Transcript of Senator Win Gatchalian's TV Patrol interview with Angel Movido on mass testing

Q: Nakita namin yung tweet niyo yesterday about the frontliners na nagpositibo kahit walang sintomas and yesterday, kahapon din nagumpisa yung modified ECQ, masyado bang maaga na medyo nag-relax tayo ng quarantine measures in light of these nakikita nating results and of course sa mass testing?

SEN WIN: My perspective Angel is how to get our local governments to ready to test and isolate covid patients. Itong virus hindi mawawala sa atin and kahit na patagalin pa natin yung ECQ, hindi magiging zero cases yung virus. So having said that, importante na yung mga local governments natin capable in testing isolation and treatment of patients. Nakita ko na, napako kasi yung ating testing capabilities. I was looking at the DOH website and meron silang data drop doon at yung seven-day moving average niya, lumalabas na kulang-kulang 8,000 per day na test yung ginagawa natin. In fact, mga less than 8,000 pa mga around, let's hover it around 8,000. Ang capacity na daw ng bansa natin is around 11,000. So we're only testing less than 75% of our maximum capacity and nakita ko quite centralized pa rin yung ating local governments. dapat ang local governments natin may sariling nang testing capabilities, may sarili nang capacity. So for example, sa amin sa Valenzuela, nag ma-mass testing kami, nade-detect namin kaagad yung mga frontliners na asymptomatic. Ito nakakatakot to kasi pumapasok itong mga frontliners natin, meron na silang covid sa katawan nila pero wala silang sakit whatsoever. So nakakatakot dahil pwede na silang umikot dahil nga binuksan na kahapon yung ekonomiya natin, pwede na rin sila pumunta sa mga malls because wala naman silang nararamdaman. But ngayon, ang aggressive contact tracing itong ginagawa namin sa mga frontliners. Pina-trace namin yung family pati friends nila at tine-test din silang lahat. Sana lahat ng local governments may ganung capability, hindi na pupunta sa RITM, hindi na pupunta sa mga government laboratories, sana sa simula pa lang ma-test na nila agad para ma-isolate. Importante ang isolation dahil kung iniwan lang natin sa bahay to, batay sa experience namin, a lot of our new cases right now, almost 90% ay galing sa pamilya nila. Ibig-sabihin nagkakahawaan sa pamilya, nagkakahawaan sa loob ng bahay at syempre hindi natin alam kung itong mga nahawaan ay lumalabas pa. so my point of the matter is, we should decentralize testing right now, use the Bayanihan Act to buy equipment, bigyan natin ng equipment ang mga local government units especially here in Metro Manila dahil ito ay epicenter and then i-build natin yung capacity ng mga local governments. Alam ko may mga isolation facilities, ang kulang na lang ng mga local governments yung testing facilities.

Q: Yun nga Sen kasi parang malaking issue talaga yung testing, although experts are saying that wala naman perpektong test kit hanggang sa ngayon at walang bakuna. So talagang hindi mawawala yung covid. With this, dahil nagbukas na nga yung ekonomiya parang it's a really tough balancing act kasi ang daming may apprehension na, is the DOH data significant? Ganito na yung ginagawa natin, we're relaxing quarantine measures but testing di pa rin ma-ramp up. From your end Sen, syempre sa Senate, nabanggit mo nga yung paggamit ng pondo sa Bayanihan Act pero are all the LGUs capable?

SEN WIN: Yan ang magandang tanong, in fact you hit the nail on the head. Pinaguusapan na namin ni Mayor Rex yan. Let's admit, not all LGUs are doing the same thing. May mga LGUs na pinapabayaan na yung testing sa national. May ibang LGUs pinabayaan na yung isolation center sa national. I'll give you an example, dito sa Valenzuela, rich or poor kung ikaw ay positive dadalhin ka na namin sa isolation centers dahil na-detect namin na sa bahay pala nagkakaroon na kaagad ng hawaan. So hindi lahat ng LGUs ganun. Yung iba hinahayaan nila sa bahay mag-isolate pero alam natin pwedeng magkaroon ng hawaan sa community. So hindi uniformed yung pagi-implement ng strategy on the ground and that's also another big issues, kahit na uniformed kami sa Valenzuela or ganito yung ginagawa namin sa Valenzuela, sa Navotas alam ko very aggressive sila pero yung kapit-bahay namin kagaya ng Quezon City, Caloocan at iba pa, iba yung ginagawa so iba din yung magiging resulta dahil yung Metro Manila is one single organism yan eh. Magkakadikit yan, may mga residente kami nakatira sa Greenhills, yung mga taga Greenhills nagtatrabaho dito. So kung iba-iba yung policy, iba-iba yung strategies namin hindi magiging effective yung paglaban namin sa covid. Ang alam ko ang DILG mahigpit sa pag gra-grade sa mga LGUs sa pagbibigay ng SAP diba? Pero dapat mas higpitan nila yung LGUs sa paglaban sa covid. Ilan na ba ang nate-test ng LGUs? Ilan na ba ang na-isolate nila? Ilan na ba ang natri-treat nila? If you notice walang ganun na matrix, gine-grade yung LGUs ngayon based on kung ilan yung nabibigay mo na SAP pero ang punto dito, ang problema natin is the health aspect kung saan dapat i-treat at i-isolate yung mga positive.

Q: Correct Sen, wala pang data na ganun. I think the rest of the Mayors also na nakausap ko talagang they're calling for mass testings pero yun nga wala pa yung kits. Yung sa Valenzuela, ang gamit sa Valenzuela is PCR?

SEN WIN: PCR because the reason for that, yung rapid test ang taas ng errors eh, daming false positives and false negatives and hindi kampante ang aming mga medical experts dito sa Valenzuela na gamitin yung rapid test. We're exploring other technologies, nakausap na namin yung Abott Laboratories and we're exploring that but gold standard pa rin, pinaka-accurate pa rin based on our experience is the PCR. So ang next move namin dito sa Valenzuela to build our own lab. We're now in the midst of building our own lab and this is an anticipation sa pagpasok natin sa GCQ. Tama ka, this is a very difficult balancing act, there is no right or wrong, you just have to minimize risks and the President is taking the route that will enable him to minimize risks but want people to already earn their livelihood, binabalanse natin ito. So ang approach natin sa Valenzuela dahil papunta na tayo sa GCQ, gusto namin may capability na kami mag-test dito locally para yung mga frontliners namin at yung family nila ma-test namin at lahat na maging positive malagay na namin kaagad sa isolation. This should be the uniform strategy of all LGUs in Metro Manila. For example, kahapon, marami kaming constituents pumunta ng SM North para bumili dahil malapit lang sa amin edi syempre ang dami nang interaction sa SM ngayon. We cannot help that Metro Manila is really one single organism.

Q: Are you looking Sen at a specific target per LGU na sabihin nating kapag talagang na roll-out yung mass testing dapat ma-reach nila, kunyari, may quota kayo na 70% of your population?

SEN WIN: To put it simply, tama ka, I agree that there should be some form of target and measurement. For example, lahat ng 17 LGUs ano ba yung rate of transmission ninyo? Based on the rate of transmission, based on the number of cases ilan dapat yung tine-test niyo? Ano ang capacity ninyo? Ngayon, ang nangyayari nagaagawan ang mga LGUs. Kalaban namin ang Mandaluyong sa capacity, kalaban namin ang Rizal sa capacity, ang Rizal kalaban din ang Caloocan. Nagaaway-away sa capacity, dapat hindi kami nagaaway dahil nga isang organism lang ang Metro Manila. So the best case there is to have our own lab, hawak namin and kontrolado namin ang capacity. Kaya yan ng Bayanihan Act, part of the Bayanihan Act is to really give the government the power to buy straight from the source at ilagay dito sa mga LGUs. So my point here is to grade LGUs based on health efforts, not only based on SAP, not only based on ECQ but under health efforts, this is to test, isolate and to treat.

Q: Bakit kaya natatagalan?

SEN WIN: Oo nga eh, well I'm very optimistic na si Secretary Vince Dizon is already there, he's very aggressive and methodical person. Nakatrabaho ko na siya in many occasions. Although recently lang siya na-appoint but nung na-appoint siya, one week ago from 7,000 testing, umkyat na ng 11,000. Mabilis yung pag-develop and I know he's working. Kausap ko lang siya kanina, yung pinagusapan natin ngayon ni-relay ko sakanya at alam ko he's working with the private sector to develop mobile labs para mabilis. So dapat i-deploy yung labs to different LGUs here in Metro Manila and areas kung saan mataas yung kaso all over the country. So ang gagawin nila dito, dadalhin doon, takbo kaagad sa testing center which is a very good strategy. I'm confident naman na we have the right person on the job.

Q: Yung nabanggit niyo kanina na 90%? Yung nakita niyong nag positive or nakuha sa loob ng bahay?

SEN WIN: nine out of 400 na frontliners more or less yung na-test namin; these are BHW, the police and the firemen. Inuna na namin silang i-test at nagulat kami na nine yung lumabas na positive. Frontliners yan, ibig-sabihin lumalabas sila. although, wala silang nararamdaman, asymptomatic sila, ang fear ko lang kasi kung ganito yung nakita namin sa aggressive mass testing pano pa yung mga LGUs na hindi naga-aggressive mass testing, I'm sure mas maraming ganitong cases sa kanila. Now we're moving to ECQ to MECQ to GCQ, people are now travelling back and forth and around and to be honest about it the only way we can fight this is to increase the testing capabilities of the local government units to get them ready and set pero hindi nangyayari yan. Para na tayong sirang plaka, testing, testing pero kahit na ginagawa ng government mabagal talaga yung pagakyat ng capacity for various reasons. So I think it's also about time that the government looks at other strategies because even though we're doing the testing strategy, we're now slowly moving into opening the economy so we have to look at other strategies na dapat nating pagisipan mabuti para hindi kumalat ito. One of which is really taking care of the vulnerable kasi alam natin pag ikaw ay immunocompromised, kung may sakit ka, kung ikaw ay senior citizen, kung may iba kang kapansanan most likely hindi ka magsu-survive kung magkasakit ka dulot ng covid. Kaya dapat pagisipan natin kung paano protektahan itong vulnerable sector na pwedeng magkasakit at baka mas malala pa ang mangyari sa kanila.

Q: So ang dating nito, hangga't wala pa yung mass testing na lagi nga nating inuulit-ulit.

SEN WIN: Parang sirang plaka na tayo sa pagsabi na mabagal yung pagusad ng mass testing. Having said that, we need to think of other strategies aside from the new normal, which is wearing of masks, paghuhugas ng kamay at taking care of the vulnerable. The government needs to think about that.