Palace not expecting Robredo to say anything positive on gov’t COVID-19 response

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang is not expecting Vice President Leni Robredo to say anything positive on how the Duterte administration is handling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“She’s entitled to her own opinion. Of course, as the leader of the opposition, we don’t expect anything positive about this administration from her. We’ve accepted that I think the people have accepted that,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Wednesday in an interview over CNN Philippines’ The Source.

“She can say all the negative things on the administration but the people still support the President,” he added.

Roque said this in response to Robredo’s claim that the government’s lack of system and cohesive plan in addressing the health crisis is what hurting the country more than the shortcomings of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

READ: Lack of system in COVID-19 response is a bigger problem than Duque – Robredo

“For me, the system is what fails — not only Secretary Duque.  I think that even if they remove Secretary Duque if the system will stay the same, the problems will persist,” Robredo said.

“It would be good if in the midst of the pandemic there would be a voice who would say that all the agencies’ actions, whether as a team or what: ‘I will command it. All hands on deck. What we would focus on are the COVID-19 related programs’,” she added.

The opposition stalwart has been vocal in criticizing the government for having no clear direction in its COVID-19 response.

But Malacañang has repeatedly brushed off Robredo’s comments as mere politicking while President Duterte warned her against “adding fuel to the fire” as it would lead to the destruction of the government.

Six months since the government started enforcing varying quarantine measures, the Philippines has a total of 269,407 confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest in the entire Southeast Asian region. Of the total cases, 207,352 have recovered while 4,663 have died.

/MUF