Roque defends IATF from Drilon’s tirades
Malacañang on Wednesday accused the opposition of politicking after one of its leaders slammed the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) for its supposed failure in containing the spread of the coronavirus disease.
It no longer surprised Malacañang, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
“They’re (opposition) using the COVID-19 situation to get any advantage it can over the government,” Roque stated, adding that such tirades aim to create a scenario that the government is helpless and not doing much to combat the virus.
At this time, just to survive is already an achievement. What do we do to stop the spread of the virus? The IATF should take a second look at what it has done. It should review its performance, how it was effective.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon was the latest to accuse the IATF of failure. He also cited that what the governments of Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam did, the Philippines must emulate.
“At this time, just to survive is already an achievement. What do we do to stop the spread of the virus? The IATF should take a second look at what it has done. It should review its performance, how it was effective,” Drilon said.
Worldometer statistics, as of 22 July, showed Taiwan only has 455 confirmed coronavirus cases with 440 recoveries and seven deaths; Thailand with 3,261 cases, 3,105 recoveries and 58 deaths; and Vietnam with a mere 401 infections, 365 recoveries and zero fatalities. The Philippines, meanwhile, has 70,064 confirmed cases, 23,281 recoveries and 1,837 deaths as of 21 July.
I don’t think we failed. For as long as we did not meet the 3.5 million cases projection of UP, and UP has been very good at its forecast, I think we would have succeeded.
“Let’s call a spade a spade, (Health) Secretary Duque today lacks credibility to be able to command people to do things and he cannot influence decisions,” Drilon said in another television interview.
“On the other hand, I don’t see any of the economic team in the IATF deliberations, maybe they are somewhere there in the background but given the effect of the pandemic in our economy, they should be in the forefront together with our health sector.”
Roque said different points of view are expected, but “resorting to politicking stories” is a different matter.
“I don’t think we failed. For as long as we did not meet the 3.5 (million cases) projection of UP, and UP has been very good at its forecast, I think we would have succeeded,” he added.
“The appeal of the President is to concentrate on the COVID-19, set aside politicking for the time being which I think is a very wise policy.”
The fact that mortality is low, critical care capacity is still good and most COVID-19 cases are either asymptomatic and mild, show that the government is doing its job, asserted Roque.