Members of Tindig Pilipinas hold a prayer rally outside the Senate building on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2020. Cathy Miranda/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — A pro-democracy group on Tuesday slammed the government for being “useless” and for being “silent” in addressing the novel coronavirus concerns in the country.
“Nagagagalit kami dahil inutil ang gobyerno sa isyung ito (We’re mad because the government is useless when it comes to this issue.),” Teddy Lopez, member of Tindig Pilipinas said, as some 100 members of the group rallied outside the Senate, where a hearing on the deadly new virus is being conducted.
“Napa-insensitive naman nila para sabihin na rasista ang mga Pilipino, para matakot at magalit dahil sa kanilang kapalpakan (They were very insensitive to say that Filipinos are racist, so they could instill fear just because of their lapses),” he added.
Lopez said that the government was not effective in communicating with the public, adding: “Walang instructions for us na kumalma kasi they have it under control (There was no instruction for us to calm down and said that they have it under control.)
Members of Tindig Pilipinas hold a prayer rally outside the Senate building on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2020. Cathy Miranda/INQUIRER.net
After an emergency meeting with top government officials on Monday night, Duterte said that pointing fingers at Chinese nationals for the spread of the virus is xenophobic.
“Instead, there was a lot of silence and syempre (of course) people felt afraid dahil (because of) uncertainty…,” Lopez pointed out.
“And until now, the response of government has been very, very slow. Pagkatapos nung nagagalit na yung tao, they [the government] were dealing the race card. Hindi kami rasista, takot lang kami, takot kami sa nangyayari. Kasi it’s a health issue na hindi pa masyadong nae-explain sa publiko,” he went on to say.
(After the people went mad, the government then were dealing with the race card. We’re not racists, we’re just afraid of what’s happening. It’s a health issue that hasn’t been well explained to the public.)
This comes a day after President Rodrigo Duterte urged Filipinos not to blame Chinese people for the spread of nCov.
“Blaming Chinese is xenophobia,” Duterte said. “You hate anything that is Chinese, that is not good. China has been kind to us. We can also show the same favor to them.”
Members of Tindig Pilipinas hold a prayer rally outside the Senate building on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2020. Cathy Miranda/INQUIRER.net
The group also said that they were addressing social media posts were Filipino netizens were called racists for calling the temporary travel ban against foreigners coming from China, Macau and Hong Kong.
Lopez said that the government should be “transparent” that there is a danger currently being faced due to the virus scare, as well as being open to the public about the steps they have taken to address the issue.