DAVAO CITY — The Presidential Security Group has imposed that President Rodrigo Duterte be placed in “perpetual isolation” to protect him from COVID-19.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday assured the public that the President is “fine,” and is undergoing regular COVID-19 testing while kept in “perpetual isolation”.
During the virtual press briefing, Roque emphasized “The President is in perpetual isolation because no one can come close to him. I think sinabi ko na rin sa inyo (I’ve told you), whenever we meet with him, there is a velvet rope that keeps him at least six feet away from everyone else so no one can really come close to the President.”
In a statement, Roque clarified “This is to clarify the remarks I made earlier during today’s press briefing when I said, “The President is in perpetual isolation.”“Perpetual isolation” is a figure of speech I used to highlight the prudence exercised by the Presidential Security Group (PSG) in safeguarding the physical well-being of the President in this challenging time of COVID-19”.
He stressed, “Much as he wanted, for instance, to shake the hands with those present during his fifth State of the Nation Address, the PSG discouraged PRRD from doing so as part of the precautionary measure of maintaining a physical distance”.
“The transcript of the briefing would bear me out that I put “perpetual isolation” in proper context when I followed this remark with the sentence that, “the Presidential Security Group (PSG) has done a really good job in making sure that no one really comes close to the President”. This is in reference to the social distancing of one meter to two meters health experts required us to observe as part of the minimum public health standards,” he added.
Some social media posts maliciously interpreted Roque’s statement connoting that the President is ill.
But Roque vouched Duterte is fine and well.
The report on perpetual isolation of Duterte widely circulated after Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año on Sunday announced that he was again tested positive for COVID-19.
Año was among the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease members at a meeting with the president on August 10.
In a statement, Año said that he “began experiencing flu-like symptoms including a sore throat and body aches” on Thursday, August 13, after which he once again began self-quarantine and took a PCR test the following day. –Newsline.ph
