‘Not the enemy’: Binay says frontliners did not deserve Duterte’s ‘lashing’

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s medical frontliners did not deserve to be castigated by President when they grieve about their plight amid the pandemic, Senator Nancy Binay said Tuesday.

While Binay welcomed the chief executive’s move to heed the appeal of the medical community to place Metro Manila back on a stricter lockdown, she said healthcare should not be treated as the “enemy.”

“I welcome the move, kahit hindi ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) but I think win-win compromise ‘tong MECQ (modified ECQ), so for that, I welcome this move by the President. But pagdating nga dun sa pag-castigate niya dun sa mga health workers natin, sana lang wag nating tignan na kaaway sila,” she said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

(I welcome the move, even if it’s not ECQ but I think the MECQ is, so for that, I welcome this move by the President. But when it came to castigating our health workers, we should not treat them as the enemy.)

“At the end of the day, for me, our health workers didn’t deserve that kind of lashing,” she added.

In a speech aired late Sunday, the President warned healthcare workers not to “demean [the] government” after health professionals aired out their sentiments publicly instead of seeking an audience with the administration.

This, as they appealed for a reimposition of a strict lockdown in Metro Manila to give them time to recuperate from exhaustion due to the continuous surge of COVID-19 cases nationwide, which had already breached the 100,000 mark.

“Then you threaten a revolution. This is our country. You want us to destroy it? Start it now,” Duterte had said.

Nevertheless, the Presidnent approved the reimposition of the MECQ in Metro Manila and other nearby provinces for two weeks.

Binay said the government and the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) should make use of this two-week window to correct and improve its response to the pandemic.

The IATF should also conduct regular dialogue with healthcare workers, she added.

“Moving forward, we have to move on. We have to weeks, a two-week window, wherein we can correct things and hopefully, yung IATF, will constantly be in touch with our health workers, with our doctors para tuloy-tuloy yung dialogue nila on how we can find the solution to this problem,” the senator said.

(Moving forward, we have to move on. We have two weeks, a two-week window, wherein we can correct things and hopefully the IATF will constantly be in touch with our health workers, with our doctors so that the dialogue is continuous on how we can find the solution to this problem.

On Monday afternoon, the Philippines recorded 106,330 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Of the number, 65,821 have recovered while 2,104 have died from the respiratory disease.

EDV