Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon has reiterated his call for the government’s task force against COVID-19 to intensify its efforts on testing, tracing and treating (3Ts) to arrest the spread of the COVID-19 and to prevent the imposition of lockdowns that further damages the country’s economy.
Drilon noted that the increasing rate of infection in the Philippines is now reaching 12 to 13 percent in the past two weeks from below 10 percent early on in the outbreak.
“Huwag nating pagtuunan ng pansin kung mas mataas tayo o mas mataas ang Indonesia. Ang pansinin natin ay kung ano ang ating magagawa (Let’s not pay attention on whether we are higher than Indonesia. We should focus on what we should do),” Drilon said in an interview over Radio DWIZ.
“Ang infection rate, iyan po ang ating kalaban (that’s our enemy). Hindi yung mga prediction ng UP ang gagawin nating basehan kaya nanalo tayo (Not UP’s prediction that we won against the virus). That’s neither here nor there,” he said.
The Philippines has overtaken Indonesia as the Southeast Asian country with the most number of COVID-19 cases with 119, 460 compared to Indonesia with 118,753 cases last August 6.
President Duterte earlier re-imposed a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila and other nearby provinces after the medical community urged the government to revert back to ECQ to prevent the COVID-19 cases from further increasing and overwhelming hospitals and healthcare facilities.
Drilon lamented that the spread of the virus in the country is worsening from about 10 percent early on in the outbreak.
“I’ve heard that they are attributing the surge in the number of cases in the increased testing capacity. Ang hindi nila binabanggit ay ang pagtaas ng (What they are not mentioning is the increase in) positivity rate,” he pointed out.
“If we look at the data in March and April, the positivity rate then was between 9 to 10 percent. Now it is anywhere between 12 to 13 percent and is still increasing,” Drilon underscored.
The minority leader, however, pointed out that the rate was much worse last August 1, when the country recorded a 13.9 percent positivity rate after 3, 641 individuals tested positive of COVID out of 26, 149 tests that were conducted.
“Our effort to prevent the spread of the virus is totally falling, because the virus continues to multiply. That is what we must arrest. We must take advantage of the lockdown to increase our contact tracing efforts,” he said.
“For all that we are doing, having the strictest and longest lockdown that put the country at a standstill, we still failed to prevent the spread of the virus,” Drilon pointed out.
“This is not a contest, this is not a race between nations. It is a race between the virus and our health system. Are we winning the war? Are we on the road to stop the spread of the virus?” he added.
Drilon, likewise, said he would push for more funding in the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or “Bayanihan 2” to cover more beneficiaries in the government’s cash assistance program.
“The P140-billion stimulus fund is not enough…we need to expand the social amelioration program to give temporary relief to our countrymen who are badly hit by the pandemic,” he stressed.