{"id":247518,"date":"2020-03-08T07:12:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T11:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247518"},"modified":"2020-03-08T07:12:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T11:12:40","slug":"duterte-set-to-issue-new-eo-on-covid-19-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/08\/duterte-set-to-issue-new-eo-on-covid-19-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte set to issue new EO on Covid-19 Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers a speech during the 69th founding anniversary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) at the DSWD Central Office in Quezon City on January 29, 2020. ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Sunday said President Rodrigo Duterte will be releasing an executive order to strengthen public health response after the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the first case of local transmission of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will release the executive order tomorrow [on Monday] at the press briefing,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in an interview over DZIQ after Duterte approved the DOH recommendation to declare a state of public health emergency amid the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country.<\/p>\n

He assured that government is ready to respond to any eventuality, stressing that the DOH has already called on Congress to approve the over PHP2-billion proposed supplemental budget to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cNire<\/em>-ready\u00a0na \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(It is being readied),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a separate statement, Senator Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee, assured that Congress is ready to augment funds in the government\u2019s response to contain the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are funds contained in the 2020 General Appropriations Act that can be tapped for this purpose and if these are not enough then the DOH should say so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the government could also tap tax collections from Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) to fund response efforts versus Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cLahat \u2018yun puwede kasi<\/em>\u00a0(All of this is possible) supposed to be\u00a0ang pera na nakukuha natin<\/em>\u00a0(the money we get), the government can use that in any undertaking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To date, the Philippines has six confirmed cases of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

The three new Covid-19 patients in the country include the 48-year-old man who previously visited Japan, and a couple — a 62-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman — who both had no travel history abroad.<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t limit engagements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the Covid-19 threat, Panelo said Duterte would not limit his public engagements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so\u00a0dahil marami pa siyang naka<\/em>-schedule (because he a lot of engagements scheduled),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte will also observe safety precautions such frequent handwashing and avoid crowded areas to ensure his good health.<\/p>\n

There was no need to consider a lockdown of Malaca\u00f1ang Complex to undergo disinfection protocols, he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said Duterte will be visiting Boracay on March 12 to join efforts in lifting the public’s mood to travel around the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Aside from promotions, the Chief Executive will also inspect what has been done on the island since it was rehabilitated.<\/p>\n

School\u2019s discretion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo said the Palace is leaving it to the discretion of private schools to suspend classes as part of efforts to contain the disease.<\/p>\n

He said private schools have the authority to suspend classes and eventually reschedule makeup classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscretion\u00a0sa kanila \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s their discretion). If they feel their schoolchildren are safe [that way], they can do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he said he does not see a need for the national government to call off work anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have reached that level. We should not panic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some cities have suspended classes this week including Navotas City (no classes on Monday); Cainta, Rizal (no classes until Tuesday); and Taytay, Rizal (no classes on Monday).<\/p>\n

Authorities confirmed the first local case was a resident of Cainta.<\/p>\n

Face the problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

He also assured that the country\u2019s economic managers are ready to respond to the possible economic impact of Covid-19 to the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat problem is not local, international \u2018yan, global \u2018yan (it\u2019s international, global) so we have to face it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Losses were expected but he said Duterte\u2019s economic team is \u201ctrying to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSaying we can stop the losses, I don\u2019t think we can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the Philippine economy could lose between USD669 million and USD1.94 billion and lose 87,000 to 252,000 jobs due to the Covid-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n

In a report titled \u201cThe Economic Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Developing Asia,\u201d the ADB said that among its member-countries, expected to be \u201csignificantly affected\u201d by the disease\u2019s economic impact are those \u201cwith strong trade and production linkages with China.\u201d<\/p>\n

China was the Philippines\u2019 top trade partner last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Sunday said President Rodrigo Duterte will be releasing an executive order to strengthen public health response after …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":243821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247519,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247518\/revisions\/247519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}