June 2020, Manila.
The specter of fear still hangs over Metro Manila and other key cities in the Philippines as the COVID-19 virus continues to wreak havoc on the world. Some restrictions remain: face masks, social distancing, the curfew. Some restrictions are self-imposed: some still don’t want to risk going out, some prefer to not eat out, some still conduct their businesses without physical contact if it can be helped.
Call it trauma, or a lingering sense of doubt, some are still anxious.
And yet, despite months of checkpoints and restrictions, how did Filipino families persist? What allowed them, like Aguinaldo, more than a hundred years ago, to wave a flag of freedom against a sinister threat? The power of digital.
With Filipinos now stuck at home, there has been a significant increase in online and digital activities across the board.
This is probably why despite restrictions and hardships, many Filipinos and their families used their trademark diskarte by choosing digital as their primary means to circumvent all sorts of hindrances.
This Independence day, we used AdSpark Intelligence to take a closer look at how Filipinos harnessed the power of digital to overcome difficulties.
From online courses, to baking banana bread, to making work, work. This paper takes a deeper dive into the resilience of Filipinos during these trying times.
With the ECQ’s limitations, among the very few permitted reasons for Filipinos to exit their household were for essential things such as food, medicine, and vitamins. However, essential trips became an arduous task since stores often suffer from low supplies or even running out of stock. Add to that the underlying fear of going out due to the anxiety of contracting COVID-19 and bringing it home.
Even if there was a plethora of risks and limitations with getting essential items, Filipinos knew that no matter what, they still needed their food and medicine.
During the two months of ECQ, the 2nd most searched topic was food delivery, and among the highest searched queries were online grocers.
Curious to know more? Click here to continue reading the full report.
