Enrile: IATF body might be reduced from 34 members to 5
You don’t have to pack the body with nincompoops who sometimes do nothing but talk.
To speed up decision-making, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will be streamlined into a five-man body from the current unwieldy 34 members of the pandemic response team.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile said the proposal to revamp the IATF into a compact body is under study.
With the task force having 34 members, just getting a quorum to decide, takes time, according to Enrile.
Enrile was reacting to criticisms about the slow pace of appointing a new health secretary and the provision of programs to prepare Filipinos for post-pandemic existence.
"Now that is on the table of my office, we are suggesting to reduce the members to five, with President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos as head," Enrile indicated.
He added that the IATF members will be limited to the heads of the most important Cabinet posts that deal with the global health emergency.
"After all, the President can call any official in the government to help and advice what has to be done," according to Enrile.
"You don't have to pack the body with nincompoops who sometimes do nothing but talk or 34 people sitting together and always conferring what to do," Enrile added.
The Department of Health revealed earlier plans to reconstitute the IATF to make it respond quickly to the new shifts in the lingering pandemic.
Malacañang indicated that the IATF, based on the DoH recommendations will only have member agencies with relevant and specific functions.
DoH officer-in-charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the changes will result in the streamlining of the IATF, particularly in the meetings and processes with clear directives for the safe reopening of the economy post-Covid.
New anti-Covid platform
Included in the changes were the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management replacing the National Task Force Against Covid-19.
"The platform will replace the NTF to integrate it with the regular processes. This will allow the IATF health expert groups to continue work as they serve as the voice of science," according to a Palace official.
Downsizing the IATF is in line with the Marcos administration's policy of streamlining processes.
IATF, which is the policy-making body on Covid-19 response, was previously led by former Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. Its members include nearly all major departments and offices in the government.