Senate President Vicente Sotto III urged the government to show and use all its cards against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic as the Philippines recorded on Friday, March 19, its highest tally of new infections yet.
"Lahat ng galing ng Executive Dept ay ngayon na nila ilabas at gamitin. Hindi ko na alam ang sasabihin (The Executive Department should show and use all its abilities. I do not know what to say anymore)," he told reporters when asked to comment on the Department of Health's (DOH) 4 p.m. update showing 7,103 additional COVID-19 cases in the country.
It exceeded the highest single-day surge recorded last August 10, 2020, at 6,958.
The new cases pushed up the total number of coronavirus cases to 648,066; 561,902 of which already recovered from the diseases.
Meanwhile, the DOH said 13 more patients died from COVID-19, bringing the numbers of death to a total of 12,900.
"I'm speechless. What's going on? What is happening to our country?" Sotto lamented.
Senator Joel Villanueva also posed this question as he called on the government to revisit its policies against the COVID-19 pandemic amid the continuous spike of new cases.
"What is really happening? People are worried, parang (It seems) we are just saying that the only way to survive this is for the vaccines to arrive. And now you look at the vaccination program, we have set the rules, passed a law giving opportunity for private sector to come in and help out, buy their own vaccines -- so ano na (what now)? Nasaan na tayo (Where are we, really)?" he said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
"Again, a sound policy, programs of the government, dapat namomonitor ng public (that is monitored by the public) so we will also be engaged. If we are engaged, we will cooperate with the government...So we have to have a sound policy, na talagang sinusunod natin at talagang klaro ito sa ating mga kababayan (that we can follow and clear to our people)," he pointed out.
Senator Risa Hontiveros also called for a "systematic plan now, before we reach the breaking point."
In a tweet, Hontiveros said she fears the rise in new cases especially for her children. "As we should be at how fast these numbers are rising," she said.
"We have not flattened the curve yet. And we never will if we remain in denial of the problem and what needs to be done to solve it. Numbers don't lie: We are failing," the opposition senator said.
Last March 8, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque declared that the government was "excellent" in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also denied that the country is "back to square one", but assured that the government is determined "to do better" in handling the health crisis.