CEBU City—President Duterte tasks Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Roy Cimatu as the deputy chief implementer of the government’s Visayas Covid response.
Duterte gave the orders to Cimatu, on Monday, June 23, 2020. Cimatu is a retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) general.
The president ordered Cimatu to proceed to Cebu City to find out how “grave” the Covid situation in the Queen City of the South is.
“He will exercise all the powers of that body (National Task Force COVID-19) to advise Manila that these things are being done, these things [that] are not yet being done, [and] these things [that] still have to be done,” Duterte said.
The president added that he is sad that Cebu has to suffer a “painful situation.”
Duterte said he expects that Cimatu will provide policy recommendations that will guide the national government on what should be done in order to stop the spread of the virus.
As of this writing, Cebu City has the most number of Covid cases in the country at 4,449 cases.