President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not fire Health Secretary Francisco Duque III amid criticisms over deficiencies flagged by the Commission on Audit over the department’s handling of P67 billion COVID-19 response funds.
Duterte said he is standing by Duque—even if this means standing alone behind his embattled Cabinet official.
“I am sorry. But as I said, even if I am the only one, I will stand for Duque even if it will bring me down,” the President said.
Duque himself has rejected calls for him to voluntarily resign so as to spare the President from having to make a choice.
“I pity the guy (Duque). You want me to fire Secretary Duque. Give me a reason to dismiss him. You want to oust him? For what? What has he done wrong?” the President said.
He said Duque was being “flogged” over the COA report even if he “did not hold even a peso” of the budget in question.
“I would be doing a great injustice [if I fire him.] Why? Because I appointed him and he is performing well. If I dismiss him, he will be scarred for life. People would say he was dismissed because of corruption,” Duterte added.
The President recalled he even instructed Duque to skip the usual bidding process in the procurement of face masks at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
“I told him not to bother with the bidding process because it will take too long,” Duterte said.
Duque, however, chose to proceed with the bidding “in spite of my order” as he was “being careful.”
“This is an emergency. Until now we are in an emergency. Just to disabuse the minds of some people about corruption. It ain’t here at this time, and I suppose you are barking at the wrong person,” the President said.
In July, the President admitted that some members of his Cabinet were advising him to let go of Duque for his supposed failure to manage the COVID-19 crisis.
Against their advice, Duterte said then there was “no coherent reason” to fire Duque, whom he hailed as a “hero” of the country’s pandemic response.
Aside from the deficiencies, COA on Thursday also called the attention of the Department of Health regional offices for “irregular, unnecessary, and excessive” expenditures of more than P557 million, including P1.08 million for catering services for virtual meetings.
The catering expenses incurred by the Region 6 Center for Health Development were “not essential” to the conduct of activities, COA said, adding that those who took part in the virtual meetings were just at their workplaces while performing their usual functions.
The audit agency also flagged as an irregular expenditure the P2.11 million worth of hazard pay given to personnel of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Region 7, who did not physically report to work, and some of whom were not eligible for the hazard pay due to their accumulated leaves of absence.
“The apparent disregard of existing laws and regulations affected the regularity, validity, and propriety of covered transactions. Government funds and property were exposed to the risks of loss or misuse,” the audit report read.