Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque slammed Vice President Leni Robredo for saying that the testing capacity in the Philippines is not enough to fight the pandemic.
Robredo, in an interview, said that the current 30,000 testing capacity per day of the government should be increase if the government’s goal is to “have less than 5 percent positivity rate”.
The Vice President made the said statement on the show of Howie Severino aired on May 15.
As a response, Roque said that the Vice President’s statement was not surprising at all.
“Of course, nothing will ever be enough for someone na hindi nakikita ng kahit anong mabuti sa pamahalaan,” Roque said.
“Pero sa ngayon po pinakamataas na ang testing natin sa Southeast Asia, Mas mataas pa po sa Korea at Japan. Ipagpapatuloy pa natin ito dahil kung kinakailangan, dapat tayo ang pinakamataas sa testing sa buong mundo. Kung kakayanin natin bakit hindi,” he added.
According to him, the government already planned to build more facility to increase the testing capacity of the country.
“Kinakailangan natin mapabilisan yung pagkagawa ng mga isolation facilities, dahil lahat dapat na nag positibo ay mailagay sa facility isolation. Kinakailangan din mapaigting pa natin ang tracing natin na sa ngayon mas magiging malawak dahil nandiyan na yung safety.ph, yung computer system na tutulong sa testing at yung formula na sinusunod natin na ginawa ni Mayor Magalong, our tracing czar, na hanggang 37 close contacts at ating iti-trace.” said Roque.
In the same interview Robredo defended herself, saying that it’s her right to criticize the government.
“Kahit hindi ako VP, kahit ordinaryong mamamayan lang ako may karapatan akong ipahayag ‘yung aking mga mungkahi. May karapatan akong mag-criticize if I need to criticize, kasi ‘yun ‘yung demands ng pagiging Filipino ko. And demands sa akin as a Filipino ay maging bahagi, maging bahagi ako sa nation building,” Robredo said.
