Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto. Senate PRIB file photo
MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Rector on Thursday warned that the halt in COVID-19 testing conducted by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) would result in an “artificial decline” in the number of cases in the country.
In a statement, Recto pointed out that one in four reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests conducted in the country is done by the PRC.
“The temporary absence of Red Cross testing distorts the national COVID picture,” he said.
The PRC has stopped conducting COVID-19 tests for the government after PhilHealth failed to settle some P930 million it owed for previous tests implemented.
Since October 16, PRC stopped conducting tests on arriving overseas Filipino workers, passengers in airports and seaports, individuals asking for COVID-19 tests in government swabbing facilities, front-line health and government workers, and others included in the expanded testing guidelines of the Department of Health.
President Rodrigo Duterte has assured that the government will pay PhilHealth’s P930-million debt to the PRC.
“The absence of [PRC] deflates the infection rate, making any dip in the reported number of verified cases an artificial decline If [PRC] stops testing arriving OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), our first line of defense against imported cases is abandoned,” Recto went on.
He said PhilHealth “should have been proactive in paying PNRC for services rendered.”
“It should always bear in mind that its role is to keep the frontlines supplied, for that is how the war is won,” he added.
PhilHealth earlier cited procurement issues in the agreement it entered with PRC as the reason behind the failure to pay the debt as it assured earlier that it would settle its debt to PRC.
“The fight against the pandemic has no room for logistical timeouts which lead to costly delays and preventable deaths,” said Recto.
He said the case of the unpaid debt to the PRC is “a recent example of how slow and low disbursement and procurement have snagged government efforts to save lives and livelihood during this pandemic.”
“We can only flatten the curve if we first straighten the zigzags in the release of funds and the procurement of goods for which these are intended,” Recto added.
On Wednesday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 362,243.
Of the number, 311,506 have already recovered from the disease while 6,747 have died.