The Philippine government needed to drop “flip-flopping” COVID-19 policies, according to Senator Villanueva.
Senator Joel Villanueva on Friday said that the Philippine government needed to drop “flip-flopping” COVID-19 policies.
In a report on ABS-CBN News, Senator Villanueva said that the Philippine government should prevent issuing “flip-flopping” statements before reopening the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
Senator Villanueva, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, said in an online press conference that the Philippines can’t boost investor confidence as the Philippine government was just being “reactive” to the situation instead of being ahead of the curve.
Among the conflicting policies Senator Villanueva cited were minors being allowed in malls but banned from attending face-to-face classes, and the reopening of tourism in some areas in the country despite an uptick in new coronavirus cases.
The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) earlier said that private hospitals could reach full capacity within 3 – 4 weeks if the upward trend of coronavirus cases continued in the coming days.
A curfew was set to be reimplemented in Metro Manila next week after the capital region recorded spikes in coronavirus cases.
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Senator Villanueva also said that the slow pace of the country’s vaccination against COVID-19 — which had paralyzed economies worldwide — was also a concern for the labor sector.
“Kailangan pa rin na pabilisin natin ang vaccination program natin. Otherwise, hindi mawawala ang unrest at concerns ng labor sector. ‘Yung pagbabakuna, marami pa rin ang ayaw magpabakuna. Yung gusto naman magpabakuna, wala pa rin dumadating sa kanila,” Senator Villanueva said.
Senator Villanueva noted that private firms that paid for COVID-19 vaccine doses for their employees have yet to receive their purchases.
Earlier, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that the pace of the Philippines’ COVID-19 vaccination program was “not as quick” as the Philippine government hoped for.
Some health workers had also refused to be vaccinated with Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines because of fears over possible side effects.
Duque also said that the arrival of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines would hopefully increase the number of Filipinos inoculated against COVID-19.
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