Charles Teves
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque is getting blasted on social media for making it sound like the Philippines has been successful in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis in the country.
During his regular televised briefing on Monday, Roque said that the University of the Philippines (UP) projection of the Philippines hitting the 40,000-mark of COVID-19 cases by the end of June has been “proven wrong”.
Mathematics professor Guido David and political science professor Ranjit Singh Rye previously said that the Philippines has a reproduction number (R) of 1.2 meaning that spreading is still constant, leading to a projection of 40,000 cases by June 30.
“If both national and local governments fail to provide a prompt and adequate response, all the societal and financial sacrifices of society could be wasted, and we will likely experience another wave,” the researchers said, adding this could undermine the country’s economic recovery.
On paper, Roque is correct as the official confirmed cases in the country is 36,438. However, recent data suggest that as of June 27, at least 44,764 have tested positive for the coronavirus. The reason why this wasn’t part of the official count is because of the Department of Health’s (DOH) backlogging issue.
Not a lot of people liked Roque’s claims.
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Roque said “We beg to disagree” in reaction to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) claim that the Philippines is currently the country with the fastest-growing number of new COVID-19 infections among over 20 countries and territories in Western Pacific region.
Roque said that the Philippines is only sixth in the Western Pacific region “if we are [going] to divide the number of cases on a per million population basis.”
He added that India would top the list, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Singapore. But Roque made a mistake though as India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are part of the WHO South-East Asia region and Pakistan is belongs to the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region.
To discredit the WHO, Roque compared the total number of cases in various Asian countries to the Philippines instead of emphasizing the rate of new infections.
“If you look at the WHO, I think we checked this and in the data of the WHO they are classified as Western Pacific countries,” Roque said, adding India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are still Asian countries.
WHO’s data shows the Philippines topping the list of confirmed cases by date of the report within the last 30 days.
The WHO stated that the total number of new cases in the Philippines was at 9,655, followed by Singapore with 2,610 new cases from June 16 to 28,
“Bakit tayo iku-kumpara sa Singapore eh ang Singapore limang milyon lang po ‘yan, isang siyudad lang po ‘yan, hindi pa siyudad ng Quezon City or Manila,” Roque said.
Roque maintained that the government gave its best against the pandemic.
“We are in control of the situation. We’re confident that we have done [the] correct steps and again I’m saying we’re not perfect but I think we did the best that we can do under the circumstance.
“Saan po nagkulang ang Presidente? Ano pa po ang dapat ginawa niya? Naiwasan po ang 3.6 million cases ng COVID,” Roque said.
“Ang ating ginagawa po ngayon ay sinisiguro natin na habang wala pa pong bakuna eh mapapabagal natin iyong pagkalat ng sakit.” Roque added.
