The Covid Experience: Dispatches from Asia

Submissions by Country/Territory

Philippines

Alessandro Brasile

23rd March 2020. During the Enhanced Community Quarantine, a regime of total lockdown, I happened to be in Puerto Galera, Mindoro Island, while my residence was in Manila. I was supposed to be there for a few days of work, but then was stranded there, as no boats were allowed between Luzon and Mindoro islands. So I ended up spending four months in Puerto, at a foundation for former street children. I was able to obtain a permit from the municipality to go out to purchase some necessities, only to find out that the whole island was literally closed, even the informal shops. The insularity was accentuated, and isolation total. During the first months of the lockdown, the Philippines suffered the most significant job loss in fifteen years, reaching an unemployment rate of 10.4%. Although I had planned to make the Philippines my home, given the unstable and unforeseeable situation, I was forced to leave the country after only one year, to return to my birthplace.

Alessandro Brasile

Makati City
PHILIPPINES