An irked Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was seen in a video clip berating medical frontliners in a recent meeting of the national task force against the pandemic.
The leaked video obtained by Inquirer showed Roque telling off a supposed group of doctors who lamented the government’s decision to relax the quarantine protocols amid the surge of COVID-19 cases.
Roque was arguing with Philippine College of Physicians President Maricar Limpin, who warned the task force on the implications of shifting to a more relaxed quarantine status.
“We are begging you to please, please, place NCR and other places on ECQ. And we would like to request that it should be a hard ECQ, meaning to say it should be a ‘real ECQ,’ not the one we saw last August,” Limpin was heard.
In response, Roque said: “We employed the ‘entire government approach’ thinking about economic ramifications, thinking about the people who will go hungry. It does not mean that we care any less.”
“Do not sit there as if you’re the only ones right. We’re trying to achieve total health. Who wants COVID to kill people? Are you saying that only medical front-liners are concerned about the health of the people? We all want to save lives. For crying out loud, no one in the government wants a single life lost. No one,” an agitated Roque said.
“How dare you think that we are not considering steps to prevent the loss of lives?” he said.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello can be heard telling Roque to calm down.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Rappler, Limpin said she was shocked over Roque’s attitude during the meeting.
“As a government official, a spokesperson at that, I don’t expect him to do scold me when all that I’m trying to do is to help alleviate the government, alleviate the plight of the healthcare system,” Limpin was quoted as saying.
“If Secretary Roque can do this to us doctors, what more for other people?” she added.
Dr. Tony Leachon said in a tweet that a Cabinet official must apologize for his rude behavior.
When asked for comment, Roque told the Inquirer that all IATF meetings are confidential in nature.
