MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has created an ad hoc committee focused on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response of the government.
During the late hours of the special session on the bill granting special powers to President Rodrigo Duterte in response to the coronavirus crisis, Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said that the committee shall focus on “all matters directly and principally relating to the appropriate government response on the novel coronavirus and how to curb is effect on the economy and the general public especially the labor force.”
After delivering his message, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano then moved for the creation of the committee.
“If I don’t hear any objection, we will form an ad hoc committee called the Defeat COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) Committee and together with the Filipino people, we will defeat COVID-19,” Cayetano said.
Romualdez moved to elect Cayetano as the chairperson of the committee.
Cayetano accepted the nomination and said he wants Romualdez to be a co-chairperson of the committee.
Cayetano also said that all members who wish to join the committee are welcomed.
“It is nowhere as dangerous as being a nurse, as being a radiologist, as being a medical technician, as being a doctor, or being as an ambulance driver,” Cayetano said.
“This committee will be a working committee. We will do a lot of work from home. We will do it through digital. There will be a lot of meetings,” he added.
Cayetano earlier said that the committee shall include the House committees on health, economic affairs, tourism, trade and industry, labor and employment, public information, banks, and financial intermediaries, appropriations, ways and means, local government, and the Metro Manila development.
The committee will also include representatives of the “most vulnerable” to the disease.
COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that first emerged in China’s city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late 2019.
The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2.
The virus causes mild symptoms such as fever and cough for most people but can cause serious illness such as pneumonia for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems.
Coronavirus is a family of viruses, which surfaces have a crown-like appearance.