(We yield this space to the statement of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
THE National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) denounces the Department of Health (DOH) under the leadership of Secretary Francisco Duque III for the deficiencies in the use of a P67.323-billion fund for pandemic response as reported by the Commission on Audit (COA). We laud the effort of the COA for their findings and for bringing it out in the open. To say that the Health Secretary is inept and incompetent is an understatement. COA said such deficiencies had undermined the timely and efficient response for the COVID-19 pandemic which many of our people continue to suffer from.
This is the nth time that Sec. Duque has shown his ham-fisted approach to this truly life and death situation. It could be recalled that last year, he made light of the threat of COVID-19 and said that the Philippines, being a middle-income country, was not among the “poor countries with weaker health systems.” It is on record that during the early part of the pandemic, he refused to call for a closure of the country’s borders even when various sectors were imploring on him to do so. He was also accused by a fellow Cabinet member of bungling a deal with a pharmaceutical company for vaccines last year. Then there was also the separate audit report on P95.15 million worth of expired and near expired or unused medicines and medical supplies and the issue of the stolen 15 Billion funds of PhilHhealth.
Imagine if that P67.323 billion had been used judiciously and efficiently, it would have saved so many lives and have already put up a credible and strong response against the COVID-19 pandemic. Such wastage of resources shows the utter failure and disrespect of the Duterte administration to uphold our right to health. It has mobilized and subsidized the various resources for thousands of state security forces to impose the various lockdowns since this pandemic started, but the things that truly matter, like proper compensation for our medical frontliners, testing, contact tracing, genome sequencing and other badly needed scientific approaches are severely lacking.
Yet, despite the mismanagement and incompetence, President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly refused to fire Duque. Instead, President Duterte went as far as telling the public to ignore the COA report.
It is a sin when a government continues to withhold from people the much-needed help and support especially in this time of a global health crisis. The growing clamor for the resignation of Sec. Duque is just and called for. Much like some news reports about various vaccines against the Delta variant, Sec. Duque has also lost efficacy to handle this pandemic. Sec. Duque has been weighed and found wanting, he should heed the call for resignation. The Filipino people deserve better.
