IVAN MAYRINA (GMA-7): Sir, good evening, Mr. President, sir.
PRESIDENT FERDINAND R. MARCOS: Good evening.
MR. MAYRINA: There are calls by some legislators for you to appoint a full-time Agriculture secretary in your stead given that the issues — the urgency and the importance of the issues in the agriculture sector requires the full attention of a department secretary. Your response please, sir?
PRESIDENT MARCOS: I am giving my full attention to the department. And the reason that I stay on up to now I have actually raised the subject with some of the — some of the staff and the employees and the secretaries in the DA and they asked me not to.
And the reason is very simple: there are things that a President can do that a secretary cannot, especially because precisely the reason that you gave. The problems are so difficult that it will take a president to change and turn it around.
Very deeply embedded ang mga problema natin sa agrikultura. Ito ay nangyari sa nakaraang napakaraming taon. Kaya’t hindi ganoon kabilis, hindi ganoon kadali na ibalik sa ating magandang sistema dati. Kaya’t I think I am still needed there.
So I think when we are able to say that the DA’s functions are properly institutionalized, and the structural changes that we need to make in the DA have been made, and the appointments in the DA have already been made, then saka ako bibitaw. Because then, they don’t need me anymore, they don’t need the President heading the department.
EDEN SANTOS (NET25): Good evening po, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT MARCOS: Good evening.
MS. SANTOS: The Duterte administration cancelled the chopper deal with Russia po. But now, Russia wants the Philippine government under your administration to honor the deal. Mr. President, the question is: Are you going to pursue the chopper deal with Russia despite po ‘yung possible sanctions from the West?
PRESIDENT MARCOS: I think it has already been determined. It was already determined by the previous administration that that deal will not carry through, will not go on.
At so mayroon na tayong ginawa, we have already… The deal with Russia was for some heavy-lift helicopters and now we have secured an alternative supply from the United States through the manufacturer Poland — in any case, we have — mayroon na tayong kapalit.
Unfortunately, we made a down payment that we are hoping to negotiate to get at least a percentage of that back. But the deal as it stood maybe at the beginning or in the middle of last year, has already been cancelled and we have, as I said, secured another alternative supply for those helicopters that we need.
TUESDAY NIU (DZBB): Magandang gabi po, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT MARCOS: Magandang gabi sa’yo.
MS. NIU: Opo. Mayroon pong nagsampa ng petisyon sa Korte Suprema kaugnay po nung pinirmahan ninyong batas specifically po doon sa postponement ng Barangay Elections this December. At ang punto po doon sa petition ay parang sinasabi po ni Atty. Macalintal na ‘yung nangyari po na ‘yun ay labag sa Saligang Batas dahil parang itinatalaga na raw po ninyo ‘yung mga barangay officials which supposedly dapat po ang mga barangay officials ay ine-elect at hindi po ‘yung itinatalaga o appointed. What’s your take on this po, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT MARCOS: Well, we have sufficient precedent for the postponement of Barangay and SK Elections. Nakailan na tayo.
In my time lang in government, I have seen I think four maybe five postponements. And so I think in terms of the law, it is well within the powers of Congress to postpone those elections because that is not contained in the Constitution, it is contained in the Local Government Code.
JOYCE BALANCIO (DZMM): Good afternoon, Mr. President. When do you plan to appoint a permanent secretary in the Department of Health? And also will the government order any restrictions to the movement of people especially now that there are more subvariants of COVID-19 that have been detected and experts are saying COVID cases could increase in the next weeks or months?
PRESIDENT MARCOS: Yes, what we have to understand about COVID and the way that we are treating it is that the risk factor of getting COVID in 2022 is very, very different from the risk factor of getting COVID in 2020 or 2021. And that is indicated by the hospitalizations and the rate of the death. And mayroon talaga…
Noong nagsimula ang pandemya, mayroon tayong mga naririnig na kaso, mayroon tayong alam, tayo sarili, personal, na mga wala namang sakit, wala namang — hindi naman dapat sasabihin na may comorbidity, eh hindi pa rin nakakapag-survive. Ngayon ay masasabi natin, maliwanang na maliwanag, it is those patients with comorbidities that have been our fatalities.
So we have — we cannot look at it the same way. And that is why, we still have — it is the same situation that I have in the Department of Agriculture.
We have to get away from the emergency, the emergency stance of the DOH because we have to open up businesses. We have to make the Philippines more hospitable to travelers, both business and tourists.
And it does not help if we are still under a state of calamity, if we are the only country that still has a mask protocol. But these are mandated to us by the laws that were passed during the pandemic. So kailangan pa nating ayusin ‘yun.
And until that’s fixed and, once again, until those changes, in the case of the DOH, it’s not structural changes; but in the case of DOH, it’s the method of handling the pandemic. We must treat the pandemic no longer — we must treat COVID no longer as an emergency but something that we will have to manage forever. It’s like flu, like pneumonia.
Nandiyan lagi ‘yan pero mag-ingat tayo para hindi tayo magkasakit. And that is the way that we should be handling COVID. We cannot remove ourselves yet from the way that we are handling it. Dahil halimbawa, ‘pag tinanggal ko ‘yung state of calamity, hindi makukuha ng ating mga health workers ‘yung kanilang benepisyo na nasa batas. Hindi tayo makakapag-import ng vaccine, ‘yung sa procurement masyadong mabagal ang magiging procurement.
‘Yung indemnification fund na nilagay diyan para pagka nagkaproblema sa mga paggamit nung vaccine ay mayroon tayong pambayad. All of these will disappear ‘pag tinanggal ‘yung state of calamity.
Pero ngayon, sa ngayon, sinasabi ko, naghahanap kami ng paraan para nga ma-normalize na natin at hindi na natin kailangan sabihin na ang Pilipinas state of calamity pa rin.
Para masabi natin sa ating mga potential investors: “Pumunta kayo rito sa Pilipinas, maayos na.” Puwede nating sabihin sa ating mga kaibigan na mga dayuhan: “Bumisita kayo rito at maganda na ang Pilipinas. Hindi na kailangan, hindi niyo na kailangan ialala ang COVID-19.”
Kaya’t ‘yun ang — hangga’t umabot… Paabutin natin doon, and then we will normalize also all the reorganization of the government.
[applause]
MS. BALANCIO: Sir, how about the DOH secretary?
PRESIDENT MARCOS: How about?
MS. BALANCIO: The DOH secretary. When do you plan to appoint a permanent secretary?
PRESIDENT MARCOS: Of?
MS. BALANCIO: The DOH? Since OIC pa lang po mayroon.
PRESIDENT MARCOS: When that happens. When what I just explained happens. The same as DA na maayos na, normalized na.
The reason — when all of these things happen… Kung minsan you do not hear from me and hindi — sinasabi ko ‘yung mga secretaries sila ang mag-statement.
The reason is, I want people to understand that this is the government’s work, not everything is a crisis. So i-normalize natin ang trabaho ng gobyerno.
That is what I am trying to do. So that every day functions are fulfilled every day, without fuss, without bother, without gulo, without fixers, without paying. ‘Yan ang inaayos ko.
So that is what I’m hoping to get to, to that point, especially in the DOH and the Department of Agriculture. All right?
Maraming salamat. Thank you very much.
— END —
SOURCE: OPS-PND (Presidential News Desk)
