Thread by @cnnphilippines

HAPPENING NOW: Senate holds a hearing to look into the government's response in the COVID-19 health crisis

💻 Facebook bit.ly/2ThkiHV
📱 Live stream cnn.ph/1LXc9jG
📺 Free TV ch. 9, Cignal ch. 10, Sky Cable ch. 14

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III attends Senate hearing, gives his opening statement: Our milestones include ramping up our testing capacity to 10,000 tests per day

DOH chief: I am driven to continue the commitment to stand with all of you and continue working for a healthier, safer and resilient Philippines

Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force on COVID-19 opens his statement: We have a lot of challenges but because of the help of everybody, including the private sector, we are able to surpass the challenges

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer: We have to undertake the testing of more or less 30,000 OFWs that have been stranded in Metro Manila. We will be accepting more or less 42,000 more OFWs this coming month and we are challenged by this

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez on the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19: 2020 will be a challenging year, but we are confident of recovering with resilience

He reiterates that the rice tariffication law has kept inflation stable

DOF chief: DBCC projects that the Philippines' total revenue collections would reach ₱2.6 trillion this year, 17% lower than the income in 2019

DOF chief says the government has crafted a four-pillar socioeconomic strategy against COVID-19. The first pillar is all about providing emergency support or lifetime assistance to vulnerable sectors with a total allocation of ₱595.6 billion

DOF chief: To date, we have credited the first tranche of wage subsidies to more than 2.7 million employees of small businesses

DOF chief: We have allotted ₱58.6 billion to protect frontliners and increase the tracing, testing, and treatment capacity of our healthcare system.

DOF chief: We have allotted ₱1.1 trillion to keep economy afloat and finance emergency initiatives.

DOF chief: We project that our country will bounce back in 2021 with a GDP growth ranging from 7.1% to 8.1%.

DOF chief says he personally recommended to the President to restart the Build, Build, Build program, hire displaced workers as contact tracers, attracting foreign investors to relocate from other countries, (1/2)

...stimulate consumer spending to manufacture products with inelastic demand and support the whole value chain of these products. (2/2)

Senator Ralph Recto: What percent of the population do we expect to be infected by COVID-19?

DOH chief: There are many considerations. The reproductive rate of the virus which can change from an R0 score of 2 to 4. This is a reproductive rate that is relatively high. (1/2)

DOH chief: If we are not able to put in place the measures to stop the transmission of this virus, a lot of our people could be infected in a very short time. (2/2)

DOF chief: We are constrained to ask for supplemental budget because we do not have additional revenues. Because of lack of economic activity, our tax collections are really down.

DOF chief: To make up for that, partly, we have swept as much cash as possible from the GOCCs.

DOF chief: We are living within our means and trying to appropriate whatever we have to support the most vulnerable members of our community. We are also trying to use the cash we have in the most responsible way.

DOF chief: Hindi kulang ang cash natin, kulang ang budget cover.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon: I support the economic recovery plan as outlined to us.

Drilon: I have problems, however, by the way the problems are being handled by the Department of Health and the enforcement by the DILG of certain measures

Drilon says lockdown itself is not the end, it is just a system used to trace, test and treat individuals

Drilon: In my view, lockdown should be used in containing the virus and building the needed infrastructure

Drilon asks DOH chief Duque: Are we seeing the 'flattening of the curve'?

Duque: Yes, sir. We have seen the flattening of the curve begin in mid-April

Drilon: We can judge the success of the lockdown in terms of our ability to flatten the curve

Epidemiologist Dr. John Wong: After ECQ started, we are seeing a plateau of about 220 cases a day

Drilon to DOH chief Duque: Are we testing enough? How many tests are we doing daily?

Duque: The testing we are doing now is a little under 10,000 per day. We are planning to round this up to 28,000 to 30,000 a day. That should be okay

Epidemiologist says before ECQ was applied, Philippines was recording an average of 538 COVID-19 cases per day

DOH chief: We are doing now 11,509. So that's it. A little over 10,000

Drilon says that the country has one of the lowest testing rates in Asia according to data

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer bares government's plan on increasing testing capacity: We are getting 20 PCR machines in China. These machines could accelerate our testing capacity to 15,000

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer: Our testing capacity in March was 1,000. After two months, we have increased it to 11,500. Actually it is 20,000. But because of problems in global shortage in reagents, our capacity is not maximized

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer: We are very confident that our target of 30,000 (tests per day) will be reached by May 31

Vince Dizon, COVID-19 response deputy chief implementer and coronavirus testing czar: We have tested .2 percent of our population

COVID-19 response deputy chief implementer says the government aims to test 1 to 2 percent of the country's population

Drilon: Unless we have an accurate and sufficient testing capacity, we will keep on extending these lockdowns

COVID-19 response deputy chief implementer: We aim to raise the testing capacity to 50,000 per day two months from now

COVID-19 response deputy chief implementer says the government wants to test 10 to 12 percent of the total population in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak

COVID-19 response deputy chief implementer says that one of the biggest challenges they faced was the testing of the 25,000 OFWs

Drilon asks DOH chief Duqueto review the Philhealth coverage for COVID-19 tests.

Duque says they will submit the report before the week ends

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri asks DOH chief Duque: Is it possible to ramp up the application of testing centers outside Metro Manila?

Duque apologizes for the lack of regional facilities which could process COVID-19 tests

DOH chief: I would like to apologize that we weren't able to give it equal push as we did in NCR. But it doesn't mean that we are not doing anything about this

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer Galvez says that they are now expediting the accreditation of the regional testing centers

COVID-19 response deputy chief implementer says the government wants to increase the number of COVID-19 testing facilities to 66 by end of May

Senator Lacson asks about revenue collections.

Finance chief: Our revenues are flat as of the first quarter compared to last year

Finance chief updates figures: From January to April, our total collections are ₱352 billion against last year's ₱451 billion. We are down about 25%

Finance chief: That was because the April 15 tax deadline has been postponed. That tax will be intact, what we really lost is the VAT, excise tax collections since mid-March until probably the end of May

Finance chief: We are in the process of finalizing the budget

Senator Zubiri says that individuals going home to their provinces should be considered as essential travel. He adds it is also a way to decongest Metro Manila

Senator Lacson asks about contact tracing efforts.

DILG Secretary Año says there are over 2,000 teams doing contact tracing, which has reached out to 171,786 persons deemed as suspect or probable COVID-19 patients

DOH chief says there is a 1:6 ratio between confirmed case and their close contacts who are traced

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer: Kaya mataas ang number ng testing natin is because of the PUI and PUMs with symptoms. Karamihan sa contacts at probable contacts ay nakuha na natin

Senator Lacson asks how much DOH has spent for its COVID-19 budget.

DOH chief says they have so far spent ₱35.2 billion out of ₱45.72 billion budget to buy supplies, test kits, hiring of additional personnel, analysis of medicines and medical devices, research

Senator Lacson asks about price difference on test kits and machines. He says private sector only bought the Sansure COVID-19 test kits and machines at ₱1.75 million each, but government got these at ₱4 million each

Department of Budget and Management Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao explains why the government purchase of COVID-19 test kits is double the price of those bought by the private sector

DBM says the private sector bought the Sansure Natch full automated extraction systems. However, the Procurement Service can only buy based on the very specific and brand-based procurement order, which in this case indicates a different brand from the USA

DBM: Kapag bumili kami ng ibang item, hindi nila binayaran, matatamaan kami ng COA

Senator Lacson questions the accuracy of daily testing results reported by the DOH. He says the agency should revise their reports and tables to show how many people who were swabbed that day eventually tested positive

DOH chief says he has instructed to look into the price discrepancy in COVID-19 test kits and machines purchased by government, as pointed out by Senator Lacson

Senator Lito Lapid asks DOH chief about how prepared the country is for a second wave of infections.

Duque: Meron na tayong gagawing strategy na mas localized ang ating quarantine measures. Hindi na ito malawakang lugar kung 'di focused, kunwari sa isang barangay

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer: The economy has suffered sa lockdown kaya gumawa kami ng zoning concept, kung saan mag-iidentify ng critical area

National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer: Ang gagawin natin is i-address ang critical areas habang pino-protektahan ang economic corridors. Ito po ang ating strategy of balancing the economy with the safety of the people

DILG chief: Meron tayong 1,445 quarantine centers na kayang mag-handle ng higit 44,000 persons under isolation

DILG chief says they are waiting for authorities to liquidate the cash aid releases during the first tranche before releasing the second tranche. Priority is the 5 million left out of the first run

Senator Lapid asks how many local officials have been charged for cash aid distribution issues.

DILG chief says they have charged 12, four to be filed, and 58 are under investigation

DILG chief: 43 mayors to be sent show cause orders for failing to hit 80% distribution during the May 10 deadline

Senator Lapid asks about the difference between PCR and rapid tests.

DOH chief: Ang RT-PCR tests ang gold standard. Ito ang ginagamit natin sa detection ng ating mga pasyente at ito ay malaking kamahalan kumpara sa rapid antibody testing system dahil mahaba ang proseso

DOH chief: Ang nakikita nating problema sa antibody testing ay nagkakaroon ng 'false positive' at 'false negative'

DOH chief says PhilHealth pays for COVID-19 testing through RT-PCR

DOH chief: Basta member po ng PhilHealth, sasagutin po ng PhilHealth (COVID-19 testing). Pero ipapa calibrate natin sa PhilHealth kung magkano dapat ang pag-singil

Senator Gatchalian: MECQ pa lang pero lumalabas na ang tao kahit na wala pa rin tayong malawakang testing

Senator Gatchalian: Ano ang worst-case scenario? Hindi natin na-take advantage ang ECQ para mag-test.

DOH chief: Ang worst-case scenario dito ay mag-uulit tayo ng outbreak. 'Yan ay dedepende doon sa bilang ng mga kaso sa iba't ibang lugar

Senator Gatchalian: Ang nakikita ko po, walang pressure sa LGUs to conduct extra health efforts. If you want to fight this with extreme aggressiveness, kailangan ho ma-grade sila, some form of measurement na wala ho akong nakikita doon

Senator Gatchalian: Hindi natin alam [ang testing capacities ng LGUs] dahil ang LGUs, kanya-kanyang hanap ng laboratories. Ang mga LGUs, nag aaway-away na sa laboratory capacity na hindi naman dapat mangyari

Senator Gatchalian to DILG chief: Do we have any plans on making the LGUs focus on the health aspects?

Año: We will come up with this score card for the LGUs

Senator Gatchalian: I'm commending the private sector, pero alam natin na sa Bayanihan Act, pwedeng bumili ang gobyerno para magtayo ng testing centers

Senator Gatchalian: Bakit hindi bumibili ng test kits para mas mabilis?

DOH chief: Walang prohibition ang national government na bumili ng kasangkapan. Lahat ito ay pinapahintulutan

Gatchalian asks DOH chief on the country's status to achieve herd immunity.

DOH chief: Malayo pa po para marating ang herd immunity. May mga pag aaral na ang herd immunity, bago makamit ito ay ang infection rate ng buong population ay 50 to 60 percent. (1/2)

DOH chief: Malayo pa po tayo diyan dahil bago palang ang virus. (2/2)

DOH chief mentions the five kinds of drugs under the WHO Solidarity trial. bit.ly/2WJB8RV

Senator Pacquiao asks where the majority of funds for COVID-19 response come from.

Finance chief: Basically it comes from many, many sources. We have foreign development funders, we are also borrowing locally.

Finance chief: Our budget is being strained at the moment because we are living within the ₱4.1-trillion budget that the legislature approved for 2020. Ang problema natin, 'yung koleksyon ng taxes ay bumagsak so we've had to borrow from abroad.

Finance chief: We have still some amount left for our debt ceiling, we have borrowed very little in the past. Our debt-to-GDP ratio as of end-2019 is 39%, we might see this rise closer to 50%.

Senator Pacquiao asks how DOF plans to raise additional taxes if lockdowns continue.

Finance chief: I think the plan of IATF is localized lockdowns.

Senator Pacquiao asks if DOF will ask for a supplemental budget, which will require new sources of revenue.

Finance chief: We have not found any at this point of time. We heed the Senate President's advice not to impose new taxes.

Finance chief: If we can sustain the momentum by borrowing money rather than selling assets, we will continue that.

NEDA Acting Sec. Karl Chua: Our estimate is about 136,000 contact tracers might be needed. We have a proposal, a wage subsidy that may be converted into cash-for-work program to cover their salaries.

NEDA: We are ready to support up to 1 million cash-for-work beneficiaries.

DOH chief: For a 1:800 person to contact tracer ratio, we will need about ₱11.7 billion if we pay them for three months.

DOH chief: We also have the StaySafe app, they need to use it so they can input and track the contacts of a patient.

NEDA: I have been in discussion with the PSA and we are proposing to move the census from May to September for safety reasons. bit.ly/3bLOPUm

Senator Cynthia Villar asks if Las Piñas General Hospital can run their own COVID-19 testing laboratory.

DOH chief says the facility is on stage 2 of progress.

DOH chief explains that RT-PCR tests are needed to confirm the results of the rapid tests.

Senator Villar asks why government doesn't want to use rapid testing to test people, saying it's what the Senate did.

DOH chief says there's a risk of 'false negatives' in rapid tests even if their results are out faster.

DOH chief: Nag-stabilize na ang daily cases natin, hindi na po umaabot ng 400-500 cases a day.

Senator Villar: Kapag tinagalan niyo pa 'yang ECQ na 'yan, baka hindi na tayo makabangon sa kahirapan. Dapat we should balance 'yong ating health efforts at ang ating economic efforts. 'pag bumagsak ang mga negosyo, wala ding magbabayad ng taxes.

Senator Villar says the government's cash aid program may not be succeeding: Alam mo, kapag namimigay ka, kahit hindi kailangang bigyan, may humihingi.

Senator Villar says in Las Piñas, the LGU is giving 270,000 relief packs for a population of 600,000 per week. There are 120,000 families if it's an average of 5 members. Bakit nagrereklamo pa rin ang mga tao?

Senator Villar: Ang Las Piñas LGU, nagrereklamo na. Hanggang kailan ka tatagal kung gagastos ka ng ₱135 million per month, hindi naman sila masaya na it did not go to the right person.

Senator Villar asks for a copy of the actual list of beneficiaries of the cash aid program: Nahirapan ang LGU kasi there's really no list.

Senator Villar: Paanong naging 18 million poor families? Sabi sa study, 59 percent ang poor and lower income.

Senator Villar on cash aid: Bakit natin bibigyan ang mga taong kahit lockdown, may sweldo naman?

Senator Villar: Ang talaga daw na mahirap lang is 59% of the population, why did we give to 82%? Hindi ko ma-accept 'yung figures na 'to, masyadong mataas. Nade-deprive ang mahirap dahil nabibigyan ang middle income.

Senator Sotto says Cabinet secretaries are being summoned by President Rodrigo Duterte for an urgent meeting in Malacañang.

NEDA: We had 22 million families based on the 2015 census and 15 million of them are deemed low income. The 2020 estimate is now 24.6 million, of which 18 million are considered low-income and are at no-work, no-pay arrangements.

Dizon on the current positivity rate: Out of the 8 percent na nag-popositibo, 95 percent of that are mild and/or asymptomatic. Only less than 2 percent are critical or severe.

Senator Joel Villanueva: Assuming we can conduct 50,000 tests a day and more people turn out positive, can the health system still handle them?

Dizon: Sa ibang bansa kapag may second or third wave, tataas ang positivity rate. Our peak was at 20% if I am not mistaken. Kung tumaas ito, doon tayo pwedeng magkaroon ng sitwasyon na baka kagaya nung Marso, medyo napupuno ang mga ospital.

Dizon: No'ng bandang Marso, medyo napupuno na ang mga ospital natin, mga ICU beds natin nauubos. Kaya ang kailangan po talaga pag nafa-flatten na ang curve, it now gives us time to prepare and expand the healthcare capacity.

Senator Villanueva: How do you plan to establish reliable COVID-19 surveillance in workplaces when businesses also can't foot the bill?

Dizon: The DOH return to work protocols encourage companies to do random testing.

Senator Villanueva points out the need to detect asymptomatic patients among workers.

Dizon: The DOH return to work protocols encourage companies to do randomized testing of their workforce using the accredited and validated antibody tests that the FDA has currently accredited.

Can PhilHealth cover COVID-19 testing?

Dizon: Right now, it can cover up to ₱8,000 for PCR tests.

Dizon: Ang ibig sabihin po ng randomized ay kukuha sila ng sample ng kanilang workforce at itetest po nila using the rapid antibody test para po makita kung sino po sa kanila ang mayroong antibody matagal na or 'yong currently ay infectious pa.

What is the main consideration on where to source realigned funds for COVID-19 response?

DBM Secretary Wendel Avisado: The instruction was for us to make sure that we're able to respond to the requirements of COVID-19. (1/2)

DBM Secretary: Due to the urgency, it was with the President's approval that we will use the funds still within DBM, those not yet released. (2/2)

DBM: Given these funds are still within us and we can utilize them for quick response, you will also note that from the side of DBM, we have released practically all requirements for COVID.

Senator Pia Cayetano asks DBM why it will reduce infrastructure funding for state universities and colleges: They get one project at a time, if at all. She asks to reconsider removing the capital outlay budget for SUCs.

DBM: You have our assurance, education is important.

Senator Nancy Binay asks if there's an IATF manual on 'new normal.'

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles says there's a technical working group chaired by NEDA for these policies.

Senator Binay stresses the importance of informing and guiding the public on how to transition to the "new normal."

Nograles says they also talk to industry leaders to consult, cascade policies of IATF.

He says IATF also hopes to consult with religious leaders regarding their appeal on religious gatherings.

Senator Binay wants an actual written document from IATF detailing what people should do to fight COVID-19 under the new normal.

Nograles agrees: Kailangan siguro mas simplified at popularized pa ang IATF guidelines.

Senator Bato Dela Rosa says cash aid distribution would have been made easier if PH had a national ID system.

NEDA's Chua says pilot registration has been done last year, findings will be used for wider rollout.

Senator Dela Rosa asks NEDA chief Karl Chua on the current status of the national ID system: Nasaan na tayo sa implementation ng batas na ito? (1/2)

NEDA's Chua: Ito po ay ang pinaka malaking ID investment natin. More than ₱10 billion po ang halaga ng proyekto. Hindi pa ho natin alam kung paano gawin ito dahil walang experience before. (2/2)

Senator Angara asks about progress on contact tracing, drawing from his experience as a COVID-19 patient. He says he was already out of the hospital when DOH called him for contact tracing.

Nograles: Contact tracing has been given to DILG. Even before that, bumuo na ng composite teams. We also mandated data sharing between DOH, DILG. We also used the StaySafe app.

NEDA says people cannot go through the registration process of the national ID system nowadays because the collection of the biometrics information can cause virus transmission.

Nograles: Kung may patient, kailangan alamin ng DILG saan nakatira 'yan then you contact the family, sino ang kapitbahay, at sino ang naging close contact niya.

Senator Angara says he was diagnosed March 26 but got a contact tracing call by April 24: My experience does not leave me confident about this system.

Senator Angara: There are gaps in the network of information that makes our contact tracing ineffective. It has to be quick, real-time otherwise we don't clamp down on the risk of infections.

Nograles says the DILG leads the contact tracing process of the government.

Senator Angara: What is the point of testing if you cannot trace the contacts?

Senator Angara says that tracing, testing, and treatment, are all equally important in the process of fighting COVID-19.

Nograles on why we have one of the highest mortality rates and one of the lowest recovery rates in Asia: I think we've been improving in terms of the mortality rate that was high before, given from where we started. But I think there still has a lot to be done

Nograles: In order for us to address and lower the mortality rate, importante kasi 'yong capacity building ng ating mga health workers; capacitating more of our facilities, making sure na maaga 'yong medical interventions sa mga pasyente

Nograles: I think this number has improved over the course of time

Nograles: Our mortality doubling time has become significantly longer. Dati, our doubling time was four days. Now it's 6.3 days. What we want to do is reach the seven-day level

Nograles: Improving the health system capacity is something that is really key

Senator Zubiri says that 40 percent of COVID-19 testing in the country is courtesy of the Philippine Red Cross.

Senator Gordon: We (Philippine Red Cross) will have 42,000 tests a day.

Senator Gordon says the Philippine Red Cross has been going around the country to conduct testing.

Senator Gatchalian on the Red Cross laboratory: It's a feat to set up a lab in 45 days.

Senator Gatchalian: Ang pribadong sektor pa po ang nangunguna para mag set up ng mga ganitong lab.