Manila Bulletin
Duque a hero? PH’s COVID-19 management a failure under his watch—Drilon
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon questioned Health Secretary Francisco Duque III's leadership in the country's COVID-19 response, despite President Duterte calling him a "hero."
Drilon stated that the effectiveness of Duque's leadership should be judged by the current state of the pandemic in the Philippines.
He pointed to the delayed implementation of the travel ban to China in January 2020 as a major initial error.
Drilon also recalled Duque "dropping the ball" on the procurement of 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccines.
Furthermore, the government's failure to make advanced payments for vaccine procurement led to the Philippines being at the "end of the queue" for vaccine availability.
Drilon criticized the country's deficient and expensive testing system, and the failure in the "3 Ts" of the pandemic campaign: testing, tracking, and treatment.
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News Sources
See how different news organizations are covering this story. Below are the original articles from various Philippine news sources that contributed to this summary.
Several Filipino senators, including Vicente Sotto III, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Grace Poe, believe that frontliners, not solely Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, are the true heroes in the nation's battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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President Rodrigo Duterte stated that the Philippines is performing well in its COVID-19 pandemic response when compared to other nations, even as total cases exceeded one million.
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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III stated that comparing the Philippines' COVID-19 response to other nations is pointless due to the country's fragmented health system.
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