{"id":268844,"date":"2020-09-16T05:03:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T09:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=268844"},"modified":"2020-09-16T05:03:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T09:03:44","slug":"robredo-entitled-to-her-opinion-on-govt-covid-19-response-roque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/16\/robredo-entitled-to-her-opinion-on-govt-covid-19-response-roque\/","title":{"rendered":"Robredo entitled to her opinion on gov\u2019t Covid-19 response: Roque"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Robredo earlier emphasized that firing Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who leads the government\u2019s Covid-19 response, would not change much because it is the system itself which is problematic. (File photo<\/a>: VP Leni Robredo\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday shrugged off the remark made by Vice President Leni Robredo that the national government has \u201cno system in place\u201d in its coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response.<\/p>\n

In an interview over CNN Philippines’ The Source, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said he did not expect Robredo, as \u201cleader of the opposition\u201d to say anything positive about the Duterte administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s entitled to her opinion. Of course, as the leader of the opposition, we don\u2019t expect anything positive about this administration from her. We\u2019ve accepted that. I think people have accepted that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite criticism from the opposition, Roque pointed out that supporters of the President continue to trust the administration\u2019s ability to control the country\u2019s Covid-19 situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can say all the negative things about the administration but people still support the President,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Robredo earlier emphasized that firing Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who leads the government\u2019s Covid-19 response, would not change much because it is the system itself which is problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur problem is so much bigger than Secretary Duque. For me, the problem really is with the national government appearing to have no system in place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She claimed that after more than six months into the lockdown, \u201cno cohesive plan\u201d was crafted.<\/p>\n

Passing mark<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque defended his decision to give the country\u2019s fight against Covid-19 a passing mark of 85 percent for having the \u201cbest testing policy\u201d in Asia.<\/p>\n

He earlier said the government scored a passing mark because it was able to prevent the dire predictions of Covid-19 infections from becoming a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disease will continue to spread until we find a vaccine or antidote but what is important is you look at the deaths. Why are we scared of pandemics? Because we could die of it. But how many are dying? It\u2019s 1.7 percent. What this is showing is that we know how to take care of those who get sick. We\u2019re also avoiding to a large extent the further spread of the disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, the country has successfully improved its healthcare capacity and is doing \u201ca good job\u201d despite having limited resources compared to those in wealthier and more developed countries.<\/p>\n

He cited a New York Times report titled \u201cCoronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak\u201d as having recognized the Philippines as one of the counties where new cases of Covid-19 are \u201clower and staying low.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Roque also acknowledged the need to improve the country\u2019s tracing capacity by augmenting its tracing workforce.<\/p>\n

The Department of the Interior and Local Government earlier announced its plan to hire and train at least 50,000 more contract tracers following the signing into law of the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act” or Bayanihan 2.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, there are a total of 269,407 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country, with only 57,392 active cases, 207,532 recoveries, and 4,663 deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday shrugged off the remark made by Vice President Leni Robredo that the national government has \u201cno …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":258620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268844","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\/268844","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=268844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268845,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268844\/revisions\/268845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}