(Eagle News) – A brief remark by President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday night, Nov. 5, after Health Secretary Francico Duque III made his report on the effect of the stoppage of COVID-19 tests by the Philippine Red Cross last month is causing a stir.
“Mukhang pera,” the President said after Duque’s report that the PRC’s decision to stop COVID-19 tests had severely affected COVID-19 tests for OFWs. The PRC stopped its COVID-19 tests when government debt reached almost P1 billion.
But PRC chair Senator Richard Gordon, says Duterte might have been misinformed or misled by Duque and said that his remarks should be “taken with a grain of salt”.
During his meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), Duterte was briefed by his officials regarding the situation on the COVID-19 pandemic aside from other issues.
Duque said that this action by the Red Cross had severely affected virus testing for the larger population, and led to the decrease in the daily tests done by the government.
-Decrease in testing capacity-
“Due to the intervening events noong October, nagkaroon po nang pagbaba sa bilang ng mga tests na isinagawa. Kasama sa mga ito ay ang ‘yung nagkaroon ng partial suspension in the acceptance of new patients by the PRC,” Duque reported.
The health chief said that the PRC’s stoppage of COVID tests in last month had resulted in “significant but temporary decrease in testing capacity.”
There were however 11 public and private laboratories which took over the work of continuing COVID-19 after the Red Cross stopped doing it, especially the tests of returning overseas Filipino workers, he said.
“Dahil dito, while we initially projected na bababa ng at least 20 percent ang ating total testing capacity, ang pag-distribute ng test sa 11 laboratories ay nakatulong para makabawi doon sa hindi po na-test dahil po sa pagsara o paghinto ng PRC,” Duque said.
“Ngunit nabayaran na po ang PRC at nagbukas na po silang muli kaya patuloy na po ang kanilang pagsusuri ng mga swab specimen,” he added.
To this, President Duterte said, “Mukhang pera.”
-Taking it with a grain of salt-
Senator Gordon, chair of the Red Cross, said that he was taking the President’s remarks with a grain of salt. He said Duterte might have been misinformed or misled by Duque when he made the remark.
“I think nabigla na naman siya, or he didn’t get the right information. Or he might have been referring to those na nagsamantala,” he said in a Zoom interview with reporters.
Gordon also noted that after they stopped operations, the other private laboratories increased their charge for COVID-19 tests.
“I don’t think we deserve it. It’s not true. We are helping the government for so long. We have been working with the government since our founding,” he said.
“I’m not offended. I think the president should really be careful. Because minsan hindi nya alam na his statement is not really presidential,” he added.
(With a report from Meanne Corvera, Eagle News Service)