Sen. Richard Gordon (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — “Is OCTA being punished for being right?”
Senator Richard Gordon posed this question on Monday as he raised alarm over a proposed House probe of the credentials and background of the OCTA Research.
“Using the power of congressional oversight to question the motives of a private non-profit group whose members are academics with published credentials is a waste of resources and constitutes a veiled attempt to assign the blame to the bearer of bad news,” Gordon said in a statement.
“Accusing the same group of ‘gaming the system’ by brazenly trying to manipulate the health emergency in order to promote its professional reputation at the expense of public welfare is a preposterous idea which cannot be allowed to fester by allowing idle minds to sensationalize it ‘in aid of legislation,’” he added.
Gordon also said the “dubious motives ascribed to this exercise becomes more questionable” in the wake of the “high level of accuracy” shown by the OCTA Research forecasts.
“Which brings us to question: Is OCTA being punished for being right?” he asked.
He reminded his fellow lawmakers that legislative efforts should instead be directed to address “more urgent” concerns and issues that will “profoundly impact the way we deal with the current pandemic.”
These include the unclaimed claims owed by PhilHealth to hospitals and healthcare service providers, the lack of testing and contact tracing in most local government units, and the need to ramp up vaccination in the country, according to the senator.
“These times require the best from all of us. Nowadays, solidarity is self-interest. If we fail to understand this, everyone loses,” Gordon added.
Earlier, five House lawmakers filed House Resolution No. 2075, calling for an investigation on OCTA Research’s “qualifications, research methodologies, partnerships, and composition.”
This comes after the OCTA Research and the Department of Health and other health experts debated about the use of the term surge in referring to the increase of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila.