Screenshot from Isko Moreno’s FB live
MANILA, Philippines — Decisiveness, acting fast, and not pointing fingers would be the COVID-19 response of the tandem of Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso and Dr. Willie Ong, should they win the 2022 polls.
“Turn around? Decisiveness. We guarantee you, we will act on the matter. We will keep on trying. I may fail, we may fail. But in our failure, we will learn. We will not point our fingers to others,” Domagoso said during the tandem’s official launch on Wednesday when asked what their actions would be to turn around the country’s COVID-19
situation.
“We will continue to work hand-in-hand together. We’ll create an opera, an orchestra, putting people in their respective field of undertaking.”
“Fast, mabilis. We’ll focus our government — Doc Willie and I, given a chance by people — in two things: life and livelihood, addressing minimum basic needs. The next administration, under our watch, will invest on human development index,” the mayor went on.
For his part, Ong recognized that battling COVID-19 is hard and shared his medical expertise by laying out various responses.
“Number 1, ‘yung health workers napakahalaga. Maraming ospital, maraming bed. Kaya lang demoralized ‘yung mga health workers, doctors, and nurses. ‘Yung sweldo nila, ‘yung allowance. Hindi lang ‘yun, kailangan din nila ng sa tingin ko parang recognition ‘di ba? Kasi mahirap talaga. Talagang buwis buhay. Tsaka pag na-COVID sila, dapat covered ‘yung gastos nila. Talagang susuyuin natin health workers,” he expounded.
(Number 1, our health workers are important. We have many hospitals and beds. But, our health workers, doctors, and nurses are demoralized. Their salary and allowance. Not only that, I think they need recognition because they risk their lives. And when they contract COVID, their expenses should be covered. We have to woo them.)
Aside from the medical frontliners, Ong mentioned that the number of hospitals and free COVID-19 testing should increase.
He added that there should be an intent to order second-generation COVID-19 vaccines which are better for the Delta variant. He also said that the country should be ready for medicines and medical equipment.
The vice presidential candidate also noted that lockdowns and face shields are only short-term solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tsaka itong mga lockdown, no lockdown, short-term. Face shield, no face shield, short term. Vaccine, gamot, at prevention ang habol natin,” Ong concluded.
(These lockdowns and face shields are only short-term. Vaccines, medicines, and prevention should be our way.)
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