By Betheena Unite
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday dismissed Senator Ping Lacson's call for his resignation and affirmed that he had no idea about the former's allegations linking him to the PhilHealth dialysis mess.
Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III (CZAR DANCEL / MANILA BULLETIN)
"Unang-una meron akong trabaho na utos ni Pangulong Duterte. So kailangan ko gawin yung trabaho dahil ang appointing power si President Duterte (First of all, I have a duty ordered by President Duterte. So, I need to do my job because it is the President who has the appointing power)," Duque said.
He furthered that because he was appointed by the President, he will have to talk with the President about the issue.
Instead of dwelling on the senator's call for his resignation, Duque chose to focus on the PhilHealth dialysis mess and the implementation of the Universal Health Care.
While Lacson was firm on linking Duque to the controversial dialysis scam, the health secretary kept mum about it saying, he has no idea about the allegations.
Lacson earlier warned that he has a bigger expose against Duque, which the latter also dismissed.
"Wala akong alam tungkol diyan, e, madalas tinatanong ko nga kung ano ba ang issue. Wala kaming alam e, sa totoo lang 'di ko alam kung ano ang binabanggit ni Senator Lacson (I don't have any idea about that, in fact, I often ask what it's really about. We really have no idea about Senator Lacson's allegations)," Duque said.
However, the secretary bared that he has been trying to reach the Senator's camp to discuss the allegations and its sources.
Duque then fired back over the alleged PhilHealth controversy noting that the claim about the P154-billion fraud “had no basis” and “has to be backed by the Commission on Audit.”
“We are still looking into it. There’s actually no basis on the P154-billion fraud . They are just applying the data in Northern Mindanao as a national fact, which has no analysis,” Duque said.