Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros on Friday, April 16) said it is unnecessary for the government to take “drastic” steps to address the lack of quarantine facilities to treat the increasing number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients by taking over hotels to turn it into isolation quarters.
“At the end of his sentence, even the President realized, in his own words, that is not a remedy. And we don’t need to employ such drastic steps if from the start, we boosted our health facilities,” Hontiveros said in an interview on CNN Philippines.
Besides, Hontiveros said, the government still has P9 billion appropriated by Congress under the "Bayanihan to Recover as One" Act or Bayanihan 2 to address the need to build temporary isolation or quarantine facilities.
“So, for the President to now say that, okay, 'I will command the PNP and the AFP to take over hotels,' that should not be necessary,” she said.
“The hotel industry has also spoken up…there’s no need to take over or to confiscate—to use one of his favorite words—to confiscate medicines or even vaccines, if we already put into serious motion negotiations for the procurement of vaccines since last year,” she pointed out.
In a public briefing Thursday night, Duterte defended his administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response saying the government is working and doing its best to fix the situation.
In his speech, he said he can order authorities to take over hotels to ensure there are enough facilities for patients infected with COVID-19 but acknowledged that “is not a remedy desired in a democratic state.”
Hontiveros, however, said she finds it inappropriate for the country’s leader to issue such statements.
“So this is the second year of the pandemic…The president should not be speaking in those terms,” she said.
“From the start, during the first year, he should have set into motion those evidence-based true responses to a COVID-19 pandemic without such preferred male-fisted approached on his part, without drama, without panic, like what other countries did,” she said.
“If he did, we could have saved more lives and saved the economy from this recession,” the lawmaker added.