SOLON: DOMINGUEZ SHOULD BE OVERALL COVID CRISIS MANAGER

THE chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means on Wednesday asked President Duterte to designate Finance Secretary and Economic Development Cluster (EDC) Head Carlos G. Dominguez III as overall Covid-19 crisis manager.

In a statement, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said the country needs someone who can readily decide on matters of government guarantees, borrowing, and spending.

“It will probably work better if testing, tracing, and treatment, as well as economic interventions and procurement were not siloed in di erent agencies or di erent persons-in-charge,” he said.

“is is the most challenging socioeconomic crisis we have dealt with in decades. I can think of no other person who already has the mandate, the gravitas, and the experience than Secretary Sonny Dominguez,” Salceda added.

According to the lawmaker, Dominguez, as head of EDC, already has supervision over “nearly every facet of pandemic response, from vaccine procurement through the Government Procurement Policy Board, to testing and isolation under Secretaries [Mark] Villar and [Vince] Dizon, to monetary and scal policy.”

He added, “Secretary Dominguez even oversees the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry as cluster head. is is critical as we face a food price hike and supply chain issues.”

He also said that Dominguez has the private sector experience and network necessary to mobilize Philippine industry.

“He was a top business executive during the Asian Financial Crisis. He knows how to deal with a crisis of this magnitude. He has

the experience needed to negotiate our vaccine procurement agreement. Most importantly, he has the respect of government leaders, including the President. So, he can candidly tell everyone what really needs to be done,” Salceda added.

Currently, the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 is headed by Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.

“Sec. Galvez was designated to implement emergency rules speci c to Covid-19, such as testing, quarantine rules, among others. But the crisis management role we need is broader than that,” said Salceda.

“Remember, we are still in a state of calamity , and we are dealing with broader problems than the kind Sec. Galvez has the mandate to do. Basically, what we need right now is something like a Chief Minister. And it has been standard for our presidents [and even other world leaders] to heavily rely on Finance Secretaries for that role,” he added.

Meanwhile, Salceda said mass testing will remain critical to preventing any further outbreaks.

“We have to break through the 100,000 mark and do so consistently with testing. at way, we can prevent further undetected infections. You have around 0.4 percent completely asymptomatic cases daily, and around 97-99 percent are mild cases, so it’s very hard to notice unless we test more,” Salceda said.

“If we can’t test more daily, we can’t vaccinate more. It requires basically the same set of capabilities, from storage, logistics, transport of patients, data analysis and records keeping, to administration by quali ed health-care workers. We have to take testing as practice, because I’m sure, once the vaccines arrive, there will be instances when you need to jab 1 million vaccines per day,” he added.