House Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr and Albay 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman deliver their own rebuttals to the President's 5th State of the Nation Address. SONA2020
For the first time under Rodrigo Duterte's presidency, the two contra speeches to his State of the Nation Address in the House were united in slamming him over his failure to articulate a clear plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet the Manila 6th District congressman also said the President failed to expound how his administration plans to stop COVID-19 cases from rising. To date,"Some of them have felt the crushing pain of losing someone to this disease…. All of them are asking: what will the government do to protect us from this invisible enemy? What is the country's comprehensive plan to beat COVID-19?" asked Abante.
But Abante also questioned why a pandemic had to happen for the government to take the digital shift seriously. The minority leader also took issue with the persistent anomalies hounding the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation despite Duterte's promise to hold corrupt officials accountable. Like in his past 4 contra-SONAs, Lagman's speech on Tuesday was comprehensively critical of the Duterte government's overall response to the pandemic – from the"measly" mass testing of Filipinos to the militaristic approach to battling a health crisis.
"However, whether it be the Senate or House version, the stimulus package under the 'Bayanihan Act Part II' is tragically miniscule. It cannot positively address the health emergency which is still raging, the social amelioration of affected families, wage subsidies to displaced workers, and financial relief and credit accommodation to distressed businesses," Lagman said.
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