State and Philippine Society in the Time of the Pandemic 87 “tightly-knit,” and this trait aptly characterizes the organization’s determination to confront the COVID-19 pandemic in their community. Igting workers residing in the community have had their daily lives greatly disrupted by the lockdowns and quarantine measures while being subjected to a government social amelioration program (SAP) fraught with various issues. As in other areas, the lockdowns caused work suspensions and loss of earnings due to cancellations of orders from their regular clients, some of whom had to stop operations and shut down their own businesses. Quarantine measures were implemented in such a way that it had unintended consequences, leading some to perceive it as inattentive to humane considerations. This forces residents to employ creative methods to get around such measures. On the other hand, SAP implementation started only after several weeks had passed and when it finally got going, it has been observed to be inefficient, inadequate, stressful, arbitrary, and selective. The social enterprise character of Igting’s operations has become the members’ momentary saving grace as a job order for 100,000 face masks came courtesy of a major partner, CAMP Asia. They are also thinking of producing personal protective equipment (PPE) should the opportunity arise. The government’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has also chipped in with a promise of a subsidy for securing materials. Their situation, however, remains precarious as no other job orders have come and there is no telling how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last. The indigenous Ayta Mag-indi community residing in two ancestral domain barangays in Porac, Pampanga had faced and endured natural calamities before, including seasonal typhoons, a major volcanic eruption, and a recent earthquake. They have also been subjected to human-induced calamities, like governance failures from the state and its agencies. Additionally, as a minority and largely neglected indigenous people (IP), they also suffer various forms of ethnic discrimination from non-Ayta majority lowland populations. The two communities of Barangays Camias and Planas of about 1,100 families reacted quickly upon hearing news of the COVID-19 outbreak and declarations of community quarantine. A communications system was set up and donations were solicited with the assistance of graduate community development students at the University of the Philippines College of Social Work and Community Development (UP CSWCD). They set up checkpoints in their communities and strictly enforced lockdown rules. They also took the initiative of learning all they can about the pandemic and made do with the little knowledge acquired by their own barangay health workers. They also tried to reach out to non-Ayta communities to dispel damaging rumors spread about their alleged virus-causing eating habits. All these were undertaken in a self-reliant manner due to the lack of an information campaign from the local government units.