Shouldn't Health Secretary Francisco Duque III be suspended, at least, over the reported deficiencies of his agency in spending COVID-19 funds?

Senator Grace Poe posed this question as the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee opened its inquiry on the Department of Health's (DOH) handling of funds for pandemic response Wednesday, August 18.

While Senator Richard Gordon, committee chairman, made it clear that the hearing will first focus on the delayed release of benefits for health care workers, senators could not help but raise their concerns on the Commission on Audit's (COA) findings on the DOH's "various deficiencies" in spending over P67.3 billion for the health crisis.

Poe, for her part, recalled when officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) were penalized with a six-month preventive suspension without pay over the alleged misuse of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) funds.

"It was just last year when Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered the preventive suspension of eight PhilHealth executives and five DOH officials for various offenses related to the use of people’s money during the pandemic," she raised in the hearing.

"When asked whether this probe would affect the morale of the Health department during the pandemic, the Ombudsman refused to budge and instead raised the question for us, ‘Are we not, as a people, also suffering from low morale?’" she recalled.

"The fact that we can’t even go out of our homes—are we happy with what is happening? Are the medical frontliners happy with what is happening to them? Somebody must be held accountable," Poe pointed out.

The COA itself had said that the DOH missed several opportunities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, including improving the country's health care system.

Some P11.89 billion in coronavirus funds were not obligated by the DOH, state auditors noted.

"Shouldn’t Sec. Duque be suspended by now if you’re going to apply the same judgment as what happened to the PhilHealth executives? It’s very simple, Mr. Chair. P11.89 billion of unobligated allotment for hazard pay and special risk allowance is unaccounted for, unobligated," Poe said.

"Ito po ay hindi lamang kapabayaan. Sabi nga ng isa, ito po ay kriminal (This is not only negligence. As one of colleagues said, this is criminal)," she pointed out.

President Duterte has repeatedly refused to sack or even approve Duque's resignation, maintaining that his Health Secretary did "nothing wrong". Instead, the Chief Executive criticized the COA for doing its constitutionally mandated tasks.

As if following Duterte's cue, Duque, during a House hearing on Tuesday, August 17, railed against COA and complained that he has been "sleepless" since the release of its findings.

"Winarak ninyo kami, eh. Winarak na ninyo ang dangal ng DOH (You destroyed us. You destroyed the honor of the DOH)," an emotional Duque told COA.