Sen. Cynthia Villar clarified her much-criticized statement about health care workers need to “work harder” as she rejected the recommendation to revert Mega Manila back to a stricter enhanced community quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On Sunday, she released a statement saying it is the government officials and not medical frontliners that she was referring to.
“We have to work harder and better, but I am not referring in particular to the medical workers–our frontliners. We are referring to all of us and DOH (Department of Health) and PhilHealth in particular,” Villar said after she received criticisms on her earlier statement.
“There is so much room for improvement in the government’s response to curb the transmission of the disease,” she added.
Asked on Saturday on DWIZ radio if she was in favor of the request of various medical organizations for authorities to place Metro Manila back under ECQ amid the surge of COVID-19 infections, Villar responded: “Hindi na siguro. Pagbutihin nila trabaho nila. Hindi pwedeng isara ang ekonomiya kasi kung ‘di naman mamamatay sa COVID, mamamatay naman sa gutom ang tao.”
[Not this time anymore. They just have to be better at their jobs. The economy can’t be closed down again because if people won’t die of COVID, they will die of hunger.]
In her statement on Sunday, Villar said, “Government leaders need to work harder to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the economy, the health sector and the people.”
“We all want to be safe and COVID-free. All of us are doing a difficult balancing act to keep people safe and alive. We all need to keep our jobs, the economy, to do our respective roles to sustain this. All of us have to work harder and better,” she added.
The Philippines on Saturday reported record-high coronavirus infections for a third day at 4,963 new cases, raising the nationwide total to 98,232.
