Palace Shrugs Off Study Giving PH ‘Red’ Mark in Fighting Virus

Malacañang on Wednesday shrugged off a study that showed that the Philippines is among the worst-performing countries in responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque described the study published on the website endcoronavirus.org as simply one of the many studies that ranked countries’ Covid-response. The study classified the Philippines as among the “red” countries that “need to take action.”

Citing another global poll, Roque said Filipinos have expressed satisfaction with the performance of President’s Rodrigo Duterte’s administration when it comes to handling the Covid-19 crisis.

He was referring to the “Global Crisis Perceptions” index released by Singapore-based insights firms Blackbox Research and Toluna.

With an index score of 49, the study showed that the Philippines ranked eighth on the list of 23 nations where citizens assessed their government’s Covid-19 containment measures.

“Isa lang po ‘yan siguro sa mga naglalabas ng ratings pero yung naunang lumabas po ay isang Toluna study Blackbox ng Singapore na nagpapakita na (pangwalo) daw tayo sa pinaka magaling na mag-responde sa buong daigdig dito sa Covid-19 (It’s only one of the studies that released ratings but the first study that came out was the Toluna study that showed that we rank eighth among countries in terms of Covid-19 response),” he said in a virtual presser.

Roque said he found the study published by Blackbox Research and Toluna more credible than the one published by endcoronavirus.

“Mas naniniwala po ako dito sa Singaporean study na ‘to dahil hindi ko po alam kung saan itong endcoronavirus.org na ‘to (I find the Singaporean study more credible because I haven’t heard of endcoronavirus.org),” he said.

Endcoronavirus.org, an international volunteer coalition of more than 4,000 scientists, community organizers, citizens, and business owners, showed the Philippines as among the 36 countries classified as “red” countries.

The website refers to “red” countries as those that are “either going the wrong way, staying constant, or going down very slowly” in terms of their efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Besides the Philippines, Singapore is the only other Southeast Asian country classified as “red” country.

On the other hand, the study by Blackbox Research and Toluna showed that 45 percent of Filipinos rated “highly” the Duterte government’s efforts to combat Covid-19 while 37 percent also lauded the corporate leaders amid the health crisis in the country.

Some 36 percent of Filipinos were also happy with the community’s help while 78 percent believed the national media has performed responsibly during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Roque said the Palace was elated by the poll results but acknowledged that the government needs the help of the private sector, the media, and the community to stop the further spread of Covid-19.

The country has 11,618 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 772 deaths and 2,251 recoveries, health authorities announced on Wednesday. (PNA)