House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)
The Philippines has "succeeded" along with the rest of the world in fighting the deadly Covid-19. House Speaker Martin Romualdez gave this assessment following the World Health Organization's (WHO) decision to lift its Covid-19 global health emergency declaration. For many, this marked the end of the pandemic as we know it. “The decision shows that countries around the globe, including the Philippines, have succeeded through collaborative effort in fighting the highly infectious novel coronavirus and its variants, though they remain a threat to public health,” Romualdez said in a statement Sunday, May 7. “I think our people have learned to live with the virus. Though there is no wear-face-mask mandate, many of them continue to wear mask and observe physical distancing. They are aware of the residual threat and they are not letting their guard down,” he said. He said the lifting of the global health emergency “should pave the way for us to sustain our economic growth or even take the economy to a higher growth path for the benefit of our people, especially the poor". “It should translate to increased mobility, more economic activities and therefore additional job and income opportunities for our workers and their families,” the Leyte 1st district congressman said. Romualdez, the majority leader of the previous 18th Congress, spearheaded the passage of several laws Congress enacted in 2020 and 2021 to help people and all sectors affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. These laws include Bayanihan 1 and 2 (Bayanihan to Heal as One Act and Bayanihan to Recover as One Act), which provided billions of pesos in assistance to the poor, health workers and small and medium enterprises that struggled due to the health crisis.