MANILA, Philippines — “Lahat ng tutulong, ikukulong.”
(Everyone who helps will be detained.)
This was seemingly the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission’s (PACC) “motto” in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Thursday after one the body’s officials asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate Vice President Leni Robredo for “competing” with the government.
https://twitter.com/iampinglacson/status/1245603312142958593
PACC Commissioner Manuelito Luna earlier said Robredo’s initiatives aimed at helping COVID-19 frontliners “compete with, or calculated to undermine” the national government efforts in this time of the public health emergency.
In a statement, Robredo’s camp called Luna’s statement as “ridiculous, inappropriate, so out of touch.”
“She (Robredo) did this because she saw a need, and she took action to meet it. She did this because it was the right and responsible thing to do,” the Vice President’s spokesman, Barry Gutierrez, said.
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) has so far raised at least P36 million for the procurement of PPEs for health workers. It also launched free shuttle service and free dormitories for health workers affected by the Luzon-wide quarantine.
The PACC official’s call comes as the administration received fierce criticism for President Duterte’s “shoot to kill” order against unruly Luzon quarantine violators.
But in a separate statement, fellow PACC commissioner Greco Belgica said Luna’s statement is “personal” and does not reflect the anti-corruption body’s sentiment.
Duterte placed the entire Luzon under a month-long “enhanced community quarantine”, effectively a lockdown, on March 16 in a bid to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus disease that has so far infected 2,311 in the country.
Meanwhile, the Philippines’ death toll from the respiratory disease reached 96; however, a total of 50 patients were able to recover.