Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Tuesday, March, defended President Duterte’s ‘maliit na bagay’ (small thing) remark on the coronavirus pandemic, saying instead that what the Chief Executive meant is that the virus will not be here forever.

“Ang sinasabi lang ng presidente temporary lang po iyan, hindi po iyan forever (What the president is saying is that it’s only temporary, it’s not forever),” Roque said, referring to the virus which so far has killed 12,837 Filipinos and left four million jobless.

The spokesperson, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, tried to defuse the controversy that the President stirred with his statement during Monday night’s pre-recorded address to the nation.

“Well, ang sinasabi po ng presidente ay patuloy naman pong ang Pilipinas ay nabubuhay sa kabila ng COVID-19 (Well, what the president was saying was the Philippines continues to live despite COVID-19),” he said during a virtual press briefing.

While the government lamented the deaths and the unemployment caused by the pandemic, what the President meant was that the country’s fatality rate fall below that of the other more developed countries.

“Ang sinasabi ng presidente ay compared to other countries lalong lalo na yun ating fatality rate nasa 2.05 percent po so we have been spared from even more deaths na na-experience ng mga mas mayayaman at mas developed na bansa na mayroong mas maraming pondo para sa healthcare (The president was saying as compared to other countries, especially our fatality rate at 2.05 percent, we have been spared from even more deaths experienced by other more developed countries with bigger funds for healthcare),” he said.

But in a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on February 26, the Philippines lagged behind in the Western Pacific region in terms of the number of cases per 24 hours, total cases, and total deaths.

Western Pacific region covers mainland China (Hong Kong SAR, Macau, and Taiwan), Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Korea, and Singapore, among others.

Roque said that Duterte was not belittling the difficulties of the past year, but that he was merely giving hope that Filipinos will be able to survive the pandemic.

“Lilipas din po iyan at pagdating po ng bakuna magkakaroon tayo ng solusyon sa ating problema, magkaroon tayo ng new normal (It will pass and when the vaccines arrive, we will have a solution to our problem, we will have a new normal),” the spokesman added.

“We will heal as one at malapit na po iyong panahon na iyon dahil inaatupag na po ni Secretary (Carlito) Galvez ang pagdating ng mga bakuna (that time is near because Secretary Galvez is handling the arrival of the vaccines).”

The Philippines was the last Southeast Asian country to start its vaccination program, lagging behind countries like Myanmar, which is under a violent political upheaval.

It primarily depends on the more than one million vaccines donated by China’s Sinovac and the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca, and has yet to receive vaccines it supposedly procured from its $14.2-billion fund for the pandemic.