Duterte Said He Would Resign If People Can Name A Country Prepared For Pandemic
DUTERTE TO RESIGN – During his pre-recorded public address, President Duterte asked people to name a country prepared for COVID-19.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Philippines has lagged behind fellow Southeast Asian countries in terms of its virus response. Furthermore, the spread of the Delta Variant has caused a massive surge in the number of daily COVID-19 cases.
This led to heavy criticism from the public of the government’s response. Additionally, audit reports from the Commission on Audit called out “deficiencies” from government agencies in their COVID-19 budget.
![Duterte To Resign If You Can Name Country Prepared For COVID](https://philnews.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/image-184.png)
As a response to this, Duterte and his admin had diverted the issues and pointed fingers toward other agencies, much like in the case of Health Secretary, Francisco Duque III. Meanwhile, Duterte himself told the public that no country, not even America, was prepared to handle the pandemic.
Additionally, he gave a challenge to his critics that if they could present a country that was ready to fight the pandemic, he would resign.
In his public address the President said:
“Alam mo when the pandemic started, we had nothing. We have no face masks, personal protective equipment, testing kits, nothing. And same people criticizing today are the same people telling us last year that we were too slow and we’re not prepared.
Sino ba ang preparado nito, America? Name a country that is prepared. Mag-resing ako.”
With this in mind, here are some of the countries that were prepared to handle the pandemic and became models for their quick virus response:
New Zealand – During the early days of the pandemic, New Zealand’s preparedness and quick response led them to declare the country as “virus-free” back in 2020.
Taiwan – Looking at pure data and statistics, Taiwan was among the most prepared to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a surge in the Delta Variant, the country has retained sub-50 daily COVID-19 cases.
![Duterte To Resign If You Can Name Country Prepared For COVID](https://philnews.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/image-181.png)
Singapore – Singapore’s tale is similar to Taiwan’s: the government’s early and aggressive attempts to employ technology and state authorities to enforce stringent monitoring to keep transmission to a minimum have generated success in the city-fight state’s against the pandemic.
![Duterte To Resign If You Can Name Country Prepared For COVID](https://philnews.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/image-182.png)
While these countries are recovering, the Philippines ‘ adamant use of face shields failed to help the spread of the virus. In fact, instead of getting lower cases, the country had reached all-time-high daily infections.
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