President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Wednesday said the state of public health emergency nationwide due to the COVID-19 crisis will not be lifted yet.
In an interview at the launching of the PinasLakas vaccination campaign in Manila, Marcos Jr. said the state of emergency will be in effect until the end of this year.
“We were just discussing it with DoH (Department of Health) Usec. Maria Rosario Vergeire because maraming mga binibigay sa international medical community kapag state of emergency. WHO (World Health Organization) is one of them. At kung itigil natin ‘yung state of emergency, matitigil ‘yun,” Marcos told reporters.
“But if we can change — we are looking at amending the law in terms of procurement and all of that in the middle of an emergency,” he added.
On 8 March 2020, then-President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency when the Department of Health reported the very first local cases of COVID-19.
The President can only withdraw the state of public health emergency in accordance with Proclamation 922.
Under the said proclamation, all government agencies and local government units are enjoined to render full assistance and cooperation and mobilize the necessary resources to undertake timely critical, urgent and appropriate responses and measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.