By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Finally, the nagging questions of gross negligence, mismanagement, and corruption are catching up with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
I have lost count of the times this corner has called out Sec. Duque over the monkey business in the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), in which has constantly held key positions but managed to evade accountability each time sh*t hits the fan.
In recent weeks since the Commission on Audit (COA) made public its audit report pointing to a litany of “deficiencies” in the DOH’s (mis)handling of P67 billion in COVID-19 response funds, Duque could no longer hold his umbrella against the storm.
Of course, his defender and savior, President Duterte, tried to shield him yet again from the damning findings of state auditors. But even that sheet of protection is wearing thin as Malacanang struggles to give its best showing in the last stretch of Duterte’s tenure.
Allies of the President, including “the people’s champ” Sen. Manny Pacquiao, have shifted to a critical tone all because of booboos in the DOH under Duque’s watch. And then, there’s the so-called “mafia” in the DOH, which Sen. Ping Lacson says has forced government hospitals to stock up on expiring medicines.
Today’s investigative hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on COA’s report on the DOH focuses on irregularities in the procurement of overpriced face masks and other COVID-19 supplies. Duque warranted the acquisition by ordering the transfer of P42 billion from the DOH to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM). At that time, the DBM office was headed by a dubious appointee of the President — Lloyd Cristopher Lao — who allegedly awarded the contracts to companies with questionable capitalization, addresses, operations and some of which were run by Chinese nationals who have since been out of the radar.
This issue is where the plot thickens, according to Senators Franklin Drilon and Lacson. They both believe that evidence surfacing from this anomaly in the DOH would warrant not just graft and corruption but plunder charges that could drag in somebody really big by the tail.
Is this perhaps the reason why “Digong” changed his tone from keeping Duque at all cost to accepting his resignation if it came from him voluntarily? Days later, Duterte’s right-hand man in Congress, Sen. Bong Go, had the same tenor, saying, “sacrifices must be made because people’s lives are at stake.” I’ll leave that there for your interpretation.
It’s clear that elections for the presidency and all national and local posts are coming in nine months and all politicians are pregnant with ambition. Nobody wants to have anything to do with a guy like Duque. He’s got nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no one to turn to.
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