended consequences of the lockdown – domestic and sexual abuse, rape, depression, suicide. Who can they turn to? Some mothers are afraid of their husbands, some seek safety in denying the truth; they’re of no help to their own daughters. Senator Nancy Binay should be encouraged to press for the facts and more data and, just as important, for actionable ways to rescue the victims.
This is not a soap opera we’re watching. This is real, this is happening in the real world. From March 15, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2020, a total of 13,923 cases of crimes against women and children were REPORTED. Of those incidents, 4, 747 involved children. How many are the UNREPORTED cases?
Senator Binay’s sister, Makati Mayor Abigail Binay Campos, aired her concern over the lack of coordination between IATF and LGUs in fighting the pandemic. Mayor Abby is too polite to say it, but fence-sitters are keen to observe that whereas the chief of the Metro Manila Council of 17 mayors used to speak for the mayors, now that role has been taken over by MMDA under a newly appointed chairman. The long and short of it is that Metro Manila has two heads – too many for IATF to communicate with?
The more we learn about Covid-19 vaccines, the less we know.
