Gasoline is alternative to alcohol as disinfectant, Duterte insists

President Rodrigo Duterte said he was not joking when he advised people last week that gasoline can be used as disinfectant.

At a briefing with Cabinet officials in Malacañang on Thursday, Duterte said gas can be an alternative to alcohol.

“Sabi nila itong si Duterte loko-loko, gago. Kung loko-loko ako, ikaw na sana ang na-presidente, hindi ako,” he said in his address aired on state-run PTV on Friday.

“Totoo’ yang sinabi ko, alcohol. ‘Pag walang alcohol available hindi ka naman puwede lalo mahirap pupunta ka lang diyan sa gasoline station pagkatapos magpatulo. That’s disinfectant.”

Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque and the Department of Health earlier dismissed as a joke the President’s suggestion that face masks can be disinfected through gasoline.

“Akala ninyo nagbibiro lang ako pero sa totoo hindi rin ako nagbibiro. You try to go inside my brain,” the President said.

Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said last week that surgical and N95 masks are for single use only, but the public can wash their cloth mask for disinfection and use them again.

The government mandates the wearing of face masks in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. —LBG, GMA News