MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Thursday insisted that the Philippines is not the worst in the world when it comes to COVID-19 resilience, pointing out that the Bloomberg report only included 53 out of 194 countries globally.
The Philippines ranked last in 53 countries in Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking report.
“Mapapansin niyo na 194 countries, 53 lang ang sinurvey. Kaya maiintindihan ng lahat na kapag tayo ay huli, hindi naman ibig sabihin na huli tayo sa buong mundo, huli lang tayo doon sa mga pinag-aaralan ng Bloomberg,” he said.
(As you can see, out of 194 countries, only 53 were studied. So when we ranked last, it does not mean we were worst in the world, we were only worst among those countries surveyed.)
He, however, conceded that the country’s resiliency was largely affected by lockdowns and restrictions that the government implemented to curb transmission of COVID-19.
“Where we can agree is ang tine-test nila ay ‘yung economic resilience. Every time na tayo ay nagla-lockdown, talagang nasasara ang ekonomiya at walang economic resilience kapag tayo ay nagla-lockdown,” he added.
(Every time we implement lockdowns, our economy closes, therefore there is no economic resilience.)
Malacañang previously said it was not surprising that the Philippines fell at the bottom in terms of economic resilience and blamed the worldwide challenge in accessing COVID-19 vaccines that are crucial in fighting the pandemic.
Roque also maintained that the country’s testing efforts are enough, which is risk-based and only tests those with symptoms.
He said the government is testing around 80,000 a day which is worth P160 million a day.