Palace refutes Robredo over COVID response

MANILA, Philippines  — Malacañang has been transparent about the government response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said yesterday.

He described as “baseless” the claim of Vice President Leni Robredo that the government is either in a state of denial or just praising its own actions.

Responding to Robredo’s criticisms, Roque lamented that the Vice President has continuously criticized the government about four months since President Duterte ordered a lockdown of the several areas in the country to fight the disease.

“We find it unfortunate that Vice President Robredo, notwithstanding President Duterte’s call to stop finger-pointing, has once again engaged in nitpicking to criticize the government’s COVID-19 response,” Roque said in a statement.

He noted that the national government has been “transparent about our lapses” in the same manner that “we are about our gains.”

“As we have said in previous occasions, fighting COVID-19 is a collective effort. It is a whole-of-government approach,” he said. “We find the action of the Vice President, which is looking at the glass half-empty – focusing on the shortcomings just to score political brownie points at the expense of the administration – totally unwarranted,” he added.

Parrying criticisms, the spokesman conceded that the Executive has no monopoly of good ideas and deeds. He stressed that the effects of COVID-19 have been “unprecedented.”

“No country in the world would proudly announce that it has been prepared to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic. We therefore welcome inputs from all sectors, including constructive ideas from the political opposition to improve our delivery of services,” Roque said.

He added that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has been meeting round-the-clock to constantly review its policies and guidelines, where the good and applicable ones are continued while those proven to be ineffective are replaced by better ones.

“This is evident in the number of times we have amended the guidelines,” he pointed out, adding that the Office of the President  has been submitting weekly reports to Congress.

With regard to the information in the President’s reports to Congress, which the Vice President described as “kulang (lacking),” Roque explained the reports contained the focal points of the different agencies of the government.

“The complete details are with the respective departments, including their bureaus and agencies, which have been communicating to the public through regular briefings, interviews, webinars and printed reports/updates. The Vice President or her research staff should have checked this as well,” he suggested.

Roque, also IATF spokesman, urged Robredo “to simply request the information she wanted from the concerned offices in the executive department.”

“Also, I enjoin her not to hesitate in sending her valuable inputs, and I will make sure her concrete ideas will be tabled for discussion in future IATF meetings. This is how we work for the common good,” he said.