{"id":259092,"date":"2020-06-24T00:18:28","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T04:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=259092"},"modified":"2020-06-24T00:18:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T04:18:42","slug":"dutertes-emergency-powers-needed-to-fight-covid-19-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/24\/dutertes-emergency-powers-needed-to-fight-covid-19-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte\u2019s emergency powers needed to fight Covid-19: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"

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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on June 22, 2020. ALBERT ALCAIN\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte still needs special powers to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic that continues to beset the country, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said extending Duterte\u2019s emergency powers is necessary to allow the government to augment the medical supplies for the treatment of Covid-19, as well as to supervise some private hospitals that are attending to the needs of virus-infected individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we would need to have emergency powers again,\u201d Roque said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.<\/p>\n

Republic Act (RA) 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which gives Duterte temporary emergency powers to fight Covid-19, is set to expire on June 25.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang has repeatedly stressed the need to pass another law that would extend Duterte\u2019s special powers for him to further boost his administration\u2019s Covid-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

Congress, however, adjourned sine die on June 5 without passing a bill that would extend Duterte’s emergency powers.<\/p>\n

While he noted that the country remains in \u201cgood shape,\u201d Roque expressed optimism that Duterte would be granted emergency powers to help the government combat Covid-19.<\/p>\n

He said it would be difficult for Duterte to fast-track the procurement of medical supplies, once RA 11469 expires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important power that we can no longer exercise is the purchase of Covid-19 medical-related materials,\u201d Roque said. \u201c(This is because) it takes forever to comply with the Procurement Act for purposes of emergency medical purchases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under RA 11469, Duterte is allowed to undertake the procurement of medical equipment \u201cin the most expeditious manner, as exemptions from the provisions of Republic Act 9184 or the government Procurement Reform Act and other relevant laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roque said the government would encounter problems when the country runs out of all purchased medical supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the immediate future, we have everything that we need. I guess the problem will be in the medium term when the equipment that we have on storage will be used up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque also noted that Duterte\u2019s special power to take over some private hospitals is also \u201cimportant.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was referring to another provision of RA 11469 that authorizes Duterte to \u201ctake over the operations of private enterprises that unjustifiably refuse or signify that they are no longer capable of operating their enterprises\u201d due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emergency power is important in this case because if they (private hospitals) don\u2019t comply and if they don\u2019t allot additional beds for Covid-19 patients, then we may have to take over some of these hospitals and hire our own nurses and doctors to man them. So that\u2019s the importance of emergency powers,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte still needs special powers to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic that continues to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":259093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259092","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=259092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259094,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259092\/revisions\/259094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}