As face-to-face classes for School Year 2022-2023 officially started on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022 amid the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis, the peasant women families continued to demand safe school reopening and accessible immediate cash assistance from the government.The Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women stressed that the peasant families have not yet recovered from losing their livelihood and bankruptcies brought about by the repeated lockdown policies. Moreover, their problems were exacerbated by the worsening inflation, shooting up cost of production and transportation of food crops, primarily triggered by incessant oil price hikes.Amihan said the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s distribution of cash assistance was insufficient amid the economic crisis. Likewise, the peasant women’s group said there should be a systematic and safe distribution.The Department of Education announced that 27.1 million students enrolled for this school year.“Ang liit ng budget ng educational assistance ng DSWD na P500 milyon lang. Kung kada P1,000, 500,000 estudyante lang ang mako-cover nito. Kung halos 20 percent ang poverty incidence, wala pa ito sa 10 percent ng 5.4 milyong estudyante. Kaya lumalabas na ito ay showcase program lang,” said Zenaida Soriano, Amihan national chairperson.(The DSWD’s educational assistance budget is only P500 million. If the aid is only P1,000, it can cover only 500,000 students. If the poverty incidence is almost 20 percent, it is less than 10 percent of the 5.4 million students. So it appears that this is just a showcase program.)The Philippine Statistics Authority has announced that the latest poverty incidence increased to 18.1 percent in 2021.“Kinokondena namin ang DSWD sa magulong sistema nila. Napakahaba ng panahon na paghahanda, ang ending umabot pa rin sa napakagulo at pahirap sa mahihirap na distribusyon. Sa palalang kahirapan, walang ibang aasahan ang pamilyang Pilipino kundi dumagsa sa DSWD para may pambili ng school supplies, uniporme at iba pa,” Soriano said.(We condemn the DSWD for its chaotic system. It had enough time to prepare, but the result still was a very chaotic and difficult distribution. With the worsening poverty, Filipino families have no other choice but to flock to the DSWD for them to have money to buy school supplies, uniforms and others.)Moreover, with lacking preparations, funds and concrete plans from the government to ensure the safe, accessible and quality education, the burden is left to the teachers, learners and their parents. Based on Alliance of Concerned Teachers, they are faced with the same problems including lack of classrooms, monobloc chairs, unavailability of cleaning materials, health supplies, and printer for modules. They’re forced to make tents for makeshift classrooms.Amihan said the key to ensure the safe opening of classes is for the government to provide bigger funding for the education budget, urgently resolve the country’s health and socio-economic crisis, improve school facilities based on health protocols, guarantee accessible and quality education, protect and uphold teachers’ and school personnel’s rights and democratic consultation to stakeholders.