By Deighton Acuin

PHOTO: Ping Lacson

Senator Panfilo Lacson said Monday that being critical amid the COVID-19 pandemic is not tantamount to politicking.

Lacson said this in response to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s accusations that critics are using the health emergency for political gains by means of criticizing the Duterte administration.

“Really? Harry, are you serious? Just because I criticize, pamumulitika na? Wala akong tarpaulins. Pag nagbibigay ako ng ayuda sa mga nasalanta ng bagyo at iba pang nangangailangan, tulong lang talaga kaya walang media coverage,” Lacson tweeted Monday.

“I can enumerate to you privately if you want proof,” he added.

During the Talk to the People address of President Rodrigo Duterte, Roque lamented politicking seemed to have intensified ahead of the 2022 national elections and how some politicians were using pandemic issues against the government.

Duterte agreed with Roque’s remark, saying it is ““a classic case of  ‘if you want to appear white, you paint the other guy black.’”

“If those who want to win have any conscience left, they should help by giving solutions to this pandemic instead of taking advantage of it for their selfish political gains,” Roque said.

However, Roque did not mention any names, though he made the remark after Duterte addressed some senators who recently asked where the billions of funds borrowed for vaccine purchase had gone. Among them is Lacson, who previously questioned why the government-procured COVID-19 vaccines have yet to arrive in the country.


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