MALACAÑANG said on Wednesday Bloomberg showed “little consideration” for local data when it again placed the Philippines at the bottom of its Covid-19 Resilience Ranking.
In a statement, Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo B. Nograles noted that Bloomberg gave emphasis to a general of criteria such a severity, flight capacity, and vaccinated travel routes in making its assessment.
“There is little consideration for country-specific Covid-19 context, which in our view is imperative to objectively assess how countries manage pandemic response,” Nograles said.
He said it did not give much weight on how the active local Covid-19 cases continue to fall this month, reaching only 425 active cases as of November 30, 2021—the lowest reported in 2021 after the government implemented its new Alert Level System this month.
These developments coincided with the decline in Covid-related positivity rate, fatality rate, health-care utilization as well as the increase in local vaccination coverage, he noted.
The improving Covid-related indicators, he said, also translated to 7.1-percent growth in Philippine economy in the third quarter.
Despite the criticism, Nograles said the Bloomberg list is still useful in evaluating local pandemic response, and will not likely affect local policies.
“Our Economic Team will continue to put a greater emphasis on our country-specific conditions or context in order to craft policies that are more responsive to our people’s needs and the requisites of economic recovery,” Nograles said.
In the November round of its Covid-19 Resilience Ranking, Bloomberg placed the Philippines at the bottom of the list, which assessed the Covid response of 53 countries.
The Philippines was ranked 53rd on the list, the same slot it got in September.
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