Pacquiao, Marcos defer all political activities amid rising COVID-19 cases

Presidential aspirants Senator Manny Pacquiao and former senator Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos, Jr. have suspended all their political activities amid the rise of COVID-19 cases in the country.

“We need to allow the government to take all the appropriate steps to address the rising number of [COVID-19] cases. For this, I have advised my team to temporarily suspend all political gatherings and focus more on organizing zoom meetings until this surge is managed by our health authorities,” Pacquiao said in a statement.

Despite suspension of face-to-face political gathering, Pacquiao said relief efforts for the victims of Typhoon Odette will continue.

“Gayunpaman, hindi po tayo titigil upang makapaghatid ng tulong sa mga nasalanta ng Odette. Tuloy-tuloy po tayo sa paglikom ng mga donasyon at mga relief goods upang madala sa mga lugar na natamaan ng bagyo,” he stated.

(Despite this, we will not stop helping those who were affected by Odette. We will continue to gather donations and relief goods so we can deliver it to the victims of the typhoon.)

Meanwhile, 20 staff of BBM-Sara UniTeam were tested positive for COVID-19 prompting the temporary closure of their campaign headquarters starting January 3 until further notice.

Lawyer Vic Rodriguez, Marcos' spokesperson, said the closure of their campaign headquarters will also pave the way for the complete disinfection of the entire facility and in ensuring that everyone is safe before resuming all scheduled activities.

He said all the public appearances of Marcos and his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte will be deferred starting Monday until January 15.

"In this regard, all public appearances, sorties, and assemblies of the BBM-Sara UniTeam will be postponed during the said period," Rodriguez said.

He said they advised their supporters  nationwide to exercise self-restraint and avoid holding unilateral campaign/ political activities that might result in the further surge of COVID-19 cases in their areas.

"However, campaign preparations and other administrative functions of the UniTeam will proceed non-stop through work-from-home arrangements and virtual meetings of the concerned staffers and campaign personnel," he added.

The National Capital Region was placed under Alert Level 3 from January 3 to 15, 2022 following the steep increase in new COVID-19 infections in the country.

The Philippines on Monday recorded 4,084 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s active case tally to 24,992. The total caseload now stands at 2.855 million which includes 2.779 million recoveries, and 51,586 deaths.—AOL, GMA News