Fishers block GMA: “Pandemic is no ball game”
Manila, Philippines — “Birds of the same feather, stay in the same echo chamber. Allow us to remind Mrs. Arroyo that the Filipinos are not mere spectator, but are the ones directly affected by the pandemic furthered by the government’s incompetence,” This was the response of the militant fishers group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) to Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) over her remark defending President Rodrigo Duterte from critics of the government’s response to the pandemic, using the football parlance “Monday Morning Quarterback” which refers to a person who criticizes something after an event.
“May we also manifest to GMA that the pandemic is far from a football game, it is a matter of life and death. Her comparing the suffering and struggle of millions of Filipinos to survive on a health crisis to a ball game reeks insensitivity, and indicates that she is totally out of touch and out of this world,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.
PAMALAKAYA said that if the Duterte government only took the criticisms “constructively” and heeded the public’s demand for massive testing, contact tracing, and other pharmaceutical interventions from the very start, the country could have contained the spread of the virus. ###
