Ex-VP Binay hits Duque: Reactive, not proactive

Former Vice President Jejomar Binay on Tuesday debunked the claim of Health secretary Francisco Duque III that his agency has been proactive in dealing with the COVID-19 Delta variant.

“The Health secretary is a comedian,” said Binay, reacting to Duque’s statement that the government has not been reactive in its pandemic response amid the threat brought by the more contagious Delta variant in the country.

“We are proactive, not reactive,” Duque said in a recent interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source.

Duque said the fact that the country still has low numbers of Delta variant is already proof in itself that the Philippine Genome Center has been doing a good job in identifying or detecting among the positive samples the different variants.

But according to Binay, if the Health secretary is indeed proactive, “why wasn’t he able to secure the P100 million needed to expand the capabilities of the Genome Center?”

“It’s only now that ordinary citizens like us are made aware of its vital role in fighting COVID-19, but it remains terribly underfunded,” he said.

“So, where is the proactiveness of the Health secretary? For now, the charitable thing to do is to consider this statement as comic relief,” the former Vice President added.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. took to Twitter to complain about the promised 30,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for his department which have yet to be delivered.

“I was promised 30,000 Moderna for my people and the diplomatic corps. My people who are frontliners. I don’t know where the f**k that went, but words cannot express my embarrassment and anger. No one endangers my people. No one,” he said in a Twitter post Sunday.

“Somebody dropped the ball. I have steel ball bearings. I just need a slingshot,” Locsin added.

The Palace on Tuesday declined to comment on Locsin’s Twitter posts.

“We do not interfere [on DFA issues.] If that happened or not, I am not aware of it. Please ask them instead,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.