PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Harry Roque yesterday said President Duterte and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) may consider the extension of the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila and four other provinces if Congress approves the provision of aid to poor families living in locked down areas in the Bayanihan 2 Act.
Roque, in an interview with CNN Philippines, reiterated Malacañang is unlikely to extend the MECQ in Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and Rizal because government no longer has the sources to provide a new tranche of cash subsidies to low income families since funds previously allocated by Congress had been depleted.
“If Congress of course provides for aid, for Metro Manila and these four provinces then the situation may change,” Roque said in mixed Filipino and English.
Roque noted that under the Constitution, the Executive branch cannot spend public funds without a law allowing the realignment of the current budget.
He admitted that he was not sure if a provision for an extension of the Social Amelioration Program had been included in the latest version of the Bayanihan 2.
The House this week approved on final reading the Bayanihan 2 Act, which the Senate has already approved earlier. A bicameral conference committee between the two chambers to reconcile differences in their respective versions has yet to be scheduled.
The government has so far provided more than P100 billion worth of cash aid to 18 million low income families under the first tranche of implementation of the SAP. On the other hand, the second tranche is still being distributed to some 14.1 million targeted beneficiaries. As of August 11, P74 billion had been distributed to 12.251 million families.
The President said that while he agrees with the doctors who are calling for an extension of the MECQ to a full month to curb the COVID-19 infections, he can no longer provide aid to people who would be affected and thus need to work to provide for the needs of their families.
Asked if Malacañang will consider extending the MECQ if Congress is able to identify the fund sources to sustain the SAP, Roque said “that is one” factor to consider.
“There is also number two, of course, it’s data that will guide the IATF in deciding what its recommendation will be,” he added.
Roque said the COVID-19 case doubling rate and reproduction number along with the critical care capacity of the country’s healthcare system are still the main factors to consider, as well as the impact to the economy of strict lockdowns.
He said that while the number of COVID-19 infections in the country is rising, the case doubling rate, particularly in Metro Manila, is now at nine days while the critical care capacity had not been fully exhausted.
He said additional isolation and intensive care unit (ICU) beds are even expected to be made available starting next month.
The government is also implementing massive COVID-19 testing and intensified contact tracing.
LAND OF COVID
Roque said amid the country having the highest number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia, the situation in the Philippine is still “not as bad” compared to other nations like the United States and Brazil.
He said the country is still at “number 22 in the world.”
He added that no country in the world had been “perfect in dealing with the coronavirus” and believes that the Philippines had been “very good so far in containing it (COVID-19) and more so in limiting the deaths.”
Roque reiterated that there is also a “continuing community transmission” that contributes to the high number of cases.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros had expressed alarm about the country’s record-high daily increase in infections, saying it should serve as a wake-up call for the government to implement a more “health-heavy” response to contain the pandemic.
The Philippines was also branded by a newspaper in Thailand as the “Land of COVID-19” when it talked of Filipino teachers who arrived in their country.
Roque said the Philippines is a “fierce” competitor of Thailand in terms of tourism, which he claimed had been struggling to attract tourists, which may have been the reason for the description.
He said the other day that Filipinos should understand that Thais do not enjoy in their country the same level of free speech and press freedom that is allowed in the Philippines.
“I’m sure their statement that we are the Land of COVID is also motivated by the fact that they are struggling to invite people to come visit Thailand again. And of course, they’re worse off in so far as they have a bigger tourism industry than us. So that’s the context by which we should listen to this comment coming from our ASEAN neighbors,” he said.
The Department of Tourism said it has recorded 1.3 million foreign visitor arrivals from January to July this year, down by 73 percent from the 4,857,107 foreign tourist arrivals in the same period in 2019.
