No provision for mandatory mass testing in Bayanihan law, says Koko Pimentel

The Bayanihan to Heal as One Act does not specifically provide for mandatory mass testing for COVID-19 in the Philippines, according to Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III on Tuesday.

"There is no provision in the Bayanihan Act which makes mass testing mandatory or makes the expenses for testing a charge on government funds," Pimentel said in a text message.

"I think DOH (Department of Health) and IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) have clarified this yesterday that COVID testing is NOT REQUIRED for employees to go back to work," he added.

Pimentel said employers may screen their workers to make sure that they are not exhibiting any symptoms of infection before requiring them to report to work.

He added that "rapid testing" is also optional on the part of the employer.

On Monday, Malacanang said the government will not shoulder the costs of "mass testing" of employees who are returning to work due to limited resources of the government.

"In terms of mass testing na ginagawa ng Wuhan na all 11 million, wala pa pong ganiyang programa at iniiwan natin sa pribadong sektor," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.

On the other hand, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act mandates the government to improve the testing capacity "in a reasonable and effective manner that reduces the spread of the virus."

"Government should continuously capacitate its testing capability. Without testing, it will be difficult to open the economy and make people feel safe," he said.

Section 4 (b) of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act gives President Rodrigo Duterte the power to "expedite and streamline the accreditation of testing kits and facilitate prompt testing by public and private institutions of persons under investigation and persons under monitoring."

Senator Francis Pangilinan said the pronouncement of Malacanang is inconsistent with the Bayanihan Law.

"We precisely allowed for the executive to have the widest latitude in realigning funds to address the pandemic. Public health is government's primary responsibility," Pangilinan said.

"Leaving the task of mass testing to the private sector is an irresponsible and unacceptable abdication by government of its primary purpose which is to protect its citizens," he added.

Senator Joel Villanueva said that while the it is "understandable" to request the private sector to internalize some of the cost of the testing among their employees, the government cannot abandon them.

"The government cannot pass on the responsibility or monitoring and surveillance of COVID-19 to the private sector alone. The national government should work with local government to make sure that we have a systematic way of testing for diagnostic and surveillance purposes," he added.

The Department of Health, for its part, said that the government is engaged in "expanded" COVID-19 testing.

"We are trying to veer away from this term of mass testing because when you say mass testing, it is indiscriminate testing, which is not the case [for us]," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

She said that from initially testing only the vulnerable and severe cases, COVID-19 testing in the country has been expanded to cover those with mild symptoms and even asymptomatic ones but had exposure to infected persons.

The country targets to achieve a 50,000 daily testing capacity in June to achieve the goal of testing 2% of the Filipino population, according to deputy chief implementer of the national policy against COVID-19 Vince Dizon.

Based on the latest data in the Department of Health's online tracker, only over 207,000 individuals have undergone the COVID-19 test nationwide. —LDF, GMA News