Still on first wave: Palace says Duque failed to follow protocol on COVID-19 "second wave" pronouncement
Health Secretary Francisco Duque did not follow the protocol when he made a pronouncement the Philippines is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus disease infections, Malacañang said as it insisted that the COVID-19 cases are still part of the first wave.
"We have a protocol being followed. All the information, because we have the Secretary of DOH (Department of Health), should be given first to the President (Rodrigo Duterte), and the President will be the one to tell the public, either personally or through our office. But he (Duque) did not follow that protocol," said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a virtual press briefing.
After consulting some experts, Roque also said that the country is still on its first wave of COVID-19 cases.
"Currently, we are on a first wave...the first wave started when three Chinese nationals with COVID-19 arrived here. But that's not community acquired. However, despite that, the first wave started. The first wave continues," he said, citing the ballooning number of cases in March and April.
In May, he noted that that the number of cases is dropping, "although the curve is not yet fully flattened."
Likening the medical practice to a law profession, Roque, who is a lawyer, said that there are also different interpretations.
"As you know, medicine is similar to the lawyers. tThere's only one law, the interpretations are different. Maybe it's also like that in medicine, there's one science, single data, the reading is different," he said.
Without referring to Duque, he said there were those whose interpretation regarding the three cases involving the Chinese nationals was the first wave.
But Roque expressed belief that the cases of the three Chinese were just the start of the first wave.
Roque said he consulted other experts, such as former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, Ernesto Domingo, a Magsaysay Awardee for Medicine, and Minguita Padilla of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital who told him that the COVID-19 cases now are still part of the first wave.
In a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Duque said that the cases of the three Chinese was the first wave and what is being experienced now is the second wave.
Aside from Roque, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año claimed that there is no second wave of COVID-19 infections yet and the Philippines is still experiencing the first wave.
With different pronouncements among the Cabinet members, asked if they were not in sync, Roque said, "Perhaps one is just out of tune, but the orchestra is okay."
It could be recalled that last April, former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia quit from his post, citing differences among some Cabinet members as one of his reasons for his decision.
He also said that his statement and that of other Cabinet officials contrary to Duque was just a clarification and a "small thing."
"It is just on the terminology on when is 'the big wave coming?'," he said.
Roque added that all the Cabinet members agreed that the Philippines should avoid new surge of COVID-19 infections. Celerina Monte/DMS
