President Duterte: Gov’t working to weather pandemic impact
The government is doing its best to weather the crippling effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said on Monday, noting mass inoculation could reverse the present situation.
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President Rodrigo
Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency
Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the
Malacañang Golf (Malago) Clubhouse in Malacañang Park, Manila on February 1,
2021. RICHARD MADELO/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
In his weekly public address on government response to the pandemic, President Duterte tackled the economy particularly after the government released the nation’s recent gross domestic product (GDP) figures.
The
country is losing billions in lost productivity as a result of the raging
pandemic as the government carries out restrictions to contain the further
spread of the virus, the President said.
The
country’s economy used to perform well prior to the pandemic, he noted.
“According
to the Secretary of Finance, araw-araw ngayon hanggang matapos itong COVID,
araw-araw we are losing two billion na pera para sana ‘yon sa mga tao ‘yung the
workers, the Filipino workers, would have earned that money kung ang ekonomiya
natin gumagalaw. Eh kaya nga hindi eh,” he said.
“So,
we are sinking deeper and deeper pero hindi lang rin tayo. Kung hindi tayo,
lahat. Pero we are trying our very best to keep us afloat,” he added.
The
Philippines is not alone, he said, stressing all economies in the world are
bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
“Alam
mo lahat ng bayan ngayon ng buong mundo bagsak, talagang bagsak,” he said.
President
Duterte encouraged the people to hope for the best. The country’s best chance
is through mass immunization, which according to the President, is encountering
a problem now as nations compete for vaccine supply. Manufacturers also grapple
with huge demand.
The
country’s economy suffered a record annual contraction in 2020, after the GDP
shrank in the fourth quarter, according to the preliminary figures from the
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA
data showed that the country’s GDP contracted by 8.3 percent in the fourth
quarter, in contrast with the 6.7 percent growth it posted in the fourth
quarter of 2019.
The Philippines’s full year GDP plunged 9.5 percent, which the PSA said, was the country’s steepest economic contraction in history. The PSA has been collecting annual data since 1947. PND
