MANILA, Philippines— Blame it to the confusing data of the Department of Health or the penchant of some people to use American terms like “flattening the curve.”
Those were perhaps the reasons why Health Secretary Francisco Duque III erred in declaring the flattening of the COVID-19 pandemic curve in the country but only to retract it later, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III surmised on Thursday.
“Ayoko ng makisuntok kay Secretary Duque. Yung akin kasi siguro he’s been fed some kind of info, biglang nagbigay ng statement, later realizing na mali…(then he issued a statement, later realizing it’s wrong)” Sotto said in an interview with reporters.
It is no longer surprising, however, if Duque himself would get confused with the figures being released to the public by his agency.
“Yung stats nila, marami talagang tanong e kaya sya mismo hindi ako nagtataka kung malito si Secretary Duque. I’m not giving an excuse for him ha, I’m just saying that that’s my guess,” the Senate leader said.
(There are really many questions in their stats and no wonder Secretary got confused. I’m not giving an excuse for him ha, I’m just saying that that’s my guess)
Sotto was among 14 senators, who had earlier filed a resolution calling for Duque’s resignation over his alleged failure of leadership in handling the coronavirus crisis.
But aside from the DOH’s confusing figures, Sotto questioned why some people would use the term “flattening the curve” when they could simply say “the figures have gone down.”
“Mahilig kasi yung iba sa atin na gumamit ng term ng mga Amerikano. American term yun e, flattened the curve. Pwede mo namang sabihin the figures have gone down or the graph has shown that …” he said.
It was during a pre-State of the Nation Address forum on Wednesday that Duque claimed the Philippines had “successfully flattened the curve since April.”
After drawing flak for his remark, Duque admitted making an error, saying what he only meant was that the curve was bent in April following the imposition of enhanced community quarantine in most parts of the country.
The latest figures showed the country has 58,850 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 20,976 recoveries and 1,614 fatalities.