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Lacson: Duque finger-pointing bores me
By DONA MAGSINO, GMA News Senator Panfilo Lacson on Friday said he is getting tired of watching how Health Secretary Francisco Duque III gets away with his alleged leadership failures.
"It is kind of boring to see Secretary Duque pointing fingers at his subordinates and other people for his pattern of failures in running the DOH - and getting away with it each time," Lacson said in a statement.
In a briefing televised earlier in the day, Duque blamed his subordinates for the slow distribution of P100,000 sickness and P1 million death benefits for health workers affected with severe COVID-19.
“Nakakahiya talaga, sir, eh. Namatayan na nga tapos nagpa-wardy wardy 'yung mga tao ko na parang walang sense of urgency. ‘Yun talaga ang sama-sama ng loob ko, Mr. President,” Duque said.
During the same briefing, President Rodrigo Duterte even apologized to the Cabinet official for summoning him to Davao City.
“I am sorry to drag you into this far away province,” Duterte said.
In February, the Health Secretary also passed the bucket to airline companies for the slow COVID-19 contact tracing efforts of the government but the Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific denied this saying they have shared the contact details of the passengers to the DOH.
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Lacson said Duque's excuses on the snail-paced distribution of the death benefit are unacceptable.
"Now, he even blames his inadequacies and neglect on those who have not received the compensation allowances, by claiming that some of them have two wives," he said.
"Goodness gracious! Mr. Secretary, they are no longer around to defend or explain themselves," he added.
The senator, while acknowledging that he cannot question the President's prerogative of choosing and axing his appointees, said the special treatment given to Duque leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
"Many of us are starting to wonder what "amulet" DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III has to deserve such a special treatment," Lacson said.
Duterte already ordered Duque to form a new team that would handle the distribution of the health workers' benefits amid the pandemic.
The President earlier gave an ultimatum of until June 9 for concerned government officials to complete the said distribution.
Other Department of Health officials, for their part, said the guidelines and budget for the endeavor had been prepared and coordination with the fallen health workers' families are ongoing.—AOL, GMA News