Palace refutes Bloomberg study, says Philippines managed COVID-19 outbreak ‘very well’

Malacañang on Thursday refuted the assessment by US-based company Bloomberg which placed the Philippines near the bottom of its COVID resilience ranking, arguing the government has handled the viral outbreak effectively.

Bloomberg ranked the Philippines 46th out of 53 countries based on 10 key metrics, including increase in cases, mortality rate, healthcare system capacity, lockdown impact, community mobility, and agreements on vaccine supply.

According to Bloomberg, the Philippines scored poorly when it came to community mobility—the “movement of people to offices and retail spaces compared to a pre-pandemic baseline in the past month”—with a -39.4% score.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said he has yet to study the report even as he touted the government measures that resulted in a relatively low mortality rate for COVID-19 and a small percentage of severe and critical cases.

“Tingin ko parang hindi po accurate ‘yan sa aktwal na nangyari,” Roque said at a news conference in Quezon. “Pinaninindigan po natin that we have managed COVID-19 very well in this country.”

‘Not a race among countries’

Dr. Albert Domingo, a consultant at the World Health Organization Philippines, said the fight against the pandemic is not supposed to be a race among countries.

“This is more of like a marathon kung saan ang laban natin is laban sa ating sariling performance. Kung tayo po ay tumatakbo sa isang mahaba na takbuhan na marathon, hindi mo pinapansin kung nauuna ka o nahuhuli ka doon sa katabi mong tumatakbo,” he said.

“Ang pinapansin po natin is nadaig ba natin ‘yung dating oras natin, mas mabilis ba ‘yung takbo natin, nagagawa ba natin ‘yung pinakamahusay sa ating paraan.”

Domingo said defeating COVID-19 is a global effort.

National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. added it’s hard to make a comparison between nations.

“’Yung geospatial at tsaka ‘yung tinatawag natin na demographic conditions ng isang country ay magkakaiba,” he said.

The Philippines implemented one of the world's longest and strictest lockdowns, with quarantine classifications for December expected to be announced by President Rodrigo Duterte on November 30.

The country has so far reported 422,915 COVID-19 cases, including 386,955 recoveries and 8,215 deaths. — RSJ, GMA News