Professor draws up wish list in Marcos SONA

The Manila Times

Professor draws up wish list in Marcos SONA  Political analyst and OCTA research founder Professor Ranjit Rye, in an interview with The Manila Times on Monday, July 24, 2023, discusses what he wants to hear from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s State of the Nation Address, as the country lifts its public health emergency against Covid-19.   Audio Interview by Red Mendoza  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe   Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net   Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion   Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #BongbongMarcos #SONA2023 #OCTAResearch #Covid19

Transcript

00:00 The first thing that needs to be realized is that the president has made official the lifting of the health emergency.

00:12 He has formalized it. Although, de facto, by practice, we have had an accident out of COVID about a year ago.

00:21 We've opened up the economy. We've brought children back to school.

00:26 In some sense, this is an achievement also for the current administration.

00:31 Although, it cannot claim any benefit more than that because much of the work for making the country resilient to the last pandemic

00:43 was really done by the past administration to the massive vaccination program.

00:48 But it's important for people to understand that ushering in the country, exiting out of COVID, reopening the economy in a calibrated manner

00:58 also took a lot of leadership and a lot of planning.

01:01 And OCTA understood that. Some of the fellows of OCTA have been working with government closely in this process.

01:09 And now it has been realized and now formalized.

01:13 So that's one major achievement of the president, really just ushering or exiting out of the pandemic in a calibrated manner,

01:22 in a gradual calibrated manner so as to jumpstart economic recovery.

01:29 And that is a major achievement.

01:33 Now, OCTA believes that while this is a very positive sign, an excellent formalization of a process that the country went through,

01:44 ushered in by the leadership of the administration, it feels that a lot of the promises made in the past,

01:55 and of course, needed reforms in healthcare, are going to be key in the second SOLAS speech.

02:07 Fulfilling, advocating significant reforms in our healthcare sector is important.

02:14 If we are going to learn from the lessons of the last pandemic and realize that it is a question, as OCTA always poses,

02:23 it's not a question of if, but a question of when the next pandemic will hit us, we need to prepare.

02:31 I mean, key lessons from the last pandemic was, number one, science matters and we need to strengthen that community in the service of the country.

02:41 Number two, disease surveillance and management is an institutional capacity which is very weak in the country and needs to be realized.

02:52 And reforms towards strengthening it have to happen.

02:58 Third, and I think very important, is that the healthcare system was what made us win the war against COVID.

03:07 And the most important aspect of the healthcare system is not just the beds and ventilators, it's really the people, the healthcare workers.

03:14 The government really has to pay more than lip service to strengthen the healthcare capacity and the human resources needed for that healthcare system in the next few years.

03:31 And that means raising salaries, that means recruiting more nurses and doctors, that means building more facilities.

03:40 If the president can promise, from my own point of view, we'll build better, more programs,

03:47 it should really focus not just on mindless infrastructure, but really infrastructure for health, education, and for agriculture.

03:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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