THE recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey disclosed it: 90 percent of us Filipinos underwent stress in our lives. Categorizing the levels of stress as very, much and less stress, the survey showed the impact of the current Covid-19 pandemic on our social, economic and physical lives.
The reasons gathered by the survey firm were varied and in real-time. Those very much affected lost their jobs and the main source of income for themselves and their families. Others lost their pet projects because of the pandemic where all construction activities were put to a stop.
Others suffered from anxiety attacks, fearing that they might be the next victims of the disease. Still, others just floated with their peers or nothingness, doing almost nothing productive and decisive like altogether ignoring their routinary duties. The pandemic surely made them immobile, inactive, and yes, unproductive.
Our economy contracted by several percentage points as businesses and other industries grounded to a halt. The proposed economic stimulus package is far from being implemented. The Department of Finance has thumbed it down, saying the massive, ambitious project is unfundable.
Some people, on the other end, are simply resilient and go along the wave of uncertainty with nary a complaint. They philosophize that we cannot do anything dramatic to stop the roll of the dreaded Covid-19 and all we had to do is to wait for its eventual exit from the country.
Columnist Alex Magno rightfully summed it thus: massive injections of liquidity into the market while uncertainty over the virus prevails could be largely ineffectual.
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Another columnist Lai S. Reyes in her column titled "How to Manage Financial and Mental Stress" wrote: Firms were shut down and some 7.3 million Filipinos lost their jobs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She adds: Job loss is so shattering because you lose not only the ability to support yourself but your loved ones as well. And with unemployment comes mental and financial stress.
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Incidents of hunger. Due to the sustained loss of gainful employment, many Filipinos have gone hungry for several meal periods and this fact remains until the authorities find a valid reason to allow them to work.