MANILA, Philippines—Whether it is to stress a point or to simply amuse, President Rodrigo Duterte’s unpredictable rhetoric has sown confusion about government policy on fighting COVID-19, which marred his fifth year in office.
More often than not, the so-called damage control falls onto the shoulders of his spokesperson and his Cabinet members. Whatever the President says may not be the last word and would need decoding by his alter egos.
At times, it’s Duterte who counters the decision of his men, whether the Cabinet or Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the government’s policy-making body for pandemic response.
For many, th…
Keep on reading: Duterte rhetoric: When flip flops cause confusion