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Date: September 30, 2021

NEIL CARMONA DACANAY

POSITION PAPER

THE EMERGENCY POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE: AN EFFECTIVE TOOL IN MANAGING THE DANGEROUS
EFFECTS OF THE CORONA VIRUS (CoVID-19)

I. INTRODUCTION – Background Information

The novel coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, Hubie district of China. The virus causing the
infection has been named SARS-CoV-2 and the disease that arises from infection was permanently
labeled by World Health Organization (WHO) from novel coronavirus to CoVID-19. It was already in a
full-fledged outbreak in late December 2019 when China authority reported to WHO. When WHO
declares last March 11, 2020 CoVID-19 from outbreak to pandemic for such a short period of time,
measures to combat the disease from different countries have already been initiated.

h
ttps://www.brookings.edu/2020/04/02/the-early-days-of-a-global-pandemic-a-timeline-of-covid-19-spread-and-government-interventions/
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To give an appropriate response to the pandemic, many countries executive invoke emergency
power. In the tracker presented by International Center for Not-for-profit Law (ICNL), to date, there are
109 countries with emergency declarations, 58 countries with measures that affect expression, 152
countries with measures that affect assembly, and 61 countries with measures that affect privacy.
https://www.icnl.org/covid19tracker/?location=&issue=5&date=&type=

Like other countries, the Philippine response to CoVID-19 measures started way back in early
January 2020 when the first recorded case who have a confirmed travel history from Wuhan, China. It
was only in early March that the authority began to be alarm when the first case of the disease without
travel history abroad was recorded on March 5, 2020. On March 8, President Rodrigo Duterte declares
the State of Public Health Emergency (Proclamation No. 922) in the entire country. It has its basis in the
1987 Philippine Constitution Article II, Sec. 15 and Republic Act No. 11332. This gives the president the
power to use government and non-governmental agencies to respond to the threat in matters of health.
The President organized a task force that will be the group of different sectors that will be in charge of
decision making and present to the president for approval before it will be implemented. The task force
was named (Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) and headed by the
Secretary of the Department of Health. March 12, 2020, the entire Metro Manila was declared into a
partial lockdown to give its citizens preparation for a more stringent total lockdown which later on was
renamed Enhance Community Quarantine (ECQ). March 15 to April 14 Metro Manila was in ECQ status
which later on expanded to the Entire Luzon area. This means for stricter movement except for essential
services. It was on March 16, 2020, that the President signed another emergency power putting the
entire country under a state of calamity due to CoVID-19 (Proclamation No. 929) with legal basis in the
Constitution Article II, Sec. 15 and Republic Act No. 11021 that will last six months. This will give the
National and government units to have ease of using their disaster preparedness funding for CoVID-19
control. For only two months as of 10th of May, 10,794 confirmed cases and 696 deaths in the
Philippines. To date the number of confirmed cases 2.490,858 million with 37, 405 deaths as of
September 26, 2021.

The control measure by means of quarantine status constantly changing from ECQ to MECQ,
MGCQ and the least level is General Community quarantine (GCQ) back and forth in different areas of
Luzon then it was expanded to the whole country later on. To date, the government has been changing
the name of lockdowns from the quarantine mention above to the classification of alert level 1 to 5 with
five is the highest. On March 23-24, 2020, the legislative department has in acted another emergency
power to the President as Republic Act 11469 known as the “Bayanihan to Heal As One Act” which will
last for three months in which later on was extended a new R.A. no. 1194 known as “Bayanihan to
Recover As One Act” which was in acted last August 20, 2020, effective until December 2020. The
Bayanihan 1, basically gave the President power to be more efficient in the response to the pandemic in
all sector like health, economics, social, and reprogramming, reallocating, and realigning savings from
the 2020 budget, including the partnership with the private sector and other stakeholders. In Bayanihan
2, it gave the President to utilize allocated stimulus funds to help sectors greatly affected by the impact
of the pandemic. According to the cited discussion paper of Ateinza et al., 2020, the special emergency
power gives a positive impact on the improvement of the pandemic response by the government.
Facilities have immediately been set up to address the health care response of an ongoing increase of
the CoVID-19 positivity case. Testing for positive infection had been improving, to date vaccination to
reach the herd immunity has been improving also. But all these are still not enough considering different
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factors that cause the infection rate to continuously rising like the emerging of different variants of
CoVID-19 particularly the Delta variant which is considered highly transmissible and easily to infect. Also,
the lack of medical practitioner personnel, etc. https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/3474344/MF20-
Web1-Philippines-Ela FINAL.pdf

On the economic side, the impact of different classifications of lockdowns and pandemics is so
great. As shown in the figure below, in the second quarter of 2020, it was an all-time low the -17% GDP
in the country considered as worse than the GDP during World War II, but it slowly recovered with
recorded 11.8% growth in GDP in the Second Quarter of this year 2021.

https://psa.gov.ph/national-accounts

Looking at the other side of the globe, the emergency power imposed differ from country to
country due to differences in the provisions of exist constitutions of each country. In USA, the number
one in the world of CoVID-19 infection and death toll. As off September 26, 2021, the number of cases
on a daily average is 120,704 with a total reported case of 42,671,356 and recorded deaths is 687,878.
(https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html) On March 13, 2020, US President Donald Trump
declare a national emergency triggering the Stafford Act which allows the increase of federal aid to the
US states and municipalities. It was followed by almost all US states declaring a state of emergency. This
emergency power gave President Trump, to waive laws pertaining to health care response, but not
much of an improvement on CoVID-19 situation. ( https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-will-declare-national-emergency-
coronavirus-outbreak-2020-3). With the new President Biden, declaring in his administration the number one
priority is the stopping CoVID-19, announces to the World on June 10, 2021, that the US will purchase
and donate half a billion Pfizer vaccine doses to 92 low-and middle-income countries according to US
state department. In his first two days in office, he enacted 10 executive orders namely; the requiring of
wearing Mask on Federal property, travel with mask and CoVID-19 test negative, the use of Defense
Production Act in matters of the supply chain, publication of CDC covid situation data, emphasis more of
testing, reopening of schools and businesses and the establishment of CoVID-19 Health Equity Task
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Force”. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/biden-to-sign-10-executive-orders-to-combat-covid-pandemic-invoke-defense-production-
act.html

Not all country invoking Emergency Power in the response to CoVID-19. For some reason that it
is impossible since their constitution does not allow for the fear of abuse of power. They have resulted
to use existing laws in the response to CoVID-19. One example is New Zealand which is known to the
most positive responses to the pandemic. They have eliminated CoVID-19 within its borders with the use
of existing laws and some emergency provisions. This was through a clear communication, consistent
and constant in touch of the government with its citizens approval.
https://www.elevenjournals.com/tijdschrift/ejlr/2020/4/EJLR_1387-2370_2021_022_004_002.pdf

In the case of autocratic states, they already have enjoyed for a period of time the exercise of
certain power. We take a look at China, where all of this problem started. Even if China is the first one
hit by CoVID-19, their measures in the pandemic response were well placed. It has a centralized
epidemic response system. The government manages to control the infection on Oct 4, 2020, China
manages to stand still the confirmed cases of 90,604 and 4,739 deaths compared to the US at that time
which has confirmed cases of 7,382,194 and 209,382 deaths. Several contributory factors on the success
of China response on CoVID-19 is that the citizens are aware of coronavirus devasting effect due to their
experience in SARS-COV disease, strict lockdown for 76 days, public transport was suspended with
14,000 health checkpoints. Literally, only one member of each household is permitted to go out for
needed supplies but not every day. The government even uses the drone to guard those people who do
not follow government-imposed restriction by announcing through a loudspeaker carried by the drone.
But most especially the bigger factor in China’s success against CoVID-19 was that their population are
willing to adopt non-pharmaceutical alternative medicine for coronavirus because of the understanding
the seriousness of the virus. With a culture that its people are condition to live for the greater good, not
the individualism that America showed like some group going against the vaccination. Lastly, China
stands on believing in science in the control of the disease gives the focus in their response to the
pandemic. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7544475/

II. IDENTIFICATION / ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF POSSIBLE OBJECTIONS

In a democratic state, we cannot expect that everyone will be please with any government
activity and measures, especially in this pandemic period. Those who are not on the side of the
incumbent government will always have to say something and they also have a point that should not be
taken for granted.

According to the ICNL record, the Philippines on accounts on measures affecting expression, The
Philippine government established a website that spreading fake news affecting Covid-19 response is a
criminal offense and the Act No. 11469 for the Nation to Heal as one, where the president was granted
by the law a broader and exceptional power to address the pandemic with probation on using media
flatform in spreading false information on matters of CoVID-19. For the measures affecting privacy, ICNL
cited the Oplan Kalinga (“Care Strategy”) by authorizing police to accompany health workers in tracing
suspected cases of CoVID-19. This could mean a violation of some constitutional rights of its citizens.
https://www.icnl.org/covid19tracker/?location=&issue=5&date=&type=
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A law professor at the University of the Philippines reminded the people that President Duterte
is already abusive in his power, why give another for another potential abuse. And another comment
from a member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, that the emergency power is like preparation
for martial law. Comment from William Harting, Duterte’s regime has built on fear and repression and
militarized approach is always be the prepared options. This would mean that possibility of abuse of
power if given an emergency power. He further opines that Duterte’s violent approach in the response
to pandemic is base on his war on drugs. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/20/opinions/duterte-covid-19-philippines-
repression-hartung/index.html

Additional glimpses on the authoritarian rule in President Duterte’s response on the pandemic is
that when Duterte’s administration declare a total ban on the deployment of overseas health workers
abroad which later on was considered due to some clamors. The most notable statement of the
president “shoot them dead” is always be the watch for human rights advocates in how Duterte deals
on the response of the pandemic. Another is the use of threat of Duterte on the violators of if not abide
the protocol, he will impose a martial law like lockdown. The recent event where the purchase of
medical equipment and protective gear was in question in the Senate blue ribbon committee for the
alleged overpricing, Duterte’s reaction on taking offensive to the chairman of the committee show some
glimpse of asserting of power that can be abuse. Recently, in his talk to the nation address last
September 27, 2021, Pres. Duterte announces to the public the threat in using the police power for
those who don’t want to get vaccinated, it is like a prelude in declaring a compulsory vaccination.
https://verfassungsblog.de/the-philippines-dalliance-with-authoritarianism-in-times-of-national-emergency/

Amidst of the emergency power given to President Duterte, the promise financial support the
poor and affected families due to pandemic has been in question that many are not being reach out.
Beside from the health problems of the country, Duterte focus on a military approach in dealing with the
insurgent groups and gave big funding to (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict
(NTF-ELCAC), there has been accusation of threat to human rights been escalated.

On the economic impact of the imposition of lockdown in the Philippines that has been
considered as the longest that heavily hit the economy of around 75%. Before CoVID-19 hit the country,
it is one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. The Philippines is supposed to become an upper middle-
income country in 2020 which is ahead of two years of target. More is when the re-imposition of a strict
community quarantine (ECQ) in NCR and other parts of the country where there is spike of CoVID-19
cases, the supposed measures for economic recovery was again affected.
https://www.flandersinvestmentandtrade.com/export/nieuws/coronavirus-situation-philippines

On the global situation, international organizations express their warning of the potential
human rights threat in quarantine practices. Emergency power undermines the common values included
in the constitutions and international treaties that can lead to authoritarian rule. It has evidence that in
some countries with young and weak democracies that abuse of power been materialized. One example
is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban used the response to the pandemic successfully gain approval
to the parliamentarian the unlimited power to govern by decree without limit.
https://globalchallenges.ch/issue/special_1/covid-19-and-states-of-emergency/ . The most threat that can be abuse by
emergency power that government uses surveillance power to monitor infected and suspected case
individuals, it has been seen in China, South Korea, Singapore and Israel. The postponement of election
in at least 50 countries around the world. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/04/27/around-world-
democracy-risk-coronavirus
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Despite the success of China’s response in CoVID-19 control, the leadership have been criticized
in ignoring the first alarm of one of their doctor’s warning about the emerging coronavirus. It gives the
virus a head starts of three weeks. Many travelers been out to back to their country of origin. The
government still prioritizing their political goal over public health concerns. China’s censoring of
information’s gives the growth of the pandemic, that should have been controlled in not becoming a
global calamity, it is all because of the exercise of power in the authority.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/03/how-authoritarians-are-exploiting-covid-19-crisis-grab-power

III. PRESENT YOUR POSITION – Argumentation

The CoVID-19 pandemic is not an ordinary situation. As the authority always connote that we
are fighting a war. The enemy is invisible to our naked eye. It is like a world war or any kind of war, that
fighting or defending against the enemy, needs a decisive leadership to win the battle. Desperate times
calls for a desperate measure, the giving of emergency power particularly the Philippine country to the
executive branch, is an appropriate move, I may not totally aggregable on the term effective but I
believe necessary tool to use in the pandemic response. Because amidst of such power given to the
President, CoVID-19 cases continues to rise with the latest active cases around 158thousand plus
comparing to the midterm part of the pandemic. Given the young democratic system of government
that we have, the diverse cultural background and regionalism of the citizens, the political affairs in the
Philippines, the porous geographic area and other factors like the insurgent groups that might take
advantage of the situation. It could possibly have worser outcome the effect of CoVID-19 to the entire
country if emergency power is not invoked. We could observe some of images in the Filipino attitude in
every news. Most of the low-level income Filipino don’t actually mind if CoVID-19 do really exist or not,
what’s in their mind is to earned a living to sustain the everyday life until CoVID-19 will hit on members
of the family. And looking also to the middle-class citizens, in my opinion this class are the most positive
cases of CoVID-19, it could be a contributory to the fact that they are the one who have the capacity to
travel around for leisure. Without certain power to assert or even a little iron hand, it is hard for the
Filipino to discipline themselves to contribute in the control of the spread of CoVID-19 in the
community.

A letter published in Critical Care by Epstein et al and Chase et al, they have cited the lacking of
preparedness of the health care sectors and its equipment and facilities, they are talking about the
issues of sharing of ventilators among patients due to the influx CoVID-19 critical patients in ICU. No
matter if the actual practices in the ICU room drama be ethical or not due to the scarcity of resources,
it’s hard to tell who should live and who should die. https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13054-020-
03053-8. The Philippine situation is not exempted to these facts. Before CoVID-19 become a problem,
there are already many issues in the department of health in handling the health care situation in the
country, from dengue vaccine to un-utilized health clinic in different area of the country, the not so good
benefits of the health care worker in which contributes the big factor that professionals of such field will
want to go overseas for a greener pasture. Even the Department Secretary itself is in question and some
groups wants him to resign his post. With the inherited problems in the previous administrations, in
totality, our health care sector needs especial attention to prefer itself in their response to the
pandemic.
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Indeed, there is no question that we are in an extraordinary time, even International human
rights law allows restrictions on freedom in times on national emergency that are proportionate and
necessary. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet2Rev.1en.pdf. Besides, it’s still too early to say which
type of government and political system that are truly effective in managing the pandemic crisis.
Notable authoritarian regime has done good jobs in the response to the pandemic like Singapore,
Vietnam while others poorly done it like Iran. While in democratic nations, among those who did a good
job in the control of the pandemic are South Korea, Taiwan but not the United States of America and
Italy does a poor job. Philippine situation is still cannot be ascertain if it did perform well in the response
to the pandemic. Last time that I heard in the new that the country is number 8 in the ranking in the
most recorded cases of CoVID-19. https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/04/06/how-will-coronavirus-reshape-democracy-and-
governance-globally-pub-81470

Some good effect in using the emergency power of the executive branch are the proactive
participation of the local governments and local officials in innovative ways to the response of the
challenges of the pandemic, civil society and private sectors are actively participating to response on the
needs of those who are affected from various lockdown in which the government are highly encouraging
to do so. The close scrutiny of the misstep of the department of health in improving the health care
services of the country and possible improvement that can address in the future events of same kind.
The development and support in the department of science to develop our own technology so we will
not be dependent on the support internationally. Problems that are hidden in the past due to
bureaucracy are coming out in different departments of the executive branch. But some of the bad
effect is that the country’s foreign debt to the international institution increases which will surely have
effect in the economic condition among its citizens. The latest statistics it reaches 97.0 USD billion as of
March 2021, a little lower than 98.5 USD billion in the previous quarter. Also, the economic recession
due to lockdowns that cause the losses of many jobs in different industries.

IV. CONCLUSION / RECOMMENDATION

In my conclusion, emergency power of the executive is a necessary tool to manage and mitigate
the dangerous effect of CoVID-19, it’s hard to measure if it is really effective or not. Most especially in
the Philippines, who are not truly preferred in the health care system, we could possibly see more
deaths in the streets because sick people cannot get attention due to the possible overwhelming influx
of critical to severe cases in the hospital like we have seen in India, which just burn files of dead bodies
in an open field following days later after the event they have celebrated in a religious rite in the Ganges
River. I believe due to lockdowns brought by the emergency power given to President Duterte, though it
was a little too late, at the beginning of pandemic crisis, it did manage to lessen the rate of infection
until a new delta CoVID-19 variant hits the country, but still confirmed positive cases still growing. And it
is not only on the health care system of the country and health welfare of the public that the dangerous
effect of CoVID-19 shows a threat but it is in all aspect of living, may it be political, economic, social,
psychological and other areas.

I recommend that the government must be consistent and transparent always in all their
decisions in managing this pandemic and have a clear coordination among its departments centering on
the IATF-EID task force. The task force itself is effective in finding solutions to ease the effect of CoVID-
19 along with the different department and agency like the DILG. The problem is how the President
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addresses the nation in all their briefings and meetings, it always has an expression of threat, offensive
to those who criticized him. We could use a little help that we can get during this time of pandemic, but
that’s Philippine politics, as his allies says, that’s his character, if you don’t know him you could just
easily be offended.

Consideration of best practices of response measures to control CoVID-19 that the government
can get, modified and fit to the Philippine situation is highly recommendable. The continuous
engagement and consultation from non-governmental organization and private sector should be
continued and fully utilized. Including public consultations especially in matter of legal and health
advises for possible review and enhancement of policy in matters of CoVID-19 response measures. One
example group that the government should continuously engage for assistance is the Philippines
Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) which has many organization members including United Nation,
USAID, Japan embassy etc. This will ensure the easing of citizens suffering especially to the most
vulnerable sector of the society.

For safeguard of possible abuse of power, the government should always allow the use of media
and other means of public communication for accessing accurate information in matters of CoVID-19, of
course it also depends of the responsibility of the other party who might also use media to spread
misinformation to belittle the government efforts on pandemic.

Lastly, for economic recovery, it might be the time to consider amending the economic provision
of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. As we all know that Duterte is trying to be friendly with the Chinese
Investors and China’s economy is leading the world. For ensuring fast economic recovery, it could be
applicable in this time the easing of investing policy of foreign company in the country. Of course,
safeguard must be properly embedded for the benefit of the Filipino people.

References:

1. https://www.brookings.edu/2020/04/02/the-early-days-of-a-global-pandemic-a-timeline-of-
covid-19-spread-and-government-interventions/

2. https://www.icnl.org/covid19tracker/?location=&issue=5&date=&type=

3. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/200511_COVID19%20Philippines
%20HRP%20Revision%20Final.pdf

4. https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/3474344/MF20-Web1-Philippines-Ela
FINAL.pdf

5. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

6. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-will-declare-national-emergency-coronavirus-
outbreak-2020-3

7. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/biden-to-sign-10-executive-orders-to-combat-covid-
pandemic-invoke-defense-production-act.html
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8. https://www.elevenjournals.com/tijdschrift/ejlr/2020/4/EJLR_1387-
2370_2021_022_004_002.pdf

9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7544475/

10. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/20/opinions/duterte-covid-19-philippines-repression-
hartung/index.html

11. https://verfassungsblog.de/the-philippines-dalliance-with-authoritarianism-in-times-of-national-
emergency/

12. https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/en/content/covid-19-and-strongman-rule-philippines

13. https://www.flandersinvestmentandtrade.com/export/nieuws/coronavirus-situation-philippines

14. https://globalchallenges.ch/issue/special_1/covid-19-and-states-of-emergency/

15. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/04/27/around-world-democracy-risk-
coronavirus

16. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/03/how-authoritarians-are-exploiting-covid-19-crisis-grab-
power

17. https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13054-020-03053-8

18. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet2Rev.1en.pdf