PH not lagging behind neighbors’ Covid response: Palace

MANILA – The Philippines is not lagging behind its Asian neighbors in terms of its coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response and vaccine rollout, Malacañang said Monday.

In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after Vice President Leni Robredo said the government should not use its Covid-19 response as propaganda, but a way to resolve issues sooner.

Roque denied that the government was using its Covid-19 response as propaganda, stressing that it was simply using data obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) to report on the country’s global ranking.

“Ma’am, hindi po propaganda ang World Health Organization. World Health Organization po ang nagsabi kung nasaan na tayo sa ating Covid response at ito po ang katotohanan. Bakit namin paniniwalaan ang ibang pag-aaral samantalang lahat tayo nagtitiwala sa World Health Organization sa panahon ng pandemiya? Hindi po propaganda ‘yan, katotohanan (Ma’am, the World Health Organization is not propaganda. It’s the WHO that reported about our standing in terms of Covid response and this is the truth. Why would we believe other studies when we trust the WHO in the time of a pandemic? That’s not propaganda, it’s the truth),” he said.

Robredo also urged the Duterte administration to address its alleged low ranking among countries assessed for their Covid-19 response.

Citing data from the WHO Covid-19 Dashboard as of Jan. 31, Roque said the Philippines ranked 32nd in total Covid-19 cases worldwide (525,618 cases), 45th in active Covid-19 cases (27,318 cases), 134th in cases per 1 million population (4,777.43 cases), and 72nd in terms of case fatality rate (2.0 percent).

“Hindi po ‘yan propaganda. Katotohanan na dapat tanggapin at pasalamatan po lahat ng ating medical front-liners na talaga naman pong ginagawa ang lahat para pangalagaan ang kalusugan ng mga Pilipino. (That’s not propaganda. It’s the truth which we should accept and thank our medical front-liners for everything they do to protect the health of Filipinos). It is unfair to refer to their work output as propaganda,” he added.

Even if the first doses of vaccine are expected to arrive in mid-February, Roque said the country is not lagging behind its neighbors because only three Asian countries have started inoculating their citizens.

“Sabi ng mga kritiko, nahuhuli nanaman daw po tayo sa pag rollout ng bakuna. Kasinungalingan. Walang basehan. Guni-guni. Pantasya ng mga gusto namang gusto namang bumalik sa kapangyarihan, mga gahaman sa kapangyarihan (Critics say we’re lagging in vaccine rollout. Lies. No basis. Imagination. A fantasy of those who want to return to power, those who are greedy for power),” he said.

He said data from Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker Global Distribution showed that the only Asian countries that have rolled out their vaccination campaign are Singapore which has vaccinated 1.98 percent of its population, India which has vaccinated 0.27 percent of its population, and Indonesia which has vaccinated 0.19 percent of its population.

“Ang ibig sabihin po nito, hindi po tayo nangungulelat. Kung magsisimula po tayo magbakuna ng Pebrero, halos kasabay po natin ang halos lahat ng karatig-bansa natin. Huwag po tayo magpapaloko diyan sa mga kritikong ‘yan (This means we’re not lagging. If we start vaccinating this February, we’re practically at the same pace with our neighboring countries. Don’t be fooled by those critics),” he said.

Roque urged the public to trust in President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise that no one will be left behind in terms of vaccination.

The Philippines aims to secure 148 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from several companies to inoculate an initial 50 to 70 million Filipinos this year.

To date, the government is expected to receive an initial 50,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine, 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, and 5,500,800 to 9,290,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine by mid-February.