Vice President Leni Robredo urged on Sunday President Rodrigo Duterte to personally make the statement to the public on the action being taken by the government amid cases of the Novel Coronavirus Acute Respiratory Disease in the country.

In a radio program, Robredo suggested that instead of Cabinet members relaying messages, Duterte should present himself and give assurance to the public.

"(T)he defect is with the messenger. There should only be one voice in the government," Robredo said.

"It is better if the President will be the one who will appear in public and make statements. We know that the President is very popular, if he will assure the public that 'everything is under control, we are doing our best', I think the scare felt by the people will subside," she added.

Robredo also criticized some of the statements made by the Cabinet members regarding the coronavirus.

"The problems is that the messengers are different so the messages are different as well. For example, (Presidential Spokesperson Salvador) Panelo said 'how will we distribute (masks) if you said there's nothing to give.' That should not be the kind of thing that an official would say, right?" she said.

"He should have said that they are doing everything they can to assure that there will be masks available in the market," she added.

Robredo said there would have been less concern and panic among the public if the government had implemented a temporary ban of visitors from highly affected areas as early as possible.

She added that the government should inform the public more about the novel coronavirus. Cristina Eloisa Baclig/DMS