“I don’t see him to be fit and qualified or competent enough to continuously head the department. I think he should just go for the sake of the victims of the pandemic, for the sake of the department,,” this was Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson opinion of Health chief Francisco Duque’s.
Lacson was one of the lawmakers who sought for the health secretary’s resignation amid the lackluster performance of the Department of Health in combating the spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines.
The department drew flak for the alleged overpriced testing kits, backlogs of testing results, and the delayed compensation for health workers afflicted by COVID-19 which was mandated by the Bayanihan Act inked last March.
Majority of senators back in April also signed a resolution asking for Duque’s resignation for his “failure of leadership, negligence, lack of foresight, and inefficiency” in the measures and actions carried out by the DOH. President Rodrigro Duterte, however, rejected the call and continued to defend Duque’s action.
