MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday said that it is finally time for the country to reemerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and show again “Filipino resilience, resourcefulness, industry, and talent.”
The Masskara Festival in Bacolod City, he said, is the “perfect manifestation” of the country’s change in mindset in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is what we are trying to promote and that’s why we have tried very hard to remind people that it is time again to bring us back to where we were before and even to go further and to know that, although things are difficult, there’s no denying that. Nonetheless, it is time for us to go back and exercise and show once again the Filipino resilience, resourcefulness, industry, and talent,” said Marcos in his speech at a luncheon for the culmination of Masskara Festival.
He explained that now that the pandemic was “fading away,” it was time for the country to return to normal and remember the opportunities before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.
With this in mind, Marcos said that the Masskara Festival not only symbolizes the opening of Bacolod City, but also the entire Philippines.
“Once again it is the symbol of our reemergence from a crisis and a very difficult time. And that is what Masskara festival was created for, and it has served its purpose doubly well in 2022 as we watch Bacolod, the whole of western Visayas and the rest of the Philippines reemerge once again into the sun and that is what we celebrate today,” said Marcos.
“That is what we see our people are feeling and that is a feeling we want to continue, to encourage within our people because that is what is going to lead us in our success,” he added.
The President congratulated the city officials led by Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez and organizers for staging what he called “the most successful MassKara in the history of Bacolod.”
Benitez said Bacolod’s staging of the three-week 42nd MassKara Festival with the theme Balik Yuhum (Bring back the Smiles), shows the resiliency of the people of Bacolod despite the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Marcos also commended the Bacolod City government for its Bacolod Comprehensive Health Program, which grants hospitalization services, annual consultations, and medicines to its residents, and its upcoming launch of a Social Pension Fund for Senior Citizens.
Based on the Department of Health’s COVID-19 tracker as of Oct. 28, the country currently has 23,717 active cases of COVID-19 with the total caseload at 3,993,148.
This is amid the detection of the XBB Omicron subvariant and XBC subvariant of COVID-19.
The XBB coronavirus subvariant is believed to be highly immune-evasive and is pointed at as the main cause of the recent surge in Singapore.
The XBC virus, on the other hand, has been classified by the United Kingdom Health Security Agency as a variant under monitoring and investigation
— With reports from Carla Gomez, Inquirer Visayas
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