Filipinos deserve adequate aid, and ‘’competent and emphatic ‘’ leadership as an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) is imposed again, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday said.

She said placing the people back into another round of lockdown revealed the kind of management of (Inter-Agency Task Force-National Task Force (IATF-NTF), adding that the public is forced to accept a re-imposed ECQ “because of gross negligence and incompetence.”

“While the re-imposition of ECQ is a necessary step to contain the resurgence of COVID-19 infections, nakakagalit na alam nating hindi mangyayari ito kung hindi dahil sa palpak na sistema na bigo pa ring maituwid hanggang ngayon (this should not have happened if not for a mismanaged system that needs correction),” she said in a statement.

Hontiveros also said that "as long as the same people are in charge of the pandemic response and there is failure to address the problem head on, enforcement  of mobility restrictions would still be inadequate and it will be the ordinary Filipinos who would continue to suffer."

‘’We need better leadership. We need health experts who will carry out scientific, evidence-based solutions. We need competent and empathetic medical professionals to get us through this crisis,” she stressed. 

“We cannot expect better if they can only praise their own past actions and blame the viral mutations — October pa lang, alam na nating may variants sa ibang bansa at pagdating ng January 1 ay naging dominant na nga ang mga ito (In October, we already knew there were variants in the country and they became dominant starting January 1),” she added. 

"Season 2 na raw ng ECQ, sana tapusin na dito at huwag nang gawing Endless Community Quarantine (They said this is ECQ season 2, we just hope that this would not result in Endless Community Quarantine). Let’s break this vicious cycle once and for all,” she further said.

Hontiveros reiterated her call for the implementation of a new round of cash aid for those unable to work; enhance the support to key sectors, including public employment programs for job creation; and ensure balik-trabahong ligtas (return to a safe workplace) for the employed workers, especially those who are in the healthcare sector and in the essential production and delivery of basic goods and services. 

The continuous cash aid can be made possible through the completion of Listahanan 3 as it would include millions of "new poor" in the roster of beneficiaries qualified for the government’s social protection programs such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), she explained.