Robredo laments Philippines’ ‘terrible’ COVID-19 response

Vice President Leni Robredo on Friday slammed the country’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, saying lockdowns do not guarantee a return to normalcy.

Robredo made the observation following the release of the Bloomberg report that again ranked the Philippines as the “worst place to be” among 53 countries amid the pandemic.

“We did such a terrible job in the last one-and-a-half years, na kahapon lang lumabas ulit iyong Bloomberg na ranking, pinakahuli ulit tayo. Kailangang ayusin natin ito, na iyong ekonomiya natin makabukas na,” she said at a press conference.

“Hindi tayo makaka-reopen, hindi tayo makaka-build back better, kung ang sitwasyon ng ating bansa ay lockdown kapag nagsu-surge tapos para tayong roller coaster,” she added.

(We did such a terrible job in the last one-and-a-half years. Yesterday, Bloomberg released a report that ranked us the worst again. We need to fix this and we need to be able to reopen our economy. We cannot build back better if there are lockdowns whenever there is a surge in COVID-19 cases.)

The vice president said there should be enough funds to help those affected by the pandemic such as businesses and ordinary citizens.

“These small businesses which closed shop or are struggling at the moment, the government should help them because our unemployment rate is so high,” Robredo said. 

Robredo said this would be her top priority if she was elected president in May 2022.

“Kapag ako [ang] pinalad, iyon iyong una kong gagawin. Siguraduhin na makabukas na tayo, makabalik na tayo sa normal. Siguraduhin na iyong magiging bagong normal natin better than the previous normal,” she said.

(If I will be blessed to win, this is my first order of business. I will make sure that we will be able to reopen the economy and go back to normal. And this normal will be new and better than how it used to be)

Robredo also said she wants to reopen schools, but this could only be achieved if there is significant COVID-19 vaccination coverage.

“It is a range of different things, but the top agenda is to address the pandemic,” she said. — VBL, GMA News