Robredo camp twits 'ridiculous, out of touch' PACC: COVID-19 aid not a competition

The Office of Vice President Leni Robredo has called out the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission for tagging the OVP’s relief efforts to help COVID-19 frontliners as an act to undermine the government, saying that providing aid amid a crisis is never a competition.

Lawyer Barry Gutierrez, spokesperson for Vice President Robredo, was responding to the comments made by PACC Commissioner Manuelito Luna that the Vice President is barred from competing national government efforts or undermining their efforts, and from soliciting donations, in cash or in kind, from the taxpayers.

“The PACC statement is so ridiculous, so inappropriate, so out of touch. Since Day One of the COVID-19 crisis, Vice President Leni has done all she can to help health workers, government institutions, and ordinary Filipinos overcome the challenges they have had to face due to the restrictions on travel, the shortages in supplies, and she done all this without requesting additional public funds or seeking expanded powers,” Gutierrez said.

“She did this because she saw a need, and she took action to meet it. She did this because it was the right and responsible thing to do,” Gutierrez added.

Gutierrez said that it is baffling that the PACC would rather call for a probe on the Vice President who is doing relief efforts when the world is facing the worst crisis since World War II as declared by the United Nations.

“Health workers all over the country are running out of protective gear, and they need all the help they can get, regardless of where it comes from. I am certain that all these groups that have come together to help, the OVP included, would only be too thrilled if national government agencies came in with their larger budgets and bigger organizations to provide all the equipment and supplies that these institutions need,” Gutierrez said.

“In the meantime, rest assured, Vice President Leni will continue to do all she can to help,” Gutierrez added.

As of April 2, the Office of the Vice President has earmarked P5.9 million for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment  (PPE) sets for the health workers and front liners and donated P5.3 million worth of extraction kits to Research Institute for Tropical Medicine which are needed to conduct COVID-19 testing.

The P5.9 million OVP budget for PPEs is part of the P42 million which the OVP fund drive raised with its private partners for the purchase of PPE sets for health workers and front liners which is still ongoing.  The PPE sets bought from these donations have already been distributed to at least 100 hospitals across the country.

The OVP has also provided shuttle service as well as distributed food packs to health care workers affected by the ban on mass transport resulting from the enhanced community quarantine of Luzon due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as four dormitories for healthcare workers and other frontliners.

Likewise, the OVP and its private partners also provided food packs were also given to uniformed personnel manning the checkpoints within Metro Manila. --JST, GMA News