Put health experts in COVID-19 task force, not Cabinet members — Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s COVID-19 response should be “science-driven” and led by health experts instead of Cabinet members, said Senator Imee Marcos on Tuesday as she reiterated her call to abolish the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) for its failed response on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think there are very competent men and women in the IATF; however, these are the Cabinet members,” said Marcos in an interview over CNN Philippines.

“I strongly suggest that they put together a complete task force rather than just holding in all these Cabinet members who as we know are very, very busy with full departments to run,” she added.

When asked who should lead the new task force if IATF gets abolished, Marcos said that while the current vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. is a competent soldier, she believes that Galvez “may, as a good soldier, be taking orders from too many people.”

Marcos said that instead of Cabinet officials, the government should appoint people “who are sure of what they’re doing” from places like the Department of Health, University of the Philippines’ Philippine General Hospital, and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

The senator first called for the abolishment of the IATF last month, with Senate President Vicente Sotto III “concurring” with Marcos’s proposal.

When asked why she was open to expressing her proposal of abolishing the IATF, Marcos explained that as a “true friend” of President Rodrigo Duterte, it is her duty to tell him the truth.

She explained that because she grew up in Malacañang, she knows what it’s like to be surrounded by people who do not tell you everything.

“Minsan, ‘yung mga tao, sinasabi lang ‘yung magaganda… ‘Wag tayong maniniwala (Sometimes, people will only tell you the good things… Let’s not believe that), there has to be a truth-teller somewhere,” Marcos said.

JE