Senator Win Gatchalian criticized groups calling for a revolutionary government in the midst of a deep and prolonged crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senator Win Gatchalian lauded the provisions in the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2) that will help schools foster continuity of learning through loans and other subsidies while ensuring job security of teachers and other school personnel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the Department of Education (DepEd) has allowed the use of 17,910 classrooms in the National Capital Region (NCR) as isolation and quarantine facilities, Senator Win Gatchalian said that a permanent evacuation center in every city and municipality should be part of the country’s efforts to ‘build back better’ from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senator Win Gatchalian urged hospitals to continuously expand their patient capacity for COVID-19 cases that could overload the country’s healthcare system.

Senator Win Gatchalian urged the government to ensure that learners and teachers are given psychosocial and mental health support while educators scramble to carry out logistical challenges and many learners experience feelings of anxiety as they await classes to begin amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While Senator Win Gatchalian was one of the first to propose a deferment of the supposed August 24 class opening to a later date due to uncertainties brought about by the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, he strongly opposes an ‘academic freeze’, warning that it would end up increasing learning losses and inequalities among the country’s learners.

Senator Win Gatchalian expresses support for the Bicameral Conference Committee’s adopted version to reduce the process of application for telecommunication companies to build more cell towers.

With the Philippines officially in recession and growth in the education sector down 12.2 percent according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Senator Win Gatchalian is pushing for adequate education funding in the country’s COVID-19 recovery efforts.

Senator Win Gatchalian favors the deployment of military personnel to strictly enforce quarantine measures, citing the need to support the police and barangay officials on the ground who have been falling ill due to COVID-19.