MAS malaki umano ang mawawala sa bansa kapag hindi pinalawig ang Enhanced Community Quarantine.
Ayon kay House committee on ways and means chairman Joey Salceda ang opsyon sa pagpapalawig ng ECQ ay: “losing a lot of lives and saving some money” at “protecting many lives and recover economic losses faster”.
Sinabi ni Salceda naa noong 1918 flu pandemic, napansin ng mga Amerikano na ang mas mahabang lockdown period ay nagresulta sa mas mababang mortality rate at mas malaking employment rate.
“The historical evidence says that if you take your time and use the time wisely to build capacity, improve your system of care, and avoid making mistakes such as premature lockdowns, you reduce mortality rate and you enable a recovery. I know that from experience because my zero-casualty doctrine in Albay enabled us to go from a poverty rate of 28.7 percent when I just took over in 2007, to 17.6 percent in 2015 just as I was about to leave as Governor. That’s the lowest in Bicol, and a full ten points below the regional average. And I was willing to sometimes evacuate barangays for several weeks,” ani Salceda.
Enero pa lang ay naghain na si Salceda ng panukala para bumuo ng health emergency framework kasama ang paglikha ng Center for Disease Control. Nang sumunod na buwan ay sumulat naman siya sa liderato ng Kamara de Representantes para sa pagpapalawig ng mga health facilities.
Nanawagan si Salceda ng lockdown isang linggo bago ito idineklara sa Metro Manila.
Sumulat din si Salceda sa Office of the President para sa pagbibigay ng subsidy sa mga mahihirap na pamilya bago pa man naipasa ang Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
Sinabi ni Salceda na magpapatuloy pa ang pagtaas ng mga kaso ng COVID-19.
“Doubling time for the number of confirmed cases is currently at 4.7 days. That means we will see the number of cases we have doubled by Friday if things don’t slow down. That doesn’t look like a peak to me, or frankly, to any doctor, public health expert, or data scientist who looks at it.”
Ayon kay Salceda ang pag-unlad ng ekonomiya ay maaaring gawan ng paraan pero ang nawalang buhay ay hindi na maibabalik.
“Economic growth is always in the future. We have many economic tools to restore economic growth. But no economic tool has ever succeeded in bringing the dead back to life.”