Sen. Nancy Binay on Thursday said she is giving President Duterte an incomplete grade as she finds his fifth State-of-the Nation Address (SONA) lacking in details especially on the government’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Medyo nakulangan tayo. Kaya nga siguro, (We find it lacking. Maybe), if I were to grade the SONA of the President, I would say it’s 'Incomplete (INC),'” Binay said in an interview on CNN Philippines’ The Source.
“I expected more pagdating doon sa kung papaano natin bibigyang solusyon pagdating dito sa problema natin sa COVID. Medyo kulang pagdating doon sa detalye, doon sa roadmap, more or less, sana doon nag-focus ang ating Presidente (I expected more especially on the part on how the government intends to solve our problem on COVID. It was lacking in details. On the roadmap, more or less, I hoped our President focused more on that),” the senator lamented.
At this point in time, Binay said the public is desperately in need of a comprehensive detail on how the National Task Force Against COVID-19 will be able to help Filipinos, especially workers, hurdle the pandemic without having to resort to drastic measures.
“Things are not getting better. 'Yung problem ng mga health workers natin, in fact ang dami ko nanaman nadidinig na nai-intubate at nasa ICU na health workers (we have a serious problem with our health workers. In fact, I’m hearing again reports of health workers in the ICU intubated),” she lamented.
“Yung problema natin noon February hindi naman nawala eh. At the moment, maybe (Health) Secretary (Francisco) Duque (III) is not be best person to do it -- to find solutions pagdating sa problema natin sa (on our problems on) COVID ,” she pointed out.
Binay said lawmakers waited to hear the President give specific details on how the government intends to use public funds for its anti-COVID programs.
She said Duterte could have given an accounting of how much the government plans to spend for its COVID-19 response programs since the Department of Finance (DoF) was able to obtain more funding from loans.
“Sana nabanggit din niya kung ilang PPE ba ang balak i-procure ng pamahalaan (I hoped he mentioned how many personal protective equipment the government plans to procure), what will be the goal for testing, what will be the policy for tracing and syempre pagdating doon sa (and of course when it comes to) treating, which hindi niya masyadong napaliwanang (which he didn’t explain) during his SONA),” she noted.