President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. on Thursday, Oct. 20, said he would only appoint a Department of Health (DOH) Secretary once the COVID-19 situation in the country is “normalized.“
In an interview with the media, Marcos explained that the country needs to “get away“ from the public health emergency and state of calamity first before appointing a DOH chief.
“We must get away from the emergency, the emergency stance of the DOH because we have to open up businesses. We have to make the Philippines more hospitable to business and tourists travelers,“ Marcos told reporters during the 48th Philippine Business Conference and Exposition (PBC&E).
“And it does not help if we are still under a state of calamity if we are the only country that still has a mask protocol. But these are mandated to us by the laws that were passed during the pandemic. So kailangan pa nating ayusin ‘yun,“ he added.
The President noted that change needed in the health department is its “method of handling the pandemic“, and not “structural change“ yet.
Marcos said the government is already taking the necessary steps to normalize the situation to attract potential investors and tourists.
“Hanggang umabot, pa-abutin natin doon [na ma-normalize ang pandemic situation] and then we would normalized also the reorganization of the government,“ he added.
But he claimed that it is not yet time for the country to be removed from a state of calamity as many health workers still need to receive their benefits provided under the law.
Apart from this, Marcos urged the public and the government to treat the pandemic, not as a public health emergency but as something that could be managed like flu and pneumonia.
The chief executive also noted that the risk factors this year are far different from the early years of the pandemic, citing that this was reflected in the hospitalization and rate of death.
“Nandiyan lagi ‘yan pero mag-ingat tayo para hindi tayo magkasakit. And that is the way that we should be handling COVID. We cannot remove ourselves yet from the way that we are handling it,” he added.
