Duterte’s meeting with IATF moved to Monday in Manila, says Palace

June 10, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte's supposed meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on Thursday has been rescheduled early next week in Manila, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

Duterte, who has been in Davao City for almost two weeks, was initially scheduled to meet some members of the IATF on Thursday after the group's meeting Wednesday to decide on the possible new classification of the various places in the country after June 15.

"The next meeting with the President will be on Monday. So, our meeting on Thursday is postponed," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a television interview, adding that the meeting will be held in Manila and not in Davao City.

In a meeting today, Roque said the Department of Health would make an epidemiological report regarding the coronavirus disease data of the various areas in the country to determine whether some would remain under the general community quarantine or would shift to modified GCQ or new normal.

He noted that in Metro Manila, which is still under GCQ and the epicenter of COVID-19, and in Cebu City, the spread of the virus is still a bit fast.

Aside from COVID-19 cases doubling rate and critical care, he said the IATF would also consider the impact on economy in enforcing quarantine measures.

Areas under GCQ could not fully open the economy yet since there are still sectors which could not operate.

Meanwhile, Roque admitted that the Philippines could not match New Zealand which has  zero COVID-19 case.

"That's a bit difficult for the Philippines to achieve. Because if you are going to compare New Zealand, it's land area is almost as big as Luzon, it's population is only 5 million," he said.

Roque noted that in Metro Manila alone, the population is 40 million and people are living very close to each other, thus, virus infection could spread easily.

"So I'm happy for the New Zealanders, but their population is limited and their land area is big," he said. Celerina Monte/DMS