SC asked to compel gov’t to take thorough action against COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court is prodded to act on their two-month-old petition to compel the government to conduct “proactive” mass testing, ramp up contact tracing and release accurate information on the country’s status in its fight against COVID-19.

In a manifestation filed by the petitioners led by former Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, they said the Supreme Court has been proactive in protecting judges, court employees, lawyers and litigants and they are hoping that the public could get the same kind of protection with regards to rights to health and information.

“If the Honorable Curt can do this for the Judiciary, it is hoped that the same urgency be extended to the protection of the rights to health and information, as well as the concomitant rights thereto, of the entire Filipino nation,” the petitioners said in the manifestation prepared by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).

The petition was filed last July but the high court has not even issued an order for the government through the Office of the Solicitor General to comment.

Petitioners said based on data from the Department of Health, the number of cases in August is higher than that of March, April, May, June and July combined.

They added that the DOH also has a testing backlog of 10,982 samples as of Sept. 2, 2020, leading to the delay in testing results.

“Clearly, the government, through the Department of Health, is not conducting enough COVID-19 tests nationwide,” they said.

They added that while the country reverted to a stricter quarantine protocol as per the request of the medical community, no steps were taken to step up mass testing, contact tracing and dissemination of accurate information.

“The government did not ramp up its mass testing efforts. There is no efficient system of contact tracing. Instead, the government reiterated that its strategy is to wait for the vaccine,” they said.

Two of the petitioners have tested positive of COVID-19. They said the RT-PCR tests were done in private institutions and there was no efficient contact tracing conducted among their close contacts.

“The assertions in the Petition for Mandamus ring truer than ever. It is clear that the government, even when accorded the power to implement community quarantine for six months, has mismanaged its COVID-19 response,” the petitioners said.

They said: “The wide-ranging effects of the government’s failed COVID-19 response have been unraveling. It is now up to the SC, as the vanguard of constitutional rights to intervene and set this right.”

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the country has a total of 248, 947 confirmed cases.

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SC asked to compel gov’t to do ‘proactive’ mass testing, tell truth on virus fight