Senate leaders  on Tuesday called for a unified approach in addressing the worsening state of the Philippine economy, which President Duterte, himself, described as being in “bad shape”, and “sinking deeper and deeper” amid the negative impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

“The Senate will diligently pass legislation vital to our economic recovery as we are doing now. We can only hope that the world will be able to arrest the pandemic at the soonest possible time,” Senate President Vicente Sotto III said when sought to comment on Duterte’s pronouncement.

But the way to go, Sotto said, is for the government to intensify its information drive regarding the national COVID-19 vaccination program and convince the public into having themselves vaccinated against the coronavirus disease.

The Senate president said the information drive should put emphasis on the advantages of inoculation and the health risks of not getting vaccinated. Until now, Sotto noted, most Filipinos are hesitant to get inoculated due to “scary stories of bad side effects and even deaths in a post-vaccination scenario.”

Sotto said the government can tap local government units (LGUs) to implement the campaign given their familiarity with their jurisdiction’s population profile and geography. Medical personnel, he said, should also be included because of their expertise on health issues.

“Let us work together towards stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Let us arm our people with knowledge so they can make informed choices,” Sotto stressed.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon echoed Sotto’s call saying the government should work on increasing the people’s confidence in its COVID-19 vaccination program.

“Again, our ability to win the fight against the pandemic largely depends on the success of our vaccination program. The sooner we are able to implement a successful COVID-19 vaccination drive, the faster our economic recovery would be,” Drilon said in a statement.

Congress, he also said, should devote its limited calendar days to legislation that will directly benefit the economy and uplift the lives of the Filipino people.

“Because if Congress fails to address these urgent problems in the remaining months of the second regular session, then it will be harder to attend to these when election season kicks in,” Drilon pointed out.

More importantly, the Senate minority leader said, state economic managers should lay down a comprehensive and realistic plan to address the country’s weakening economy, which the President said is “sinking deeper and deeper” and is losing P2-billion a day due to COVID-19.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto expressed belief the Philippines was losing much more than just P2-billion a day to the pandemic last year. “We’re losing at least P4-billion a day. Last year,” he said in a text message.

“The question now is, what do our economic managers plan to do? The people would want to see a clear plan to address our worsening economic situation,” Drilon said.

“I call for a unified approach to address the worsening economic condition of the country. Failure to address it will create more serious problems: high crimes, extreme poverty, hunger and joblessness,” he said.