A YEAR ON LOCKDOWN: Imee seeks IATF overhaul, Villanueva says ‘anniver-sorry’

LOCAL LOCKDOWN Village guards in Barangay Baclaran, Parañaque City, install an accordion-type barrier in March 2021, on a street that leads to a bridge which connects their city to Pasay City, where the more transmissible South African variant of the Covid-19 virus has been detected. The variant has also been detected in Parañaque, forcing the local lockdown. INQUIRER file photo / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Imee Marcos is urging President Rodrigo Duterte to overhaul the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) amid the significant new surge of Covid-19 cases.

Marcos lamented that it has been a year already since people have been experiencing the lockdown–spending most of their time inside their homes due to the pandemic–rendering thousands of people jobless and hardly without access to education.

“…It’s an anniversary not worth remembering or celebrating,” Marcos said in a text message to reporters.

“The only way to commemorate this continuing misery is for PRRD [Duterte’s initials] to overhaul the IATF — what exactly have they accomplished after one year?” Marcos asked.

While the Covid-19 vaccines have started arriving in the Philippines, the senator lamented the loss of lives and income as well as lack of fund sources to respond to the pandemic.

“What will the IATF recommend this time to control this new surge?” Marcos further asked.

For his part, Senator Joel Villanueva said the government should be saying “anniver-sorry” to the public as the country seems to be returning to square one in addressing the pandemic.

“Bilang parte ng govt, dapat ‘anniver-sorry’ po tayong lahat sa publiko,” Villanueva said in a separate text message, noting authorities should have already learned from last year’s mistakes.

(Being part of the government, “anniver-sorry” is the proper term we say to the public.)

“Sa lagay po natin ngayon, parang bumalik po tayo sa square one. Split na po tayo sa Covid, makipag break na tayong tuluyan. Kase gusto na po natin makipagbalikan sa trabaho at maayos na kabuhayan,” he also said.

(In our situation now, it seems we have reverted to square one. Let’s split with Covid, let’s break up with Covid all the way. Because what we want is to reconcile with our work and have a better livelihood.)

JPV