Cesar Virata, the Philippines’ fourth prime minister, and former finance secretary during Martial Law, tested positive for COVID-19, according to actress Vivian Velez.
In a Facebook post on Monday night, Velez said Virata is now confined at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City’s intensive care unit in Taguig City.
“Mr. Virata had a stroke a few days ago, then developed pneumonia, which progressed. Yesterday, he was confirmed to have COVID-19 and was intubated last night. He is being treated as COVID positive and given medications as prescribed by his infectious diseases specialist Dr. Abad Santos,” she said in her post.
Cesar Virata is already 89 years old. He was a politician and a businessman who became the fourth Prime Minister of the Philippines from 1981 to 1986 during Ferdinand Marcos’ regime. He is the eponym of the Cesar Virata School of Business, the business school of the University of the Philippines Diliman.
He is currently the corporate vice chairman of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation.
Bongbong Marcos, DILG secretary Año infected with COVID-19
Meanwhile, another Martial Law figure, Ferdinand Marcos’ son Bongbong earlier tested positive of COVID-19. The report made a bit of confusion to people as his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos said last week that Bongbong and their whole family tested negative of the virus.
“Yesterday, we had ourselves, and our entire staff tested for COVID-19. Fortunately, we all tested negative, she said.
However, Marcos’ spokesman and lawyer Victor Rodriguez confirmed yesterday that the former senator was infected as verified by Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
“Former Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.’s health is improving, and he is now feeling better after the RITM informed him of the result of the COVID test,” Rodriguez said in a statement.
He also said Bongbong did not undergo any special treatment while waiting to be tested, which is contrary to what her wife said that they got their results 24 hours after testing. His mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos was also included in the list of government officials who had VIP testing at RITM.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año also tested positive for the COVID-19 yesterday.
“Today, March 31, I received the result from RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) informing me that I am positive for COVID-19,” Año said.