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The Philippines remains one of the worst COVID-19-hit nations throughout Asia and one of the world’s longest lockdowns. An estimated 26.14 million Filipinos are poor and the pandemic has pushed 4 million more Filipinos into Poverty in the first half of 2021.1 The poverty incidence among individuals living in rural areas (24.5%) is higher than those living in urban areas (9.3%). The annual inflation rate in the Philippines climbed to 5.4% in May 2022. Given that poor households typically spend a large portion of their income on food and energy, the ongoing increase in food prices, compounded by increases in fuel prices worsens the poverty condition in the country. As of October 2021, the Philippines has an unemployment rate of 8.7%, or around 3.8 million Filipinos. The National Economic and Development Authority warned that the Civil Society Spotlight Reporsurge of graduates from K–12 programmes could result in a transient increase in the unemployment rate in 2022