In attack vs. Gordon, Duterte tells DOH to probe Red Cross ‘false positives’

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night asked the Department of Health to investigate the alleged "false positives" among the COVID-19 tests conducted by the Philippine Red Cross.

In an attack against Senator Richard Gordon that started off his weekly public address, Duterte said he received reports of false positive results from the swab test samples processed by PRC.

"Gusto mo transparency sa mga transaction kaya you're dwelling on Pharmally? In the same manner, we get also to see if there is transparency in the Red Cross under you and you yourself in connection with the Red Cross functions," he said.

"Are your testing facilities and equipment are really as good as you say they are because I have heard of many false positive cases from your laboratories... Because of this information then maybe the DOH must investigate this matter. You could be putting more people at risk. You could be falsely adding to the total positive cases per day of this country," he added.

Gordon chairs the Senate blue ribbon committee, which is looking into government contracts for allegedly overpriced COVID-19 supplies.

Earlier, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine said it is looking into an incident in Subic where some hospital personnel tested positive for the virus, but a retest three days later tested negative.

Forty-nine health personnel initially tested positive for COVID-19 on September 3, based on the test conducted by a laboratory of the PRC, according to Deputy Speaker and SAGIP party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta. However, after having a second test in a different laboratory, 44 of them tested negative.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III confirmed receiving the complaint and said the RITM is already investigating the matter.

GMA News Online contacted Gordon and PRC for comment. — with a report from Hana Bordey/BM/KG, GMA News