Revilla bats for gov’t distribution of face masks, face shields

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla on Sunday urged the Department of Health and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to distribute free face masks and face shields to the public as the Philippines’ cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue to spike.

“Marami sa ating mga kababayan ang nanggigitata na ang face mask pero ginagamit pa rin dahil sa kawalan ng pambili, kaya para makasiguro tayo na hindi tayo magkahawa-hawa ay ang gobyerno na mismo ang mamahagi ng face mask at face shield,” Revilla said in a statement.

(Many of our fellowmen’s face masks are already worn out, but they still use it due to lack of funds to buy new ones. That’s why to make sure that we won’t infect each other, the government should distribute the face mask and face shields.)

Revilla proposed that the national government should cascade the distribution down to the local government units.

“Wala na silang dahilan o katwiran na huwag magsuot,” the senator added, referring to the public.

(They won’t have a reason anymore why they’re not wearing a mask.)

Revilla’s call comes a day after a group of medical frontliners urged the government to revert Mega Manila to stricter lockdown measures.

READ: Villar dismisses appeal by health workers: ‘Pagbutihin nila trabaho nila’

The two-week enhanced community quarantine period would serve as a “time out to recalibrate the government’s COVID-19 response.”

As of Saturday, the Philippines has 98,232 COVID-19 cases, with 65,265 recoveries and 2,039 deaths.

JE