Research fellows from the OCTA Research on Monday, September 6, explained that the decision for implementing lockdowns in different parts of the country is the responsibility of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and the local government units (LGUs) and not with the group.
OCTA Research founder Dr. Ranjit Rye clarified this during the House Committee on Good Government and Accountability which has sought a congressional probe into the OCTA’s research methodology.
“OCTA Research is a private research organization here with the intent very clearly to help, to contribute to the collective response. The decision for lockdowns is really at the local level and the national level. They decide,” Rye told lawmakers during the virtual hearing, when he responded to Representative Jesus “Bong” Suntay’s query.
“We merely recommend. It's wrong to say that OCTA is responsible for the decision of the government. (The) government has the Department of Health (DOH),” he added, noting that the group has different models with the DOH but it is sharing it with the health agency.
Rye also agreed concerns about the economy should be taken into consideration when imposing lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another research fellow, Dr. Guido David, also defended the accuracy of OCTA Research’s projection saying that the surges it predicted had all transpired.
“When you say mali (it’s wrong), I mean there's a range of errors. Is it 100 precent incorrect or five percent incorrect? The level of error we’re seeing is only five percent, and our projections, our models, have 100 percent surge detection accuracy,” David pointed out when asked by Deputy Speaker Bernadette Herrera-Dy.
“The important matter is our models predicted a surge, and it happened. We only projected a surge three times, and it all happened,” he added.
Several House lawmakers have earlier filed House Resolution No. 2075 to call for a probe into OCTA’s credentials and background after it gave projections and warnings about the COVID-19 pandemic that were deemed over the top by some businessmen and private sector groups.
It earned flak, more so, when it released a political survey showing results of a May 2022 presidential survey showing Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, topping the presidential and vice-presidential polls in the upcoming elections.