We have the worst Government in this time of Pandemic, It's not all about the President but the Government as a whole.
what can you say about our situation for being the worst and also as the leading country on ASEAN that has a high number of Covid Cases.
It's been months already and yet, jnstead of recoveries we are getting most of it, and our economy is already falling.
I'm assuming your "worst" comment is directed to how the Government has handled this ongoing pandemic and not other things. We started quite slow, and no other than the President admitted that, but that's mainly because we weren't ready in terms of facilities and equipment against pandemics. No previous Governments had taken the initiative to bolster our healthcare facilities before this current administration took over. We didn't even have an agency set up like the USA's CDC (Center for Disease & Control Prevention). Another reason why the slow start is the fact that we still belong to the 3rd world and we were not a top priority when it comes to acquiring PPEs. Because of the global shortage, Manufacturers/Suppliers prioritized selling PPEs to top nations (they most likely paid higher $).
When it comes to making decisions and policies based on the what the Government had at the time, I think ours had one of the best team (IATF and not DOH) considering the resources that we had.
Someone was patient enough to summarize what actions the Government did and I'm sharing the data below. Travel Ban:We had the first case reported on Jan. 30 and the Government banned travels from China (including Macau & Hongkong) on Feb. 2 in response. If we compare that to other countries, we are rather quick.
| Country | First Case | Travel Ban |
| Vietnam | Jan. 23 | Feb. 1 |
| Japan | Jan. 16 | Feb. 1 |
| Thailand | Jan. 13 | Mar. 11 |
| Singapore | Jan. 23 | Jan. 29 |
| Philippines | Jan. 30 | Feb. 2 |
First local transmission was recorded on March 5. The president declared this as a national health emergency on March 9.
Lockdown/Quarantine:March 11, World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Philippines' NCR was lockdown on March 15 while National lockdown was on March 17. Comparing it to the above countries again:
| Country | Lockdown date |
| Vietnam | Apr. 1 |
| Japan | Apr. 7 |
| Thailand | Apr. 3 |
| Singapore | Apr. 3 |
| Philippines | Mar. 17 |
The Philippine Government made a sound decision with the early lockdown to delay the spread and allowing our healthcare system to cope up (more PPEs, more equipment, more infrastructure has been bought/built since then). There are some people questioning why it wasn't done earlier (January) but can the Government really take such an abrupt decision without weighing in its economic impact? It's not that simple. Besides, there's WHO whom majority of countries based their decisions like what our Government did.
Despite all of that, our cases keeps on increasing unfortunately. It's a combination of poor implementation, lack of money and yeah - citizen's stupidity that's causing it. With businesses slowly opening and public transportation increasing, the spread will only continue. Thankfully, the President listened to the call of some of our medical practitioners to go back to MECQ and give them a much needed "breathing space".
When it comes to the economy, it's not "falling down". It has fallen down and it's on its way to (slow) economic recovery. Our country won't drop as we still have a good team of economic managers. Business stimulus program/package are also being discussed to allow our business sector get back on its feet. The Government also continues with its infrastructure programs (BBB) while fighting the pandemic. As much as I'd like to continue discussing the economic side (loans, GDP, etc.), I'm afraid it's not my area of expertise yet. I understand the basic but I would rather encourage you
(and the others in this thread who are quick to draw conclusion w/o actually checking stats & figures) to read.