family news: still partly shut down

we are still in partial lockdown: Still new cases in some cities so they couldn't lift it yet, although things have partly opened.

Manila and our area will continue the partial lockdown through June 30.
they are worried about a second wave, especially with a lot of people returning from overseas.

there are a lot more people on the streets, and with more people are going outside, there will be more checks that you are wearing a mask, and fined if you fail to wear one.



a lot of Filipino health care workers have gotten sick, including those working overseas.

A lot of our relatives are medical workers, either here or overseas. Nickey, who works in the UK, is especially at risk since she does intubations in ICU, but so far has tested negative.

Keep them in your prayers.

Sigh.

and hunger season is starting, and how will folks eat if they lost their jobs, either here or as OFW? (many families depend on the money sent to them from their relatives who work in other countries or on ships).

with all the anger in the US news, maybe what you need is to watch a Filipino commercial:



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the Rappler is in the news again: No, not for being partly funded by a CIA front, but because the main reporter was convicted of libel

The libel law here is strict, and now they have extended it to the internet pages. 

This is partly to save the innocent from deliberate lies, but alas it also protects the guilty who can pretend they are innocent and since it's easy to postpone the case for years, or persuade the court you did nothing wrong (often after witnesses withdraw their evidence or just disappear), it means one cannot discuss things that everyone knows is true but you don't have anyone on the record to prove it, hence you can be attacked or convicted for libel.

So for us, it meant I couldn't blog about the mayor who ordered the hit on his rival ten years back, that killed several bystanders including our nephew, until the courts actually indicted him. Nor can I write why he stayed out of jail so long, nor where he got the money to enable him to do so, because I have no solid proof.

The world press is spinning this to harm Duterte, but he remains popular because, for better or worse, he is doing a good job lin keeping us safe against drug related crime and now against the virus, despite all the problems here.

our mayor is big on the social media: To find out what is going on, we just check his facebook page.

The latest: 
he will subsidize internet connections (there is a question about doing classes over the internet if the epidemic continues)/



and in other news: we are getting a dialysis center that will treat the poor.



due to diabetes and high blood pressure, we have a lot of people who need dialysis. 

Our cousin Emie was on dialysis when she died recently, but she could afford the fee.

But the cook's son died of renal failure last year.

Yes, I know: The elderly who have diabetes and renal failure have a limited prognosis, but you know it's hard for families to just watch their loved ones die when they know that dialysis will prolong their lives for months or for a few years.

Sigh.