Senate President Vicente Sotto III slammed President Duterte's decision to retain the mandatory use of face shields, saying health experts, who recommended it, have yet to prove its effectiveness in lessening COVID-19 infection.

"Health experts? They have not submitted evidences. It's all talk!" Sotto said in message sent to reporters Tuesday, June 22.

Sotto even went further to saying that the move reflects the government's pandemic response, which "is not good".

"Now I want to believe the LGU (local government unit) reports saying the handling of the pandemic is not good at all," he added.

He also tweeted about this after Duterte's spokesperson Harry Roque announced on social media Monday night that the President decided to still require the use of face shields both indoors and outdoors "on the advice of health experts and in view of the Delta variant".f

So called health experts daw says face shields will remain, everywhere! Now I know why the Handling of the pandemic is not good!

— Tito Sotto (@sotto_tito) June 21, 2021

"So called health experts daw says face shields will remain, everywhere! Now I know why the handling of the pandemic is not good!" Sotto wrote.

But Sotto said the DOH has yet to submit to the Senate a list of countries that, like the Philippines, require the use of face shields.

Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III also echoed Sotto's call for explanation on the effectiveness of face shields.

"As far as I know is the only country in the world requiring the use of both face mask and face shield, requiring face shield use even outdoors where the heat and wind can easily disable the COVID-19 virus," Pimentel said.

"Let us not allow the face shield to be just another requirement to be used to regulate behavior under pain of penalty for not following requirement. should explain the science behind this decision as best as it could," he added.

Last June 17, Sotto said Duterte, during a brief meeting in Malacañang, had agreed to limit the use of face shields in hospitals. This was, however, opposed by the government's pandemic task force co-chaired by Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III.

Duque previously maintained there is scientific basis that face shields provide an added protection against the novel coronavirus.

In his pre-recorded speech, Duterte apologized for causing confusion on the face shield policy, saying never told senators “with finality that we will do away with the face shield.”

He said the Philippines cannot afford another wave of COVID-19 outbreak as the economy has not yet recovered from the impacts of the pandemic.