Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez III gave a briefer on the Philippines being No. 6 among 66 countries in the world rated for resiliency. Inflation is 2.2 percent which is within the 2-4 percent target. To revive the economy, Sec. Dominguez outlined the following economic policies:
- Acceleration of the Build! Build! Build! program;
- Hiring of contact tracers (to provide employment to many Filipinos who lost their jobs during the enhanced community quarantine);
- Passage of Phase 2 of the government tax program before June 3;
- Drive food production and logistics and support the whole value chain of food products.
Sec. Carlito Galvez, Jr., the chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19, on the transition of areas presently under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ):
- In the absence of a vaccine, all that can be done is to prevent, contain, and mitigate the coronavirus disease;
- Philippines cannot endure ECQ for an extended period as its resources are very limited;
- Easing quarantine restrictions should be carried out gradually and in a phased manner to prevent the resurgence of COVID-19;
- Strong and resilient health system needs to be set up, like testing/tracing;
- Consider WHO interim protocol on rapid operations to contain the initial emergence of pandemic influenza, specifically the zoning concept that can be effectively applied in the LGU barangay level;
- Updated national action plan operational framework to prevent/contain the COVID-19. The plan is for the country to be COVID carrier-centric which means focusing intervention on the carriers to contain the virus;
- Prevention prior to the detection phase, and the adoption of end-to-end T3 management system for COVID-19 carriers which means TEST, TRACE, AND TREAT;
- The government should address the influx of returning OFWs and transport of locally stranded individuals. There is more or less 20,000 OFWs stranded in Metro Manila; continuously coming for this month is more or less 42,000.
President Rodrigo Duterte on allowing the movement of people, social distancing and others:
- “It’s important that the “common tao” (knows) that he is… at present not allowed at yong iba allowed. It must appear to him very clear that … he belongs to this category and why he is allowed to work at ito namang iba (are) not allowed to mix with the outside world”
- “No corruption allowed…kung may makalusot at mahuli ka, sorry ka na lang”
- “We cannot afford a 2nd or 3rd wave na mangyari”
- “Wearing a mask is a must”
- “Social distancing, ito yong new life until such time na meron nang vaccine. Meron ng mga medicine, but no vaccine. Sundin na ninyo yan, importanteng masyado”
- Orders soldiers and policemen to “kill” NPA members. “Kasi kung hindi niyo papatayin, papatayin talaga kayo”.
- Offers P2M to anyone who can tip off where NPA commanders are hiding. “P2 million basta yong top commander, P1 million yong…”.
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