President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said he will never fire Health Secretary Francisco Duque III but will accept his resignation.
“Ngayon, kung si Duque will offer to resign voluntarily tatanggapin ko pero kung ako magsabi sa kanya magresign siya, that will never happen,” Duterte said in his weekly Talk to the People.
However, the President said he would only sack Duque if the DOH chief is a corrupt official.
“Pero kung may nakita akong mali sa kanya. Maski sampung libo lang talagang yayariin kita kasi ipinahamak ako sa tao,” he said.
Last week, Duterte said he has no plans to accept the resignation of Health Secretary Francisco Duque should he do so again.
Duterte said Duque is doing nothing, and if there are any missing funds in the DOH, complainants should go to the Supreme Court and file a lawsuit.
“Wala ka namang ginawang masama. Bakit ka mag-resign? Kung hanapin nila diyan kung mayroon silang makita. In the end, if you find that there is — mga nawala diyan, mga 500 pesos, eh ‘di magdemanda kayo, punta ng Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will be a fair arbiter of things,” said Duterte.
Duterte to accept Duque’s resignation but will ‘never’ fire him
He also committed that he will stand by the DOH chief.
“Pero yung outright dismissal because it is the clamor of the public? Maski kami lang dalawa ni Duque and the rest of the Philippines, I will stand by him,” he said.
“Pero I will never abandon that person… G*** ako pero may mga boundaries ako sa buhay ko,” he added.
Calls for Duque to resign resurfaced after the Commission on Audit (COA) released a report showing DOH’s ‘deficiency’ in handling P67 billion COVID-19 funds.
The COA report said that this includes more than P5 billion worth of purchases made by the agency without proper documents and more than P194 million that was allegedly not in favor of the government.
It is estimated that more than P1.45 billion in donations do not have enough documents.
More than P69 million in medical equipment and supplies were also procured. Still, they were not used or were not used immediately due to reasons that can be avoided if procurement planning is followed properly, according to the COA.
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