Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo
The Philippines has a big problem in its hands and the government has yet to acknowledge it.
Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo made this statement as the country tallied 7,103 Covid-19 cases on Friday, a record-high since the start of the pandemic.
“We have the worst trajectory of the number of new Covid cases and worst economic performance compared to our neighbors,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
“Again, first step in keeping our acts together is to acknowledge how big a problem we have,” she added.
The country has 73,264 active Covid-19 cases as of March 16.
In her post, Robredo attached data from Nikkei’s Financial Times that showed the Philippines having an upward trajectory in a graph presenting the seven-day rolling average of new cases in Southeast Asian countries.
She also attached a study by think tank IBON Foundation that showed the Philippines having the worst economic performance among South, East and Southeast Asian countries in 2020, at -9.5 percent.
According to the Department of Health, the Philippines is testing 40,000-50,000 individuals for Covid-19 daily. Around 14-15 percent turn out positive. John Ezekiel J. Hirro