Manila Rep. Manuel “Manny” Luis Lopez called on the national government Sunday to give due attention to the National Capital Region (NCR) and strengthen the region’s contact tracing capacity to help the country flatten the curve and boost the nation's economic landscape.
The chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development made the call as he vowed to file a measure seeking the setting up of a single application or system in the country's COVID-19 contact tracing efforts.
"Kung nais po natin pabalikin ang sigla ng bayang Pilipinas as far as our economy is concerned, ang kailangan po natin bigyan ng tuon at pansin ay National Capital Region. With all due respect sa ibang rehiyon, 36 porsyento ng Gross Domestic Product (GDP), nanggaling po at nagmumula dito. Kapag sinama natin ang greater Metro Manila, ang mga lugar sa Rizal, Laguna, at karatig na bayan, it will comprise 57 percent of the GDP, roughly two-thirds of the production na binibigay at kicontribute ng bayang binabanggit ko po,” he told the DZBB in an interview.
(If we want to bring back the vibrance of our country as far as the economy is concerned, we need to give priority and focus on the National Capital Region. With all due respect to other regions, 36 percent of the Gross Domestic Product comes from here. If we include the greater Metro Manila and other areas in Rizal, Laguna, and other neighboring areas, it will comprise 57 percent of the GDP, roughly two-thirds of the production is being given and contributed by the area I mentioned)
“Ngayon po kung hindi po natin mafla-flatten ang curve mahihirapan po ang bayang Pilipinas na makabangon, ganyan po kaimportante ang contract tracing natin,” Lopez stressed.
(Now, we will not be able to flatten the curve, it will be difficult for our country to get back in its feet, that’s how important our contract tracing is)
He noted that almost 60 percent of more 200,000 recorded cases of COVID-19 in the country came from Metro Manila.
“The positivity rate is 14 percent, so ibig sabihin out of 204, 334 na bagong kaso ay one fourth po ang galing sa NCR (so it means, out of 204, 334 new cases, one fourth of which comes from NCR),” he said.
Lopez called for "strengthened and aggressive" contract tracing with the community participation and the government taking the lead in creating a common interoperable contact tracing app.
He said the funding will not be a problem since the Bayanihan 2 measure provides P5 billion for the hiring of 50,000 contact tracers.
The House leader reiterated his call to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to expeditiously come up with a single application or system in the country's COVID-19 contact tracing efforts.
"More than anything, itong app na gagamitin will be readily accessible to the common tao. This will be interoperable, open sourced po, walang dapat magmay ari kundi gobyerno kaya kailangan gagawa kami ng hakbang para ito ay umpisahan. Ang DICT, with all due respect hindi po tayo dapat magtagal, dahil time is of the essence,” the Manila lawmaker said.
(More than anything, this app that will be used will be readily accessible to the common people. This will be interoperable, open-sourced, no one will own this, except the government, that is why we need to make steps to ensure that this will jumpstart. The DICT, will all due respect, we should not delay this, because time is of the essence)