Hunger Days

                                                  ( image: plenglish,com)

Naka testing na kaw tag gutom amo? All living organisms need to feed. In fact, this is the basic motivation why people work. They need to have food on their tables. The famous hierarchy of needs by Maslow is founded on physiological needs when a person craves for survival needs such as the need for sleep, food, air, and reproduction. Physiological needs are the requirements we all need individually for human survival.

Deficiency needs arise due to deprivation and are said to motivate people when they are unmet. Also, the motivation to fulfill such needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food, the hungrier they will become.

Nearly 35% of Filipino workers nationwide are employed by the informal sector as of January, government data showed. This includes jobs in sari-sari stores, barber shops, as well as jeepney drivers and other small- and medium- enterprises (SMEs). SMEs themselves account for nearly 98% of local firms in the Philippines, most of which are located in Metro Manila, and a key driver of the economy (Magtulis, 2020).

When the announcement of community quarantine was made last Thursday, President Duterte made no mention of its economic implications, including job losses, and how the government intends to address them.

This threatened the “no work no pay” employees that they and their families might lead to hunger. This mindset must not be put on the sidelines since hunger will compel people to do things beyond reason. They just need to eradicate the hunger; they just want to survive.

Yahoo News reported on November of 2013 in the advent of typhoon Yolanda that looting by locals desperate for food and supplies had been reported in at least two Gaisano malls in the heavily hit Tacloban City and two more in Ormoc City.

When the COVID-19 pandemic led the chief executive to proclaim a state of calamity to the country, people with money went to the supermarkets and did panic buying. They hoarded food and other essentials for them to survive. But what about those people who do not have money? Can they do that? Deep in their minds, they are anxious about their survival. This is an instinct inside all of us.

There is a looming fear in highly urbanized areas that people will gate-crash in the rich subdivisions and steal food. There are also words spreading in the social media sites that big supermarkets will be raided by the poor for food. These will materialize when hunger consumes many.

In 2012, Suzanne Collins released a trilogy, The Hunger Games, which eventually became one of this generation’s bestsellers. Set in a future North America known as "Panem", the Capitol selects a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the twelve outlying districts to compete in the annual "Hunger Games", a televised fight-to-the-death. The winner (or the one who will survive from death) will receive a one-year supply of food until the next time where the government (the Capitol) launches another “game”.

This dystopian setting can terrifyingly lead to reality once the leaders, legislators and social managers won’t have the necessary moves to curtail the looming food shortage and eventually the scarcity of food.

According to Lauren Reed (2017), developing a crisis management plan is not difficult, but it does require some forethought. An astounding number of businesses don’t have a crisis plan in place before a crisis occurs, which can lead them to be caught off-guard when things go wrong and incorrect information goes viral in a matter of minutes.

Our leaders and managers must have a robust set of crisis management skills for them to be able to manage people and resources well in difficult situations like a pandemic. To state the reality, due to the volatility of the events occurring around the globe, there is a dire need for leaders skilled in crisis management because only then will the constituents be able to cope with the drastic changes in the methods of coping with their lives.

As a result, the quick decisions and efficient communication of crisis management leaders that’s needed in a huge crisis is what helps the country survive.

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered local government executives to abide by the enhanced community quarantine guidelines set by the national government. In a video message released dawn of March 20, 2020, Duterte reminded local government officials that they are part of one republic and should thus follow the rules set by the national government.

"I am therefore directing the DILG and the DOJ to closely monitor the compliance of LGUs in the directives of the office and to file the necessary cases against the wayward officials," the chief executive said (abs-cbn.com).

Clearly, it is now in the hands of our local leaders to develop strategic plans for people not to behave like hungry animals scavenging for food. In the first place, they took an oath to serve their constituents, right?