Duterte bares reason why easing of lockdown in Metro Manila was postponed

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Saying he did not want to cause many deaths, President Rodrigo Duterte said late Friday that he had to postpone the easing of the lockdown in Metro Manila because the guidelines were inadequate and had to be reviewed.

“I was one of those who said the guidelines were not enough. This [is] to further refine the guidelines. I ask for the general public’s continued understanding and patience,” the President said in a televised address recorded on Friday and aired on Saturday.

“I know that many of you are raring to go to work and conduct your business already, but we have to make sure that we cover any contingency so that we may reduce the risk of infections,” said Mr. Duterte, who was criticized by businessmen for the decision that caused financial losses.

“And I would not want to be remembered as one who caused the death of so many. If possible, I want to reduce the number of deaths in the Philippines during my watch,” said the President, who is also threatened by charges of crimes against humanity for the deaths of more than 6,000 Filipinos in his controversial drug war.

The country has also sustained more than 34,000 deaths from more than 2.2 million cases of COVID-19, drawing further withering criticism of the Duterte administration’s management of the worst epidemic in Philippine history.

Before COVID-19, the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies estimated that the Philippines had around 34,000 deaths due to the 1881 cholera pandemic.

The Philippines is also believed to have suffered tens of thousands of deaths due to the 1918 flu pandemic that emerged in the United States, but official US colonial records recorded only more than 5,000.

As of Saturday, the health department reported 34,978 deaths from COVID-19 with 185,706 still active cases, only three days before the new lockdown system is expected to be implemented.

Before its implementation, however, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora urged the Department of Health (DOH) to revise its system of tallying patients and tag patients according to their actual residence instead of the location of the hospital where they are being treated.

Zamora complained that the DOH’s current system gives an erroneous impression of the number of cases in a locality because many cases actually involve patients who are nonresidents.

He said San Juan City recorded 89 COVID-19 patients when only 53 residents were confined in both Cardinal Santos Medical Center and San Juan Medical Center.