Lesson from ‘Maginhawa': Strengthen social safety nets

Rolando de la Cruz, a 67-year-old balut vendor, died the other day while waiting with hundreds who lined up to answer ac-tress Angel Locsin’s birthday invitation to the community pantry she had set up in Barangay Holy Spirit, Quezon City.

As early as 3 a.m., a long queue had formed; stubs were reportedly given out to the first 300 in the line. But many had come from as far as Pasig City so that barangay tanod were hard-pressed trying to enforce social distancing in a sea of people wearing face masks and face shields.

Meantime, a motorist uploaded a viral video clip showing that the queue at Maginhawa Street a few kilometers away was already several blocks long. Apparently, the poor and the needy are oblivious of the red-tagging antics that prompted the heads of the National Privacy Commission and the Commission on Human Rights to join senators and civil society advocates in calling out the heavy-handed stance adopted by overzealous government functionaries.