From 'Congrats, Philippines!' in June, Roque says the same to DepEd over class reopening
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has backed Education Secretary Leonor Briones' "victory over COVID-19" statement, reminiscent of his congratulatory remarks in June over the country supposedly beating coronavirus projections.
At a Palace briefing on Tuesday, Roque equated winning over the pandemic that has infected and killed thousands in the country when officials pushed through with the resumption of classes on Monday, October 5.
"Congratulations Secretary Briones, to the DepEd family and the entire Philippines because we have won against COVID-19 when we reopened schools yesterday," he said in mixed English and Filipino.
Roque's remarks is despite of the fact that teachers and students experienced difficulties on the first day particularly on internet connectivity and availability of gadgets.
President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman came under fire in late June when he was overjoyed upon the Philippines falling just 4,000 short of experts' projected 40,000 COVID-19 infections by the end of the said month.
The numbers have grown significantly in the following months with restrictions slowly eased, and it has now led to 326,833 cases and 5,865 deaths.
In the same briefing, Briones reiterated her remarks on Monday that Filipino revolutionaries did not wait for whether they were ready for the war that eventually failed to liberate the country.
"Even up to madaling araw ng October 5 marami pa ring efforts na [itigil] ang pagbukas ng eskwelahan," she said. "'Yung ating mga rebolusyonaryo hindi naman nag-aksaya kung ready na ready na sila para ipagpatuloy ang rebolusyon."
(Even until the early morning of October 5 there were still a lot of efforts to delay the reopening of schools. But our heroes did not waste time asking if they are ready for the revolt.)
The ACT-Teachers' Party-list has rejected officials claim on victory, saying this could have been based on questionable standards or an "outright denial of the problems" on the ground.
"The mere opening of classes is not by itself a victory against COVID-19 and its disruptive impacts on the people's lives, especially not a claim the government can make," its secretary general Raymond Basilio said.
Other groups, including the youth sector, have also called for an academic freeze until the onslaught of the pandemic winds down, or when a vaccine has been developed.
Some 24.75 million Filipino students have enrolled for the blended learning school year this 2020, with late enrollees still accepted until November 21.
DepEd has utilized TV and radio stations to aid in the implementation of the herculean task along with printed modules for those without internet or gadgets.
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