DEPUTY Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Friday opposed the move by five colleagues to have the House of Representatives investigate the OCTA research group for their pronouncements on the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“I am opposing their resolution seeking the investigation of OCTA. Instead of being investigated, this group should be supported, encouraged and requested to continue with their good work and the big help it is giving to our country in fighting this crippling health crisis,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez added that members of the group should be considered as among the heroes of the war against the pandemic.

He said OCTA researchers and fellows, who include mathematicians and health professionals,“ are very qualified and their findings are accurate and supported by data.”

Last May 8, Deputy Speaker recalled that the group warned the national pandemic response task force that COVID-19 cases were increasing in areas outside Metro Manila, including Cagayan de Oro, where it found a 75-percent spike in infections.

The warning prompted him and city officials to call for more vaccines and other forms of assistance to help the city control the surge in cases.

Twelve days later, OCTA again reported that CDO was still a high-risk area because increasing COVID 19 cases. Rodriguez wrote another letter to IATF for more vaccines.

These letters based on OCTA reports resulted in President Duterte ordering the re-calibration of the distribution of vaccines and allocate more vaccines to critical areas like Cagayan de Oro. Since then, CDO have been receiving adequate vaccines.

Two months later, he said the Department of Health (DoH) reported that five of 11 local Delta variant-infected persons were from Cagayan de Oro and one from Misamis Oriental, the province to which the city belongs.

“OCTA took note of the worsening situation in our city ahead of concerned national officials. Cagayan de Oro thanks OCTA research group,” Rodriguez added.

Rodriguez pointed out that the investigation his colleagues are seeking would be a waste of time, effort and precious taxpayers’ money.

“It will just distract OCTA from its work. It will not contribute to our collective effort to fight the rampaging new coronavirus and its highly infectious variants,” he stressed.

Five lawmakers have crossed party lines to file a resolution calling for a congressional inquiry into the “qualifications, research methodologies, partnerships and composition” of OCTA Research.

These are Deputy Speakers Bernadette Herrera (Bagong Henerasyon party-list), Kristine Singson-Meehan (Ilocos Sur, 2nd District), and Sharon Garin (AAMBIS-OWA party-list); Deputy Minority Leader Stella Luz Quimbo (Marikina, 2nd District), and Rep. Jesus “Bong” Suntay (Quezon City, 4th District).

In filing House Resolution (HR) No. 2075 dated August 3, the lawmakers urged the House committee on good government and public accountability (also known as the Blue-Ribbon Committee), to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation, to ascertain the credentials and background of the research group.

Beginning last year, a number of media outlets have cited warnings published by OCTA, with the latest one pushing for a “circuit breaker”, or hard lockdown this month.

“There is a public health and public policy need to ensure the safety and security of the population during this pandemic, and that information being distributed is correct and are not irresponsibly and erroneously published,” the lawmakers pointed out in the resolution.

They also underscored the need to “validate the connection between OCTA Research and the University of the Philippines System, as the former publicized a partnership which the latter seemingly denied.”

Previous infographics and press releases across press outlets and social media platforms refer to the “University of the Philippines-OCTA” group (UP-OCTA) or the “UP-OCTA Research Team” in predicting surges of COVID-19 cases. Moreover, OCTA Research fellow Professor Ranjit Rye has been quoted to refer to the group as the “UP-OCTA Research Team.”

However, UP-Diliman Associate Professor Peter Cayton emphasized in one news report that there is no office within the campus named OCTA, and that it does “not exist in UP’s organizational structure.”

Based on their website, OCTA describes itself as a “polling, research and consultation firm” that provides “comprehensive, holistic, accurate, rigorous, and insightful data analysis to help our clients in government, the private sector and the NGO community.”

It further indicates that OCTA specializes in public opinion research, qualitative and quantitative research, policy research and advocacy, and training and capacity building.

The research group has not been spared from online criticism, with a number of netizens accusing them of “fear mongering”. Even the Department of Health (DOH) and a member of the government’s Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 has advised the group to “apply circumspection in making pandemic-related statements, in order to minimize public panic.”