“Lugaw” Leni “not essential”? VP camp says DILG’s Densing ‘load’

MANILA – Vice President Leni Robredo’s camp said Thursday that an interior department official who called her “lugaw” and “nonessential” was a “burden” on the country’s battle with rising COVID-19 infections. .

Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III was quoted Thursday morning as saying that he called Vice President “Lugaw” as a joke. However, he said it was “serious” by calling it “nonessential.”

Densing “epitomizes the administrator’s COVID response,” said Vice President spokesman Barry Gutierrez.

“With cases on the rise, hospitals full and millions struggling, instead of doing real work, he makes ‘jokes’, plays politics and attacks someone who is actually doing the job they are supposed to do,” he said on Twitter. .

“It’s not just ‘nonessential.’ It’s a burden,” he said.

(This is not only not essential, it is also a burden.)

Densing first called Robredo “lugaw” or rice porridge in an interview Wednesday. A news crew was supposed to ask him about a viral video in which a woman who appeared to be a barangay official prevented a cyclist from delivering lugaw, claiming the food was not essential.

“He was right, porridge is not essential. But if he said porridge is essential, that’s right. Porridge. But he mentioned porridge. Actually, it is not essential in our eyes,” he said in a statement. One News interview.

Critics often call Robredo “lugaw,” in reference to the rice porridge his team sometimes brought to disaster survivors.

The Palace spokesman Harry Roque’s office said Wednesday: “Lugaw, or any food for that matter, is considered an essential good.”

“Food delivery must remain unhindered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Let’s not block at checkpoints,” he added.

(Let’s not block them at checkpoints).

Enhanced Community Quarantine, the strictest of the 4 lockdown levels, prohibits non-essential movements and mass gatherings. This level of quarantine is in effect in Metro Manila and 4 surrounding provinces at least until April 4.

President Rodrigo Duterte will decide on Saturday whether or not to extend the ECQ in the capital region and the provinces of Bulacán, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.