10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10800
The Philippine President upon the recommendation of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Diseases in the Philippines has imposed an enhanced community quarantine in the island of Luzon until 30 April 2020. Strict home quarantine is imposed during this period. Philippine Congress has realigned the national budget to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic providing subsidies through food and cash aid to the affected workers and families.
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Rowena R. Ricalde
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Philippines
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2020-04-15
2020-04-14
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Rowena R. Ricalde
2020/04/15
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10800
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Philippines
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Philippines                                          Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Rowena R. Ricalde                                                            Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
owenricalde.law@gmail.com                                      Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                           ISSN 1561-8048
                                                            https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10800




               COVID-19 and Labour Law: Philippines
                                       Rowena R. Ricalde*

                                              Abstract
     The Philippine President upon the recommendation of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) on
     the Management of Emerging Diseases in the Philippines has imposed an enhanced
     community quarantine in the island of Luzon until 30 April 2020. Strict home quarantine is
     imposed during this period. Philippine Congress has realigned the national budget to respond
     to the COVID-19 pandemic providing subsidies through food and cash aid to the affected
     workers and families.

     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour Law; Unemployment subsidies; Informal economy workers




 1. General Framework.

    The Philippines recorded its first case of COVID-19 on 30 January 2020 when a 38-
 year-old female Chinese national arrived from Wuhan, China1. On 9 March 2020,
 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issued Presidential Proclamation No. 9222 declaring a
 State of Public Health Emergency.
    Upon the recommendation of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management
 of Emerging Diseases in the Philippines, on 12 March 2020, the Philippine Executive
 Secretary enacted a Memorandum on Stringent Social Distancing Measures and Further
 Guidelines for the Management of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation3.
 On 16 March 2020, another Memorandum was enacted expanding the coverage of the
 earlier Memorandum to the entire island of Luzon4.
    On 17 March 2020, the Philippine President enacted Presidential Proclamation No. 929
 which declared a State of Calamity throughout the Philippines and imposed an Enhanced
 Community Quarantine throughout Luzon5.


 *
   Lawyer and consultant of Fil Law Consultancy, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
 1 World Health Organization: Philippine Situation Report,
 https://www.who.int/philippines/emergencies/covid-19-in-the-philippines, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
 2Presidential Proclamation No. 922 (2020),

 https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/2020/03mar/20200308-PROC-922-RRD.pdf, accessed 10
 Apr. 2020.
 3 https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/2020/03mar/20200313-MEMO-RRD.pdf, accessed 10

 Apr. 2020.
 4-https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/2020/03mar/20200316-MEMORANDUM-FROM-ES-

 RRD.pdf, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
 5 Presidential Proclamation No. 929 (2020),
 Rowena R. Ricalde                                                           Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                            Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                               Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                 Section: National Reports




   In effect, the Memorandum imposed the following restrictions in the island of Luzon
starting 15 March 2020 until 30 April 20206:

    (i)      Classes and all school activities are suspended;
    (ii)     Mass gatherings are prohibited;
    (iii)    Strict home quarantine is observed in all households. Movement is limited to
             accessing basic necessities. Provision for food and essential health services is
             regulated. There is a heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce
             quarantine procedures;
    (iv)     Work-from-home and skeletal work force arrangements are implemented
             except for the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines,
             Philippine Coast Guard, health and emergency frontline services, border
             control and other critical services;
    (v)      Only those private establishments providing basic necessities and such activities
             related to food and medicine production, water-refilling stations, manufacturing
             and processing plants of basic food products and medicines, banks, money
             transfer services, power, energy, water and telecommunications supplies and
             facilities, shall be open and shall observe strict social distancing. Business
             Process Outsourcing establishments and export-oriented industries shall remain
             operational provided that temporary accommodations will be arranged for
             personnel. Media personnel is be allowed to travel within the quarantine area
             and must secure an identification card from the Presidential Communications
             Operations Office;
    (vi)     Mass public transport facilities are suspended; and
    (vii)    Land, air and sea travel are restricted.


2. Government subsidies and programs addressing workers in the Philippines amid
the COVID-19 pandemic.

  On 25 March 2020, Republic Act No. 11469 otherwise known as the Bayanihan Heal as
One Act was passed by Congress7. Some of the provisions of the Bayanihan Heal as One
Act are:

    (i)      to provide 18 million low income households a subsidy amount of PhP
             5,000.00 to PhP 8,000.00 a month for 2 months;
    (ii)     to provide compensation of PhP 100,000.00 to public and private health
             workers who may contract severe COVID-19 infection and a further

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/2020/03mar/20200316-PROC-929-RRD.pdf, accessed 10
Apr. 2020.
6-https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/04/07/2006056/duterte-approves-luzon-wide-community-

quarantine-until-april-30, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
7 Republic Act No. 11469 (2020), https://www.senate.gov.ph/Bayanihan-to-Heal-as-One-Act-RA-11469.pdf,

accessed 10 Apr. 2020.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10800                                                              2
    Rowena R. Ricalde                                                           Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                               Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                  Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                    Section: National Reports




             compensation of PhP 1,000,000.00 to public and private health care workers
             who may die while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic;
     (iii)   to ensure availability of credit to productive sectors of the economy especially
             in the countryside through measures such as lowering the effective lending rates
             of interest and reserve requirements of lending institutions;
     (iv)    to prioritize the Department of Labor and Employment’s programs such as
             Tulong Hanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Support in
             Finding Jobs for Disadvantages/Displaced Workers) and COVID-19
             Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP);
     (v)     to prioritize the Department of Trade and Industry’s Livelihood Seeding
             Program and Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay (Entrepreneurshup Programes in
             Small Towns);
     (vi)    to prioritize the Department of Agriculture’s Rice Farmers Financial Assistance
             Program;
     (vii) to prioritize Department of Social Welfare and Development’s programs such
             as Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS), distribution of food and
             non-food items, livelihood assistance grants, and supplemental feeding program
             for daycare children; and
     (viii) to provide a minimum of thirty-day grace period on residential rents falling due
             within the period of the enhanced community quarantine.
    On 8 April 2020, the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment enacted
Department Order No. 212 Series of 2020 prescribing guidelines on the provision of
financial assistance of USD 200.00 for each displaced landbased and seabased overseas
Filipino worker due to COVID-198.
    The National Economic Development Authority has opened an online survey9 that will
be used to assess the impact of COVID-19 and the Enhanced Community Quarantine and
aid in the formulation of economic policies to help stimulate the Philippine economy.


3. Private sector responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

   The Philippine government urged the private sector to release the thirteenth-month pay
of all regular employees to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic10. In this manner, only the
informal economy workers would be covered by the subsidies given by the Bayanihan Heal
as One Act. Informal economy workers include directly-hired or occasional workers,
subcontracted workers, homeworkers, house helpers, stranded workers, “no work, no pay”

8 Department of Labor and Employment Order No. 212 Series of 2020,
https://www.dole.gov.ph/news/department-order-no-212-series-of-2020-prescribing-guidelines-on-the-
provision-of-financial-assistance-for-displaced-landbased-and-seabased-filipino-workers-due-to-the-corona-
virus-covid-2019-d/, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
9https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScP9t_F6HurK8x5vwjdYQ7eETGHgq5jiCg0dShViwD_V6

noww/closedform, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
10-https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/03/17/20/pay-workers-salary-during-1-month-quarantine-labor-

chief-urges-big-business, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10800                                                                 3
     Rowena R. Ricalde                                                          Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                               Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                  Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                    Section: National Reports




employees, drivers, micro-entrepreneurs, family enterprise owners, farmers and
subminimum wage earners11.
   Some examples of the private sector doing above and beyond what is mandated of them
are:

       (i)       Grab, a technology company offering ride-hailing transport services in
                 Southeast Asia, is providing economic security to thousands of driver-partners,
                 offering safe mobility solutions for frontliners and providing access to daily
                 essentials while safeguarding the well-being of everyone on the platform12;
       (ii)      Ayala Corporation, a large Philippine corporation owning real estate, banks and
                 malls, offered to its employees continued salaries, bonuses, leave conversions,
                 and loan deferments13; and
       (iii)     San Miguel Corporation, a large Philippine corporation which provide food,
                 water, power, petrol products and beverages, has assured all its employees that
                 they will receive their salaries despite any form of work discontinuation14.


4. Issues and needs that are not sufficiently addressed by the Philippine
government.

4.1 Timely distribution of food aid

   On 1 April 2020, twenty-one protesters in Quezon City were arrested as they demanded
food aid. The food packs are supposed to be distributed by the local government but the
protesters claimed that no food aid has arrived in the areas where most informal workers
reside15.

4. 2 Discrepancies in the list of target beneficiaries

   Since the Philippines has no national ID system, government agencies rely on the data
of the LGUs regarding their constituents. Some LGUs were saying that the number of
beneficiaries approved by the Department of Social Welfare and Development is lower
than the actual count in their communities16.




11 http://ulap.net.ph/ulap-news/advisories/453-dswd-mc-no-04-series-of-2020.html, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
12 https://www.grab.com/ph/press/others/grabbayanihan/, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
13 https://www.ayalaland.com.ph/ayala-unveils-p2-4b-covid-19-response-package/, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
14-https://www.sanmiguel.com.ph/article/smc-assures-its-food-facilities-will-continue-to-operate-outlines-

efforts-to-help-fight-covid-19, accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
15 https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/4/1/quezon-city-protesters-arrested-.html, accessed 10 Apr.

2020.
16 https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/4/9/dswd-shortcoming-social-amelioration.html, accessed

10 Apr. 2020

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10800                                                                 4
 Rowena R. Ricalde                                                         Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                          Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                             Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                               Section: National Reports




4.3 Middle income families are currently not covered by subsidies.

  The Philippine government is only currently giving monthly financial assistance to the
“poorest of the poor.” The Philippine President is working to provide for the needs of the
middle class as well17.




Copyright © 2020 Rowena R. Ricalde. This article is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License




17-https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/4/7/Duterte-middle-class-income-cash-aid-COVID-19.html,

accessed 10 Apr. 2020

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10800                                                            5
