Actor Jake Ejercito took to social media to express his disappointments with the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He posted on his Twitter account that the government has handled the pandemic poorly as the actor claim that there have been thousands of new cases of COVID each day yet, the government seems to fail to do something about it.
“This govt really normalizing 4k-6k new COVID cases a day. Smh,” he wrote.
This govt really normalizing 4k-6k new COVID cases a day. Smh
— jake ejercito (@unoemilio) August 19, 2020
The actor mentioned that he has ‘so much hate’ with the government because the Philippines continues to be one of the top countries of having confirmed COVID-19 cases and being the highest in Southeast Asia.
As of this writing, it was revealed that the Philippines’ confirmed COVID cases have already surpassed the 175,000 mark as the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed 4,339 new COVID-19 infections in the country.
Most of the new cases of the virus infection reportedly came from Metro Manila with 2,590 confirmed cases, Cavite with 155 cases, Laguna with 223 and Rizal with 109.
There are already 178,022 announced COVID-19 cases in the Philippines wherein 61,025 of those cases are still active. Deaths have increased to 2,883 with 88 more recorded deaths as lockdown jurisdictions were mitigated in and around Manila.
DOH also revealed that there were already 114, 114 total amount of recoveries after 727 patients managed to recover from the virus.
There were also confirmed cases reported wherein people have acquired the virus once again but were already removed from the total count of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines. It was revealed that there were 89 duplicates of confirmed cases. Out of those 89 people, 69 people successfully recovered while 2 passed away.
Just a couple of days ago, the COVID-19 infections in the country just passed the 164, 000 mark when President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Manila will be under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).
With the continuous rising of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, people are worried and anxious to know about the plans that the government has created to help lessen the spreading of the virus.
In an effort to lessen traffic, the government banned traditional jeepneys. The government did this so that people will not be crowded in an area where they are exposed to face-to-face contact with others. The government implemented the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” granting Pres. Duterte additional authority to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released a total of P199.975-billion to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to fund its Social Amelioration Program (SAP). The SAP aims to give COVID-19 financial aid to most of the people.
The government even aims to use ‘Drug War’ tactics to fight the COVID-19 by conducting house-to-house searches for people who might have been infected with the virus and then forcibly relocate them to government-run isolation facilities.
Recently, an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) applauded the Philippines for its efforts on preventing the further spread of the virus and ensuring the safety of all Filipino people.
“The Philippine government has been putting a lot of effort in continuously improving their capacity. I have seen also they’re upgrading their health services, increasing the number of health care facilities, beds, and also establishing intermediate facilities. So far, we haven’t really seen (if) the number (of cases) overwhelm health care facilities,” WHO-Western Pacific Regional Director Takeshi Kasai said.
“I think it’s very important for the government to continue to improve this capacity. I think it’s very important to encourage people to maintain their healthy behavior. It’s important for everybody to voluntarily do very similar things (minimum health standards) in order to suppress and not overwhelm health care (facilities) in this country,” he added.
On the other hand, Jake Ejercito has shared that he is grateful that he got to spend some time with his daughter Ellie amid the pandemic. Ellie is Jake’s daughter with his former girlfriend Andi Eigenmann.
In his Instagram post, Jake has mentioned that his daughter serves as a reminder for him that despite all the negative happenings in the society, the world is still beautiful no matter what.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBplSxJpQZ3/?utm_source=ig_embed
“The silver lining in all this is having spent 102 straight days with her as opposed to the usual sched. The days were long and tough, but she’s been a reminder that the world still is beautiful— and better than Marst,” he wrote.
Andi Eigenmann is based in Siargao and she was unable to pick up Ellie at that time because of the pandemic.
Jake Ejercito is the son of former President Joseph Estrada and former actress Laarni Enriquez. He is now a part of Star Magic which is the training and management arm of ABS-CBN Corporation.
In a virtual interview with MJ Felipe, he said that he did not join Star Magic back in the day because he was studying abroad and upon returning, he had to make up for the lost time in being a father to his daughter, Ellie. He said that the time was simply not right. But he chose to join Star Magic at this moment in time because he felt that the time was right for him now that everything has fallen into place.
“So ngayon, feeling ko ano, I have ample amount of time to try acting naman,” he stated.
Jake mentioned that in terms of genre in acting, he would like to have serious roles since he said that he’s already too old for ‘teeny boppers’ and loveteams. He said that he’s open to working with anyone in ABS-CBN.
When asked about his expectations about his career in ABS-CBN, he said that “It’s hard to expect anything now, especially with so much uncertainty especially in showbiz, di ba.”
He also mentioned that co-parenting with Andi Eigenmann with their daughter Ellie has been going really smoothly.
“Everything has been smooth recently. Co-parenting has been great actually. No difficulty whatsoever,” he said.
