[ad_1]
MANILA – Senator Panfilo Lacson on Friday rejected a House panel’s plan to grant President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers to correct anomalies reported at the Philippines Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), saying it would be better to fire to the Secretary of Health Francisco Duque III, president of the agency’s board.
“Emergency powers to reorganize Philhealth? Try real, honest and strong political will first. First, fire your ex-officio president,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said in a tweet.
“No matter how good our country’s economic stewards are, if our health department is below the level of incompetence in the middle of this pandemic, we will all sink before we can start swimming,” said Lacson, who has asked repeatedly to Duke resignation.
Lacson was one of 17 senators who previously signed a resolution urging Duque to step down from his post, saying the health chief did not isolate people who came into contact with the first COVID-19 carrier in the Philippines, and not pre-placing medical supplies that healthcare workers abandoned in search of donations at the height of the global pandemic.
Duque previously supported the House panel’s proposal to accelerate reforms at PhilHealth, where he has served on the board for nearly two decades.
President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected calls to let Duque go.
Opposition senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan gave a similar statement, saying there is no need for emergency powers if the national government only heeds the Senate’s call to replace Duque as chief of health.
“If they really want to fix PhilHealth and address COVID, they will fire Duque and press charges against those responsible for the overpricing of test kits, test machines and the billions that PhilHealth from the Mindanao mob pocketed,” Pangilinan said. it’s a statement. .
(If they really want to fix PhilHealth and respond to COVID, they should fire Duque and press charges against those behind the overpricing of test kits, test machines, and billions of dollars pocketed by the PhilHealth mob in Mindanao. ).
“That is the solution, not the emergency powers,” he said.
(That’s the solution, not emergency powers.)
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the House suggestion would be “the opposite” in the Senate, as “the president can reform and reorganize PhilHealth without emergency powers from Congress.”
Under the law, emergency powers for the president could only be granted if both houses of Congress allow it.
“Congress has already delegated to the president, under RA 10149, the power to reorganize PhilHealth,” Drilon said in a statement.
Under this law, the president, through the GOCC Governance Council (GCG), is authorized to reorganize all government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCC), as well as to “evaluate the performance and determine the relevance of the GOCC “.
Executive Order No. 292 also allows the President to reorganize officials in executive branch agencies, he said.
Duque, along with recently resigned PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales, are among those recommended by the Senate Committee of the Whole for prosecution for alleged involvement in corrupt practices at the state health insurer.
The health chief said he would cooperate with the investigation and clear his name.
PhilHealth, Philippine Health Insurance Corp, Emergency Powers, Francisco Duque III, Ping Lacson, Franklin Drilon, Kiko Pangilinan, Rodrigo Duterte
[ad_2]