Nancy Binay: Government’s COVID-19 response a ‘failure’

(FILE) People line up to get free food supplies at the Maginhawa community pantry in Teacher’s Village, Quezon City, on Saturday, April 17, 2021, after the project went viral this week as more people donate food stock on a small shelf where underprivileged people can access it but are told to only get what they need. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — The response of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to the COVID-19 pandemic is a failure, Senator Nancy Binay said Friday, as she called on the government to admit its inability to solve the problems caused by the health crisis.

Binay made this remark when asked if she agrees that the emergence of community pantries shows the government’s supposed failure to properly deal with the pandemic.

“Yes. It is a failure. The government response is a failure and I think the government needs to admit na hindi niya kayang bigyan ng solusyon ‘yung problema (that it cannot give solution to the problem),” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

“Tingin ko nga kaya tayo nasa ganitong sitwasyon ngayon kasi there is always that denial that there is a problem, there is always that move to downplay the problem. Paano natin bibigyan ng solusyon ‘yung problema kung hindi natin tinatanggap na may malaki tayong problema?” she added.

(I think we are in this situation because there is always that denial that there is a problem, there is always that move to downplay the problem. How can we provide a solution if we are not admitting that there is a huge problem?)

Binay said the government should instead “appreciate and welcome” efforts of the public to help with the pandemic response, adding that the country can only solve the problems caused by the pandemic “if we all work together.”

But despite calling the government’s COVID-19 response a failure, the senator pointed out that calls for Duterte’s resignation would only further divide the country.

“Siguro at the moment ‘yung ganoong panawagan would bring us more, parang it would divide the country more at the moment. Hindi natin kailangan ng ganoong division. Hindi natin kailangan ‘yung ganoong paghiwa-hiwalay. What we need right now is for all of us to work together,” she said.

(Maybe at the moment, calls like that would divide the country more at the moment. We don’t need that kind of division. What we need right now is for us to work together.)

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