Duterte misses Cabinet meeting a day after postponing talk to people

President Rodrigo Duterte skipped the Cabinet meeting on Thursday a day after postponing his weekly talk to the people a second time.

Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque replied “nope” when asked if the President joined the Cabinet meeting held also a day after the Presidential Security Group announced that 45 of its members are infected with COVID-19.

Roque said the meeting was held online via Zoom.

In a statement issued Friday, Roque clarified that the meeting was not a Cabinet meeting but a "Zoom meeting" attended by some department heads.

"Yesterday's meeting was not a Cabinet meeting. As mentioned, it was a Zoom meeting attended by some Department Secretaries," Roque said.

Roque said the Zoom meeting was presided by the Executive Secretary "to discuss COVID-19 and other related matters, such as contact tracing, the status of the hazard pay of healthcare workers, prepositioning of items for distribution and the codification of procedure for future references in case similar situation occurs, PhilHealth payments to address present surge, among others."

"It was an informal but productive meeting," he said. "We hope this clarifies the matter."

In a statement Thursday, Roque made the following announcements after the meeting:

• the expected delivery of two million doses of COVID-19 Sinovac and Gamaleya vaccines in April and May;
• Duterte's order to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to hasten the payment of claims of hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus areas where there is high incidence of COVID-19;
• the government moving to address the payment of hazard pay of health care workers; and
• the Inter-Agency Task Force meeting on Saturday, April 10, to decide on quarantine protocol on NCR Plus areas.

Duterte's order to PhilHealth was already announced the night before on Wednesday by his former aide Senator Bong Go. 

NCR Plus -- Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal -- are under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 29 to April 11.

The ECQ protocol bans non-essential trips and non-essential businesses and services from operating.

The Philippines has 167,279 active COVID-19 cases so far. --NB/RSJ, GMA News