Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 3) — President Rodrigo Duterte has again defended Health Secretary Francisco Duque III from massive criticisms on his management of the COVID-19 crisis.
But Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said he is puzzled why the country’s health chief still enjoys the confidence of the President despite numerous calls for his immediate resignation.
“I couldn’t understand what ‘amulet’ or magic potion Duque has as far as the President is concerned,” Lacson said in a statement on Monday.
“It is not only me who disagrees with the President for not firing Secretary Duque,” Lacson said. “There were 14 senators who had earlier asked him to resign. I don’t think that number has changed.”
Lacson was referring to the previous resolution of senators from the 24-member chamber calling for Duque’s resignation for his “failure of leadership, negligence, lack of foresight, and inefficiency” in the measures and actions carried out by the Department of Health (DOH).
He also noted that many others in the DOH and the medical community want Duque to step down or be replaced.
Earlier in the day, Lacson chided the President for claiming in his Sunday address that Duque does not deserve to be criticized because he was not the one who imported the virus to the Philippines.
“No sir,” Lacson tweeted, responding to the President’s claim. “The COVID-19 importers are the virus-infected couple from Wuhan, China, who spread the virus in Manila because your Secretary Duque miserably failed to do a simple contact-tracing.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano sang a different tune, noting that the lower chamber “agrees with the President that COVID-19 is the enemy, not the government.”
Calling for unity, Cayetano said that people should “keep an open mind” and “not let partisan politics get in the way” of doing the right thing.
Duque again earned the ire of some senators and other officials over DOH’s “mass recovery” adjustment that included more than 37,000 mild and asymptomatic cases in recoveries in its new COVID-19 reporting system on July 30.
Other politicians such as Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers and Sorsogon Governor Francis Escudero slammed the DOH’s “irresponsible” and “insulting” adjustment on the cases, and claimed that the department could function better if it did not have Duque on board.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan also previously noted that Duterte’s COVID-19 plans will “ring hollow and empty” if Duque remains the health czar.
