Malacañang on Wednesday called out the opposition for “resorting to politicking” amid the Covid-19 crisis.

This came after Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had failed to address the pandemic, which has infected 72,269 people in the country.

“I don’t think we failed. For as long as we did not meet the 3.5 (million) projection of UP – and UP has been very good at their forecast – I think we would have succeeded,” Palace spokesman Roque told CNN’s The Source.

Aside from criticizing the IATF, Drilon also pointed to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III’s “lack of credibility.”

“Let’s call a spade a spade— Secretary Duque today lacks credibility to be able to command people to do things…. He cannot influence decisions,” he said.

Roque said Drilon’s statements were a case of the opposition “politicking stories.”

“We will always have different points of view, particularly those coming from the opposition, and I think they’re resorting to politicking stories,” he declared.

“The appeal of the president is to concentrate on Covid-19, set aside politicking for the time being which I think is a very wise policy,” he added. John Ezekiel J. Hirro

Preview photo: President Rodrigo Duterte holds a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang on May 25, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO