Palace: President Duterte not into politicking amid COVID-19 pandemic

President Rodrigo Duterte was not politicking amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday.

Roque maintained that the government was focused on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic even if the President called Senator Bong Go—his former longtime aide—"president" last March 5.

Likewise, the President said on March 11 that Go wanted him to tell the public that the neophyte Senator wanted to become president.

“No, that is not the case because the primary thrust of the government is [still responding to the] COVID-19 pandemic,” Roque said in a briefing at the sidelines of the COVID-19 vaccination in Ilocos Norte.

“That is why all members of the cabinet were given the mandate to go and support the vaccination program of the government,” he added.

The President also revealed that Go wanted to be President on the same day that PDP-Laban member and House Deputy Speaker Eric Martinez confirmed that the President’s fellow PDP-Laban party-mates were pushing for the President to seek the Vice Presidency in 2022.

Roque dismissed this as a joke coming from the President whom he said had a penchant for making a light moment out of varying situations.

StaySafe.ph

Meanwhile, the President's spokesperson said that, in response to increasing COVID-19 cases, the Inter-Agency Task Force agreed to the full implementation of the contact tracing app StaySafe.ph to improve the country’s contact tracing efforts.

Roque earlier said that the weakest point in the government’s COVID-19 response was contact tracing, largely because of the non-implementation of the StaySafe.ph app.

“StaySafe.ph app will be implemented and the end-user will be the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) since they are the ones in charge of contact tracing,” Roque said.

“There is no problem with the app. As of yesterday, kinks have all been ironed out. The full implementation of the StaySafe.ph app will happen within 10 days,” he added. — DVM, GMA News