Robredo: Duterte more focused on politics than COVID-19 response
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday said that President Rodrigo Duterte was more focused on politics than managing the government's pandemic response.
Speaking in an interview aired over ABS-CBN News Channel, the vice president pointed to the president's past few public addresses as an example of what she said were his misguided priorities.
"The last two press conferences were really frustrating for us because we are in the middle of a surge where we need all hands on deck and the urgency is most important. But for the better part of the press conference we saw him criticizing senators and the [Commission on Audit.] What comes out of his mouth gives us a sense of what his priorities are," she said in Filipino.
"We should be talking about how the problem is very serious and we should do something about it."
She also questioned whether or not the chief executive was actually informed on the coronavirus situation. His taped public addresses come directly after his meetings with the coronavirus task force.
"When I read the transcripts [of the public addresses] I get the sense that he doesn't know all the details. So the way I see it, there's a lack of focus on the details, it's not a lack of effort on the agencies. But the interweaving of everyone's efforts is lacking... I don't know what's happening at the top, but you can feel that it's lacking," she said.
In her weekly radio show on Sunday, Robredo went as far as saying that she was willing to lead the government's coronavirus response if she was only given blanket authority.
The vice president also pointed out the many unanswered questions remaining over the Department of Health's purchases of overpriced personal protective equipment.
In the face of a Senate probe into the issue, the Malacañang instead claimed that the previous administration bought costlier PPEs—a move the vice president called a "lame attempt" at diverting the conversation.
"Was there no Filipino company that could have done the same? There are so many questions that need answering. If I were being asked, I would walk the Senate through how the decision was made. And I'm not seeing that today," she said as she hit the president's "mixed signals" on corruption.
To date, health authorities have recorded 2.08 million coronavirus infections in the country, 157,438 of whom are still active cases.
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