MANILA — The Inter-agency Task Force on COVID-19 response fended off calls for its scrapping on Thursday, telling the public that while it does not claim to be perfect, it must be given "due recognition" for pandemic efforts.

Sen. Joel Villanueva on Tuesday suggested the abolition of the IATF, saying it has stopped being effective for "quite a long time." Local governments should take over the task force's role, he said.

"We do not claim to have been perfect," IATF and Malacañang spokesman Harry Roque said in response.

"But certainly, let’s give due recognition where it is due dahil nakikita naman po natin, naiiwasan natin ang mas marami pa sanang mga kamatayan," he said in a press briefing.

(We see that we are avoiding more possible deaths.)

The task force, he said, was responsible for securing the country's COVID-19 vaccine supply, as well as coming up with quarantine levels and the new alert system being tested in Metro Manila.

"Napakahirap po kasing gawin 'yan kung walang kumukumpas," Roque said. "Ang papel lang naman po ng IATF ay tagakumpas. Talaga naman pong ang nagpapatupad n'yan, mga lokal na pamahalaan."

(That will be difficult to do without someone calling the shots. The role of the IATF is to coordinate. Local governments implement that.)

President Rodrigo Duterte previously faced criticism for tapping former military generals to lead COVID-19 response and relying heavily on region-wide lockdowns.

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His government is also facing a Senate inquiry into its management of pandemic funds.

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The Philippines' overall coronavirus infections crossed the 2.5-million mark this week. The tally includes some 38,000 deaths.

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Video courtesy of PTV