It's all about greed for power.
Malacañang has railed against opponents attacking the government's coronavirus pandemic response, saying their criticisms are driven by greed for power.
According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, critics have nothing good to say about government’s efforts because they want to bring down the administration and return to power.
"'Yung mga nagsasalita naman, iyan iyong walang mabuting nakikita sa ginagawa ng gobyerno dahil hindi po sila makahintay sa 2022. Atat na atat na silang mabalik sa kapangyarihan (Those criticizing are those who see nothing good in the government's actions because they cannot wait for 2022. They are so eager to return to power)," he said said during a televised press briefing Friday.
"Ang sabi ko nga, mga gahaman sa kapangyarihan (As I said, they are greedy for power)," he said.
Early this week, President Duterte urged the public not to believe the criticisms hurled by opposition as the government grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. Duterte asked the public to “listen to reason,” saying it was not the job of government to lie.
The administration has been criticized by Vice President Leni Robredo and other concerned groups over its alleged lapses in mitigating the impact of the public health emergency.
Roque, however, defended anew the government's efforts to curb the coronavirus outbreak, citing the country's low fatality rate and improved testing capacity. He recently gave the country’s pandemic response an 85 percent grade since it managed to reduce cases of infections and deaths.
Roque noted that the country has recorded a case mortality rate of 1.7 percent which indicated that efforts to detect, isolate and treat the patients were improving. "Kaya tayo natatakot sa pandemya ay baka maraming mamatay. Nalilimitahan naman po natin ang mga numero ng taong namamatay (We are afraid of the pandemic because many might die. But we have limited the number of deaths so far)," he said.
On the country's efforts to screen people with the illness, Roque cited that the country has exceeded its goal of three million tests this month.
The health department reported that 3,089,619 persons have so far taken the coronavirus tests. Around 10.5 percent tested positive for the illness. The country has 128 coronavirus testing laboratories.
"We now have the highest testing in the whole of Southeast Asia beating Japan and Vietnam," Roque said.
At least 55 percent of the 13,800 isolation beds are available while 50 percent of 1,900 intensive care unit beds can still be used.
"Iyong mga hindi magsasabi na accomplishment iyan, nagbubulag-bulagan, nagbibingi-bingihan, talagang ang nais lang ay pabagsakin ang gobyerno ni Presidente Duterte (To those saying these are not accomplishments, they are turning a blind eye, pretending to be deaf, they just really want to bring down the government of President Duterte),” he said.
As of September 18, the country has recorded 279,526 cases of coronavirus infections with 4,830 deaths and 208,790 recoveries.