SENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Tuesday stressed that COVID 19 is fast and furious while the vaccine rollout is slow and sputtering and these are signs of a government’s pandemic machinery in trouble and a nation in danger.
“Hindi lang change oil ang kailangan, mukhang change engine na rin,” Recto said.
“If after a year, the current one is not bringing us to where we want to be, then it is time to build a better one,” he explained.
Recto further stressed that it is time to expand the membership of Inter-Agency Task Force, to include those in private business with superb managerial skills, such as those who have been running companies with a million moving parts with efficiency and precision.
Under EO 168 that created it, leadership of the IATF remains an all-government affair, chaired by the Secretary of Health with the Secretaries of the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Local Government, Justice, Labor and Employment, Justice, Tourism and Transportation.
“The private sector also has no permanent seat on the table in the National Task Force for COVID-19, the command center that is headed by the Secretary of National Defense,” the senator reminded.
To cite one skill set, Recto said, the war against COVID requires logistics experts who supply a customer base numbering in the tens of millions, like that bakery in Laguna that every day brings millions of pieces of perishable bread to store shelves from Aparri to Zamboanga in a matter of hours.
“Kung may reinforcement man sa IATF, huwag lang po sana MDs—mga Military Dati—kasi quota na po ang sector na ito,” he added.
“My friend and former Cabinet seatmate, Pingkoy Duque, a car fancier and Formula 1 follower (kaya nga F4 ang branding ng kanyang flagship programs), knows that when a car is not winning races, and is last in the vaccine race, it is time to replace the engine—and the driver,” the senator further stressed.
“Secretaries Duque and Galvez can remain within the IATF, but with new roles. They can be one of the pistons of a new, smarter engine that will have more cylinders, but no longer its ECU, its computer brain,” Recto continued.
“Having reinforced the IATF, it is time to put a new man on the driver’s seat. But even the best car, more so the one that will bring us out of this crisis, cannot run on autopilot,” the senator ended.
