Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque slammed the recent remarks of Vice President Leni Robredo saying that the Duterte administration should stop doing propaganda but rather focus on the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Roque defended the government’s response and cited data from the World Health Organization.
The Philippines ranked 78 out of 98 countries when it comes to handling the COVID-19 pandemic based on the Australian think tank Lowy Institute.
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Roque said that the Philippines ranked 32nd among countries worldwide in terms of total confirmed cases, 45th in terms of the number of active cases, 134th in terms of Covid-19 cases per one million population, and 72nd in terms of case fatality rate.
“Hindi po propaganda ang WHO. Baka magalit ang WHO dahil sinasabi niyo na nagpapakahalatang propaganda. Hindi po. WHO ang nagsabi kung nasaan na tayo sa ating Covid respose,” Roque said.
“Ito ang katotohanan. Bakit namin paniniwalaan ang ibang pag-aaral, samantalang lahat tayo nagtitiwala sa WHO sa panahon ng pandemya. Hindi propaganda ‘yan, katotohanan. Buksan ang mata, buksan ang tenga,” Roque added.
Roque said that it’s unfair to call the work of medical frontliners as mere propaganda.
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“It is unfair to refer to their [health care workers] work output as propaganda. ‘Wag naman po,” the Palace official added.
Robredo said that the Duterte administration should work and find more solutions to the pandemic and look at better-performing countries in handling the crisis.
“Sana instead na magdepensa tayo, tanggapin natin. Tanggapin para maaksyunan nang maayos. Nakita ko iyong mga response, parang defensive pa din tayo. Parang jina-justify pa din natin kung bakit mababa iyong response,” Robredo said. (TDT)
