MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte should be given the latitude to decide on the country’s response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic without public pressure, said his spokesperson Harry Roque.
This came following Roque’s appeal to OCTA Research Team not to publicize policy recommendations in a bid to prevent public opinion from influencing Duterte’s decisions amid the health crisis.
“It was an appeal to them that the President should be given the leeway to decide, to make the correct decisions without being influenced by public opinion,” Roque said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source on Wednesday.
“Why is it important that these recommendations not be made public? Because it will enable the President to make the correct decision even if it may be an unpopular decision,” he added.
“And any recommendation publicly made tends to either influence the President, because there will be public opinion generated by the recommendation,” the Palace spokesperson further said.
The OCTA team, composed of researchers from the University of the Philippines and University of Sto. Tomas, earlier published its COVID-19 monitoring report, which laid out suggestions for stricter quarantine rules for emerging virus hotspots in the country.
Roque also noted that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has experts who are also looking into the matter.
“The IATF itself does not publicize its lockdown recommendations prior to Duterte’s approval so that the latter can decide pursuant to what is best for the national interest,” Roque said./PN
