16 Orlino and Hapal Figure 1 Philippine gross domestic product from Q1 2018-2019 to Q2 2019-2020 Source: PSA 2020c sectors have either zero or greatly reduced sales. Manufacturing and tourism were the top sectors that had zero sales in April (Lim 2020). The pandemic did not only bring infectious disease to Filipinos, but it also resulted in the country’s incurring billions of dollars in loans from international financial institutions and donor countries. The Department of Finance (DOF) secured at least USD 7.73 billion (approximately Php 385.3 billion) as of July 2 from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, and Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA), among others. These funds were borrowed to finance the government response to the health crisis (ABS-CBN News 2020). The Department of Finance projects that the country’s year-end foreign loans would reach Php 9.59 trillion or equivalent to almost 50 percent of the country’s GDP (de Vera 2020a). Social impact The impact of COVID-19 has led to the biggest slump of the Philippine economy since 1981 (Dela Cruz and Morales 2020). Consequently, its social impacts have also been profound and adverse—rising poverty, joblessness, and hunger, to name a few. Workers from both the informal and formal sectors are losing their jobs while many are expected to work at home with highly inadequate financial support from employers. Children and the youth and their teachers are having a difficult time