Malacañang said that the Philippines recording a total of 70,764 COVID-19 cases was not really alarming but the increasing number of cases should be a concern for everyone.

In an interview with CNN Philippines, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the country has intensified its testing capacity.

"I wouldn't really say it's something alarming but it should concern all of us," he said Wednesday morning.

Roque said the rise of COVID-19 cases is actually for the better and even expressed confidence that the country will overcome the pandemic.

"I think the situation is for the better now," he said.

"Now that we have more intense testing and now that the President has appointed focal persons for the isolation, tracing, and treatment, I'm confident we will prevail," he added.

According to Roque, the daily number of cases can be expected to slow down when the country has actually implemented more intense testing and isolation.

"We will see it over a period of one month and not just one week," he said.

"I'm confident it will work but we just had to build the capacity of our testing centers first. Now that we have them, we can unleash the full capacity and concentrate on isolating the positives to contain the further spread of COVID-19," he added.

Victory

Roque reiterated that the government's strategy against COVID-19 was working and that the fact that the country did not meet the initial forecast of the University of the Philippines (UP) of 3.5 million cases was already a win.

"The strategy is working because an overwhelming number of people have been spared from the disease," he said.

"If we didn't take the steps that we did, we could have had up to 3.5 million cases by now. I'm actually asking people to compare the numbers now with the projected numbers if we did not take decisive steps," he added.

"For as long as we don't meet the 3.5 million projection of UP, and UP has been very good at their forecasts, I think we would have succeeded," he said.

Politicking

The Palace official renewed Malacañang's appeal to stop politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic especially by comparing the government's response to countries like Thailand and Vietnam who have successfully contained the spread of the disease.

Roque was responding to Senator Franklin Drilon's statement that the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has failed in addressing the pandemic.

"I don't think we failed," he said.

"We will always have different points-of-view, particularly because it's coming from the opposition and I think they are resorting to politicking," he added.

Roque explained that each country is unique.

"I know there's some virtue in comparing our performance with other countries. Remember, each country is peculiar," he said.

"Talagang maraming lugar sa Pilipinas na masisikip, napahirap talaga magkaroon ng isolation diyan kung may magkakasakit (There really are too many densely populated areas in the country so it's difficult to isolate those who are sick)," he added.