Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III apologized and admitted his shortcomings in addressing the COVID-19 crisis in the Philippines.
“Ako na mismo ang aamin. Mayroon din akong mga pagkakamali at ako ay humihingi ako ng paumanhin kung ako ay nagkamali,” Duque said in an interview on dzMM.
(I will be the one to admit, I also have shortcomings and mistakes, and I apologize.)
Duque, however, reasoned out that the pandemic coronavirus was new for the rest of the world. He said the Philippines is not the only country that has no experience in dealing with COVID-19.
“Pero sa problema kasi ng COVID-19, dahil komo bago ito, wala naman tayong past experience o karanasan kung paano ba tutugunan itong virus na ito. Pakapa-kapa pa rin ang buong mundo, hindi lang tayo,” he added.
(But with the problem of COVID-19, this is new, so we don’t have any past experience in handling such a virus.)
Also read: 14 senators want DOH Secretary Duque to resign immediately
Duque ‘really hurt’
Duque admitted he was “really hurt” on the senators’ call for him to resign. He, however, said he would remain serving the public as long as President Rodrigo Duterte trusts him.
“It’s just very unfortunate and I am really hurt that it is at this time when the Senate is calling for my resignation when in fact we need to come together,” Duque said.
“We need to unite. We have such a formidable enemy. This is a war. This is against an invisible enemy. How I wish that the Senate had been more magnanimous and more appreciative of the efforts that we have tried to put in place from the time the threat of COVID-19 began in this country,” he added.
Yesterday, fourteen senators filed Senate Resolution 362 on Thursday which called Duque’s immidiate resignation over alleged “failure of leadership, negligence, lack of foresight, and inefficiency in the performance of his mandate as the secretary of the Department of Health (DOH) resulting in poor planning delayed response, lack of transparency, and misguided and flip-flopping policies and measures in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic that endangered and continue to endanger the lives of our healthcare professionals, other frontliners, and the Filipino people.”