Presidential aspirant Senator Manny Pacquiao suspended all political activities of his team amid the rise of COVID-19 cases in the country.
“We need to allow the government to take all the appropriate steps to address the rising number of [COVID-19] cases,” Pacquiao said in a statement.
“For this, I have advised my team to temporarily suspend all political gatherings and focus more on organizing zoom meetings until this surge is managed by our health authorities,” he added.
Despite this, Pacquiao said relief efforts for the victims of Typhoon Odette will continue.
“We will not stop helping those who were affected by Odette. We will continue to gather donations and relief goods so we can deliver it to the victims of the typhoon,” he added.
Earlier, Pacquiao has called for a 50-year masterplan on disaster resiliency.
He said the country’s lack of a disaster resiliency masterplan has turned government actions into a hodgepodge of reactionary responses with no real long-term strategy on how to minimize the loss of lives and reduce damage to infrastructure.
If elected president, Pacquaio said he will immediately ask Congress to pass a law creating a 50-year infrastructure masterplan which must be funded and implemented by every administration.
This infrastructure master plan should not just focus on the construction of roads, bridges, railways, subways, airports, and seaports but should on improving the country’s disaster preparedness and resiliency.
“We will employ the best architects, engineers and scientists to create this masterplan. We will ask Congress to pass a law which would compel all administrations to fund and implement as scheduled all projects that were laid down on this masterplan,” he added.
