Former vice president Jejomar “Jojo” Binay on Friday (July 23) said the new quarantine restrictions of the government came about because of its “inefficiency and lack of urgency.”
Binay was reacting to a recent decision made by President Duterte reverting the National Capital Region (NCR) back to General Community Quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions and four other areas.
On Thursday night (July 22), the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the local transmission of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus in the country.
“The number of COVID-19 cases is rising fast. Again, the government is imposing restrictions. Again. Paulit-ulit na ito pero hindi natututo (We keep on repeating, we never learned,” he said in a statement.
“And until government shapes up, we will be trapped in this loop of uncertainty because of the government’s inefficiency and lack of urgency,” the former vice president added.
Binay said the government will again blame the people for the heightened quarantine restrictions.
“Sigurado ako, ang sasabihin nila kasalanan natin ito. Kailan ba aaminin ng gobyerno na hanggang ngayon, palpak pa rin sila sa testing, contact tracing, border control, at vaccine procurement (I am certain that they will blame this on us. When will the government admit that until now, it has failed in testing, contact tracing, border control, and vaccine procurement)?”
The DOH on Friday insisted that the Philippines remains under the “low-risk” classification for COVID-19 in spite of the fact that some areas are starting to see a rise in new cases amid the threat of the Delta variant.