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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Luzon devider Iloilo City mayor to lawmakers: Focus on pandemic response, not death penalty

Iloilo City mayor to lawmakers: Focus on pandemic response, not death penalty

Published Aug 10, 2020 05:09 pm

ILOILO CITY—Mayor Jerry Treñas of this city has appealed to lawmakers to get their priorities straight as cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have surged to almost 130,000 all over the country.

Mayor Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City. (Tara Yap/Manila Bulletin)
Mayor Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City. (Tara Yap/Manila Bulletin)

“I call upon our lawmakers to prioritize on how we fight COVID-19 and not get distracted on the death penalty or other matters,” said Treñas in a statement Monday, August 10.

“The problem at the moment is a difficult fight. All other problems should be secondary. It calls for an undivided focus,” said Treñas, who is also contending with more than 200 cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 in this city since last week.

Instead of focusing on the death penalty, the mayor, who was also a former three-term congressman, suggested that lawmakers should aid in boosting both the national government and the local government units (LGUS) in response mechanisms.

“We need more testing laboratories, more health personnel distributed to all the barangays, more medicines to increase the immunity of our people, face masks and face shields and assistance to our people unemployed due to the pandemic,” Treñas said.

“One death is too much. One death is one father, one husband one friend. One life is important and let us all be sensitive,” Treñas pleaded.

Treñas, himself, has been under quarantine after getting exposed to two persons, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

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