Progressive lawmakers have slammed the government’s move to place the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby provinces Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and Rizal back into a week-long enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) , saying it is proof of the Duterte administration’s bungled response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Placing these areas again under ECQ is a tacit admission by the administration na pumalpak ito;  that it bungled big time the Covid pandemic crisis,” House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said in a statement on Sunday.

“It is proof, too, of its calamitous failure to listen to the health experts early on,” Zarate added. 

Zarate said placing these areas under ECQ without massive free mass testing, aggressive contact tracing, effective and timely isolation and treatment, as well as fast-tracking the vaccination roll out would just be repeating the same militarist, inefficient and highly ineffective lockdowns done by the Duterte administration for more than a year now.

“We may sound like a broken record, but,  again we reiterate that free mass testing should be done at least four times more per day,” he said.

“The current 30,000-40,000 tests per day would not do and we have to test 140,000-160,000 per day to be able to identify those infected and pinpoint areas where more drastic measures are needed,” added Zarate.

“At the current positivity rate of the virus it is more likely that more are already infected but have not been tested yet,” he pointed out.

In a separate statement, the Gabriela Women’s Party also said the lockdown—which falls exactly on Holy Week—shows it is more of a “horror week” to nearly one-fourth of the total population that would be forced to stay home rather than face checkpoints, arrests and brazen punishments.

“President Duterte is raising the ante of his terror and militarist response to COVID-19 with the imposition of stricter enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and curfew over Metro Manila and nearby provinces - but still without free mass testing, effective contact tracing and massive social amelioration program,” Gabriela party said in a statement.

“We have seen this ridiculous show before, with the chief executive playing with dictatorial powers under the guise of IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force)-recommended lockdown. Instead of leading the way out, this militarist show entrenched us further into the pandemic,” they group also stated.

The group also said the shift to ECQ is expected to cause forced fasting to millions of Filipinos who are jobless, struggling with sharply cut incomes, and will whip hard small businesses and informal workers. 

“This is penitence raised to a much higher degree – as the promised cash aid is devoid of any detail. Duterte cannot pull off a magic trick from the 2021 budget to produce funds for massive social amelioration, precisely because the 2021 GAA (General Appropriations Act) has no appropriation cover for a large-scale social stimulus,” they lamented.

Gabriela noted funds allocated under the 2021 budget for vaccine procurement only stands at a paltry P2.5-bilion with P80-billion of the costs to be sourced from loans. This year’s budget does not reflect funds to continue free and safe mass vaccination.

Instead, the 2021 budget has set aside over P1-trillion infrastructure budget, “which can hardly fill in empty stomachs.

“Allocations for public hospitals have barely changed despite the pressing demand to raise the capacity of the public healthcare system. But huge sums have lodged at defense spending and fascist programs, including programs by the notorious NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict),” they also said.

Zarate said the Duterte administration should heed urgent calls to replace the current composition of the IATF or abolish it entirely. 

“They had more than a year to make this right but they gravely  failed. They should stop toying, even clowning, with the lives the of Filipinos," the lawmaker stressed.