Presidential candidate and Senator Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said that he supports the recommendation of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to place the entire country under Alert Level 1.
"I support the recommendation of the economic managers to shift the entire country to Alert Level 1 as well as prepare for the transition from pandemic to endemic," Lacson said in a statement.
"Our economy has taken a bad beating from the lockdowns and imposed alert levels over the past two years and needs to recover - especially at this time," he added.
However, the senator reminded the government to be prepared for the next pandemic or any variant of COVID-19 that could endanger the country's health situation.
"As I always say, there is no trade-off between health and economy. We must always be prepared to confront the problems affecting both. We cannot afford a repeat of 2020 when the government was caught unprepared," he said.
Lacson made the remarks after Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua recommended placing the entire country under Alert Level 1, citing that it would help offset the economic effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Metro Manila and 38 more areas have been under Alert Level 1 since the beginning of the month, and will remain there under March 15.
