Duterte’s style to address COVID-19 pandemic based on science, hard data, not on “medical populism” – Palace

September 24, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration have been addressing the coronavirus disease pandemic based on science and hard data and not through the so-called "medical populism," Malacanang said on Wednesday.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was reacting on the statement made by The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, which said that one reason for failure to suppress the epidemic is a style of political leadership that has been called medical populism and it named Duterte, along with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and US President Donald Trump as among those engaged on such style.

"The President, together with the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force, has met the challenges of COVID-19 head-on, with science and hard data guiding the Chief Executive's decisions and actions, contrary to the 'medical populism' leadership style issue raised by some quarters," he said in a statement.

He said the Duterte administration has put in place concrete interventions to reduce the spread of coronavirus, which include ramping up the country's testing capacity, enhancing contact tracing efforts, and scaling up of local health system capacity, especially for community isolation and critical care.

Roque also cited the "whole-of-government and whole-of society" approach where every sector from public health to economics has been consulted to ensure that the adverse impact of the coronavirus apndemic is addressed in the National Action Plan.

The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, which released the statement in time for the 75th anniversary fo the United Nations General Assembly, said leaders such as Duterte, Trump and Bolsonaro have resorted to simplifying the pandemic by downplaying its impact or touting easy solutions or treatments, spectacularizing their responses to crisis, forging divisions between the people and dangerous others, and making medical knowledge claims to support the above.

It said that countries should combat decisions based on rumor-mongering and misinformation. Celerina Monte/DMS