Abolish IATF? Palace says its policies helped avoid more COVID-19 deaths

FILE PHOTO: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (pink), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via REUTERS.

MANILA, Philippines — If not for the COVID-19 task force leading the pandemic response, the country would not have been able to prevent more deaths caused by the new coronavirus disease.

This was how presidential spokesperson Harry Roque defended the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) against calls for its abolition to let local government units (LGUs) take over in the COVID-19 response.

According to him, the IATF crafted policies that effectively enabled the government to address the health crisis.

“Sa tingin ko po, tama po na nagkaroon tayo ng IATF. We do not claim to have been perfect, but certainly, let’s give recognition where it is due,” Roque said in a press briefing.

(I think it was correct that we have the IATF. We do not claim to have been perfect but certainly, let’s give recognition where it is due.)

“Dahil nakikita naman po natin, naiiwasan natin ang mas marami pa sanang kamatayan or mga taong namatay kung hindi po tayo nag implement ng measures na sinangguni at binuo ng ating IATF,” he added.

(We see that we wouldn’t have been able to prevent more deaths due to COVID-19 if not for the measures crafted and implemented by the IATF.)

As of Wednesday, the Philippines’ case fatality rate is at 1.51 percent after 38,164 deaths were recorded out of the 2.53 million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started last year.

READ: 186 more COVID-19 patients die — DOH

It was Senator Joel Villanueva who said the IATF should be abolished as it was no longer effective in addressing the pandemic.

“Kung wala pong IATF, wala po tayong naging desisyon [sa] pagbili po sa bakuna sa buong bayan, sa buong bansa. Wala po tayong nagkaroon ng alert level system, ng mga quarantine classification,” Roque said.

(If there’s no IATF, we wouldn’t have had a decision in terms of vaccines for the country, the alert level system, or the quarantine classifications.)

“Napakahirap po kasi gawin ;yan kung walang kumukumpas. Ang papel lang naman po ng IATF ay taga-kumpas. Talaga naman po ang magpapatupad po nyan ay mga lokal na pamahalaan,” he continued.

(It’s hard to do this when no one is leading. The only role of the IATF is to lead. The ones implementing the policies are the local government units.)

Roque also noted that it was not under the Duterte administration when the IATF was created.

It was the late president Benigno S. Aquino III who ordered the establishment of the IATF in 2014 to address the emergence of various infectious diseases.

KGA