FILE PHOTO A police officer keeps watch on a section of Parkland Avenue in Barangay 177, Caloocan City, on Sept. 7, enforcing an example of a granular lockdown. INQUIRER / NINO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — If Senator Panfilo Lacson and running mate Senate President Vicente Sotto III should get lucky by winning the 2022 national elections, they won’t likely implement more lockdowns due to coronavirus outbreaks.
“We’re toying [with] the idea na after June 30 next year, kung kami yung papalarin, we’re thinking of wala na tayong lockdown kasi ‘di nagwo-work yung longest lockdown e,” Lacson said during the Pandesal Forum on Thursday.
(We’re toying [with] the idea that after June 30 next year, should we win, we’re thinking of doing away with lockdowns because imposing such is not working.)
“Patay na yung economy natin. Ang daming nawalan ng trabaho, ang daming nagsara, lockdown tayo nang lockdown, hindi naman nagwo-work. So baka merong ibang approach,” he added.
(Our economy is suffering. A lot of people lost their jobs, many businesses closed. We kept on imposing lockdowns, yet these are not working. So maybe there’s another approach.)
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the Philippines has been known as the country with the longest lockdown.
In September this year, the government shifted to imposing granular lockdowns in Metro Manila instead of the more stringent quarantine classifications.
“Ang daming maling dapat baguhin [There are a lot of things we need to change] and COVID-19 is here to stay. We don’t know when it will end, so mas mahirap i-address yung COVID-19 but there are other ways na dapat mag-modify [that we can modify],” Lacson went on.
“Obviously, what we are doing right now is not working… tayo ang longest lockdown sa buong mundo so pinaparusahan natin yung ekonomiya hindi naman nagwo-work yung health efforts natin para ma-cure yung COVID. Why? Well there’s so many factors,” he added.
(Obviously, what we are doing right now is not working… we had the longest lockdown in the world so we are hurting our economy but our health efforts are not effective in curing COVID. Why? Well there’s so many factors.)
“There is corruption involved in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. There is inefficiency, incompetence and these, we intend to do away with,” he added.