{"id":260793,"date":"2020-07-07T23:30:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T03:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=260793"},"modified":"2020-07-07T23:30:06","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T03:30:06","slug":"ph-cannot-afford-total-reopening-of-economy-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/07\/ph-cannot-afford-total-reopening-of-economy-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"PH cannot afford total reopening of economy: Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with the core members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Presidential Guest House in Panacan, Davao City on July 7, 2020. JOEY DALUMPINES\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Philippines cannot follow other countries\u2019 move to completely reopen the economy amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In a taped public address aired on state-run PTV-4 early Wednesday, Duterte said he can only order the gradual reopening of the Philippine economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be very circumspect in reopening of the economy.\u00a0Dahan-dahan lang<\/em>\u00a0(It should be gradual),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte made the remark, as he noted that a total reopening would only place the Philippines in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Thus, he said, it is not advisable to imitate the \u201cbold\u201d decision of other virus-hit nations, such as China and the United States, to reopen all economic activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of countries also opening up. And first was Japan, then Korea, followed by China, and the United States,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He said the Philippines would be in deep trouble should he decide to allow all industries to resume operations in the country amid the Covid-19 crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cMahirap tayo, hindi tayo puwedeng sumugal<\/em>\u00a0(We are just a poor country. We cannot take a risk). I cannot follow the example of other countries,\u201d Duterte said. \u201cBecause if you open the entire Philippines and thousands upon thousands of new cases would happen, then we are in deep s***.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uptick in Covid-19 cases<\/strong><\/p>\n

The President warned that the country would only suffer because of the possibility that Covid-19 infections might continue to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalagang mahirapan tayo. Unang-una wala tayong pera<\/em>\u00a0(It would be really difficult for us. First and foremost, we don\u2019t have enough money [to address the pandemic]),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of July 7, the Philippines has recorded a total of 47, 873 confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 12,386 recoveries and 1,309 deaths.<\/p>\n

Duterte noted an increase in Covid-19 infections in other countries that decided to reopen their economy amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow what really happened in these countries was that although they opened their economy for money to come in to the government coffers,\u00a0ang nangyari<\/em>\u00a0(what happened) is there was a spike. They were having a problem with almost a relapse in the totality of the number.\u00a0Iyon ang mahirap<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s the challenge there),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anchored on \u2018pure science\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

More industries have been allowed to resume their operations when Duterte relaxed the quarantine and health protocols in the country.<\/p>\n

He said his decision to ease restrictions amid the outbreak was based on \u201cpure science.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resultant happening or the resultant endgame there is too horrible to ponder. I cannot make a guess. Governance is not made of guesses. It has to be anchored on pure science,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

He said the country is still in the first wave of Covid-19 infections because he is careful in making decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still grappling with the first wave,\u201d Duterte said. \u201cAnd if ever there is going to be a spike again,\u00a0baka marami ang<\/em>\u00a0(many might be) infected or re-infected, at least\u00a0\u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0(at least the) calibrated numbers of people we allowed to go out would be still within manageable numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Philippines cannot follow other countries\u2019 move to completely reopen the economy amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":260796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260793","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\/260793","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=260793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260797,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260793\/revisions\/260797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}