Vice President and opposition leader Leni Robredo said it was wrong to grant emergency powers to President Duterte as a “default” response to every problem besetting the country.

“Parang ngayon kasi, kapag may problema, default na—kapag may problema, instead na busisiin kung paano maaayos, parang default nang ‘bigyan ng emergency powers.’ Hindi yata iyon tamang paraan (If there is a problem now,
it is default to give emergency powers, instead of scrutinizing it on how it should be solved. That’s not the right way),” Robredo said.

The House panel investigating alleged anomalies at the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) sought emergency powers for Duterte to address the rampant corruption in the agency.

Duterte was granted special powers by Congress as the country faces a health emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The vice president cited some lawmakers like Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senator Ping Lacson have already spoken out that it would no longer be necessary to give additional powers to Duterte to address problems hounding the state-run insurance firm.

Robredo said she was saddened the alleged massive corruption happened in PhilHealth at a time of health of crisis.

”Sobra talagang nakakalungkot iyong nangyari, kasi pera iyon ng taumbayan eh. Pera iyon, galing iyon sa kontribusyon ng ordinaryong mga manggagawa, na kinakaltasan iyong suweldo buwan-buwan (What happened is very sad because it’s public funds. The money came from the monthly contribution of ordinary workers),” she said.

“Para sa akin, unforgivable iyon, lalo pa kasi nangyari ito at a time na kailangan na kailangan natin ng PhilHealth, kasi ang dami ngang nagkakasakit (For me, that’s unforgivable, especially it happened at a time we badly need PhilHealth, because many people get sick),” she added.