Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Sunday said he is eager to hear President Duterte and his administration disclosing a realistic battle plan against the COVID-19 pandemic despite the lack of vaccine available for it in his fifth State-of- the-Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Recto urged the government to push for a 30-day plan on how to prevent the pandemic from reaching a dangerous tipping point “from now until Aug. 31.”
“This is the flatten-the-curve plan that will stabilize and reverse the spike in cases, and improve all the important numbers in our economic report card,” Recto said in a statement.
“One big push this August, para pagdating ng ‘Ber months, the pandemic, although still with us, is managed and contained,” he further said.
“I call it the Jose Mari Chan deadline. Bago siya mag-trending, nakalabas na ng ICU an gating bansa. Not a total victory, but a tactical stabilization plan,” he pointed out.
Recto said Filipinos have the right to know the government’s concrete plan against COVID after enduring one of the world’s longest and toughest quarantine measures.
“Yan ang tanong nga taombayan: Hanggang kailan ba an gaming pagtitiis? Iyan ang dapat masagot (That’s the question of the people: until are we going to suffer? The government should be able to answer this),” he said.
“To give them hope, and a sense of direction amidst the feeling of drift. If the President can convey this well, and if the sacrifice of the people can be met by the competence of the officials who will execute the plan, then we may soon find ourselves out of the woods,” he pointed out.
Sen. Nancy Binay, likewise, said she expects the President to focus on realistic action plans on what it will do in the following months to battle the impact of the pandemic on public health and the economy.
''At this critical moment, the people are already drained of listening to reports on what was done in the past seven months. What the people wanted to hear from the President are those what need to be done more in the next five to 12 months -- what should be done in the next few days -- and show to the nation a clear step-by-step roadmap out of the pandemic,” Binay explained.
If the nation wants to be on the right track in its fight against the COVID-19, Binay said it is necessary to acknowledge and assess the realities on the ground.