Gov’t needs to admit to lapses, adjust COVID-19 response –Robredo

Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday said the government must acknowledge the lapses in its COVID-19 pandemic response if it wants to effectively address the health crisis.

In her weekly radio show, Robredo, who was quarantined after her close-in security officer tested positive for COVID-19, said that the Duterte administration was repeating the same strategies in its health crisis response.

“Para tayong sirang plaka… Ang first step kasi, pagtanggap ng kakulangan. Kaya siguro mabagal ang pag-aksyon kasi walang pagtanggap,” Robredo said.

(We're like a broken record… The first step should be accepting that we made mistakes. Maybe our government’s actions are slow because there’s no acknowledgment.)

Robredo said the government should have increased testing and hospital bed capacity during the two-week enhanced community quarantine from March 24 to April 4.

She added that the government should have also given more aid to families affected by the pandemic.

“Hindi tayo makakapag-lockdown ng another two weeks kung hindi tayo willing gumastos para magbigay ng ayuda sa mga tao,” Robredo said.

(We can’t impose another lockdown for two weeks if we are not willing to spend on aid for the people.)

Further, she urged the government to postpone non-essential projects until the end of the pandemic and focus on the COVID-19 response because people's lives were on the line.

The Office of the Vice President earlier launched Bayanihan E-Konsulta, a free teleconsultation service on Facebook that aims to help patients of COVID-19 and other diseases in the National Capital Region Plus get medical attention.

While the teleconsultation service is designed for outpatient cases only, Robredo said her office receives SOS messages from “frantic family members asking for help because they could’t find a hospital that can accommodate their sick who are already toxic and in need of immediate help.”

“It has been heartbreak after heartbreak of people dying without having been given a fighting chance because of a system that is failing us,” she said in a Facebook post.

Robredo said her office has been referring these patients to the One Hospital Command Center, which she said has been “very helpful and patient, but can do only so much since the entire healthcare system in the NCR Bubble is already overwhelmed.”

She said one of the patients who sought help from the OVP died on Saturday night while in a hospital tent, waiting to be admitted.

“This is not the first time it happened in the recent past. But each time, the blow is still difficult to fathom. How do we comfort the grieving families who are victims of a system that has failed?” she said.

Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte once again slammed critics of his administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response, saying that the government was working and doing everything to fix the situation.

Malacañang also defended the national government’s efforts to address the health crisis amid criticisms as the country's COVID-19 cases continued to spike.

A group of health professionals flagged the government's imposition of strict lockdowns, saying these were wasted opportunities due to "unclear plans" on how to address the COVID-19 surge.

The Philippines so far recorded 936,133 cases of COVID-19 with 779,084 recoveries and 15,960 deaths. — DVM, GMA News