The following piece was originally published in the author’s Facebook account.

Fitch’s negative credit rating outlook is the direct result of Duterte’s political leadership, which has lost touch with the everyday realities of our suffering people.

President Duterte and his top appointed officials have failed to listen and learn from the deadly blunders that caused this negative outlook.

Their deadliest blunder is a 2021 budget that has set us up to fail in managing this pandemic. 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.

Ang laki-laki ng P4.5-trillion budget, pero inuna ni Duterte ang pork barrel at bala. Kinalimutan ni Duterte ang ayuda para sa pamilya laban sa pandemya.

Duterte’s blunder is so terrible that it is harming millions of lives. We feel this in the provinces: many of my loved ones have gotten sick or died. My loved ones are still in danger.

As a volunteer trying desperately to help my city manage our surge, I witness every day the sacrifice and suffering of our frontliners. I hear of workers getting sick. I see reports of infection and death. These are friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers. These are real people. These are people I love.

By failing to #ExtendBayanihan2 and failing to call for a special session to debate and #PassBayanihan3 as his officials pass the buck:

Duterte has abandoned us. 

Duterte has abandoned our healthcare workers in hospitals and facilities, especially in the provinces where we are having a hard time handling patients.

Duterte has abandoned families in need as they stay in isolation.

Duterte has abandoned small and medium enterprises and creative workers who should have gotten cash relief but did not.

Duterte has abandoned our transport workers and has denied them their just compensation through service contracts – this, even after closing many of them down last year.

Duterte has abandoned our commuters who just want to go home – our commuters who need safe, stable, and sufficient transport.

Duterte has abandoned local government leaders in poorer areas who do not have the resources to aid families under lockdown.

Duterte has abandoned tracing teams by allowing the contact tracing budget to expire.

Duterte has abandoned our teachers and students who should have gotten scholarships and allowances and digital learning services from Bayanihan 2.

Duterte has abandoned our people’s movements, which have tried their best to reach out to all possible government agencies to prevent these blunders, but were greeted by irresponsible buck-passing and bureaucratic foot-dragging.

Aside from this budget blunder, Duterte has abandoned regions like the Bangsamoro, Soccsksargen, and Bicol that, because of inequitable distribution, have been given very few vaccines. This vaccine inequity kills.

BA'T ANG KONTI NG BAKUNA SA BANGSAMORO, BICOL, AT SOCCSKSARGEN?

Sa Bangsamoro, 1.5% pa lang ang naka-first dose, 0.6% ang naka-second dose (July 4).

Sa Bicol, 2.7% first dose, 1.2% second dose

Sa SOCCSKSARGEN, 3.3% first dose, 1.4% second dose.#BakunaSaProbinsyaNgayonNa pic.twitter.com/iriffVxISv

— Ken Abante 🏳️‍🌈🌸🚴🏽‍♀️ (@KenAbante) July 12, 2021

Sabihin nating si Pangulong Digong ay tatay at tayo ang kanyang anak. Si Tatay Digong, pinabayaan tayong mga anak na may sakit na magdusa at mamatay, kahit marami siyang perang pantustos at panggamot.

Inuuna ni Tatay Digong na mamulitika, kaysa hayaang magtulung-tulungan ang iba’t ibang kampo. Hindi siya nakikinig. Hindi siya humihingi ng tulong. Ang tingin siguro ni Tatay Digong sila lang ang magaling.

Mr. President:

Your pride is killing us.
Please listen.
Please set aside your politics of division.
Please allow leaders across the political spectrum to help you.
Please be humble enough ask for help.
Please do not leave us to die.
Please stop killing us.

– Rappler.com

Ken Abante is a policy researcher at the Ateneo de Manila University, as well as former chief of staff for the strategy, economics, and results group at the Department of Finance. He currently spearheads a civic engagement project to monitor the budget for the government’s pandemic response.

Technical Note 1: On Duterte’s failure to extend Bayanihan 2

Technical Note 2: On Duterte’s failure to pass Bayanihan 3 and his leadership’s irresponsible buck-passing that is killing our people

Technical Note 3: Duterte’s vaccine inequity that kills – vaccine doses per region, as % of population