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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-8/robredos-demons-sm.webp" alt="Leni Robredo" />
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(Leni Robredo)
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Prior to the lockdowns, however, Robredo and her ilk were complaining that the response was too little, too late. Really, nothing seems to satisfy her discriminating taste.


In her weekly radio program, Robredo suggested measures that were guaranteed to make the outbreak go out of hand, such as allowing most public transportation mainly jeepneys to ply the streets.


Without weighing the consequences, she ventured to conclude that the economic slip, the biggest ever, was mostly due to the 59.2 percent decline in the transportation and storage sector.

She handed government planners an "I told you so," saying what she has been for the longest time suggesting to allow jeepneys to resume operations while ensuring physical distancing.


That's an obvious play to win political brownies from hard-up jeepney drivers, plain and simple, without the use of cerebral muscle on its consequence.


It was not as if the suggestion never came into the mind of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), resulting to a decision to allow some 6,000 roadworthy traditional jeepneys to resume operations.


A two-week modified enhanced community quarantine was reimposed on August 4, 2020, however, which again restricted the use of mass transportation.


She also asked why the economy contracted the most in the Asian region, citing Vietnam as even showing a small growth in the first quarter, as Robredo again blamed the long lockdowns for the huge reversal.



Whoever is feeding her the inane analysis must be congratulated, since it only establishes that she's not capable of hard decisions, and that she would trade political mileage for public safety.


She's also clueless of what's happening around her. The government had long said measured steps are being taken in opening the economy, since the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte is "the primacy of health over the economy."


Implementing the suggestions of Robredo will only result to fanning the outbreak, which offers her another opportunity to nitpick and say "I told you so."


Robredo missed the fact that despite the rising infections, which exactly is being remedied through the lockdowns that are accompanied with massive testing and contact tracing, the Philippines has the lowest case fatality rate in the region.


The ratio of deaths against infections is about 1.8 percent against the world average of 3.7 percent based on World Health Organization data.


Based on the data and the progress in the development of a vaccine, the government is apparently buying time to keep deaths at a minimum until a cure is in its hand, which, based on commitments made by countries such as China and Russia, will not take too long.


Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez indicated the difficult decisions that the President had to take.


The President underlined to the Cabinet to give priority to strict health protocols, while finding ways to ease the restrictions on economic activities.

Robredo only sees whatever demons she can summon against President Duterte