Complaint filed vs DOH chief’s brother

MANILA, Philippines — The parents of 10 children who reportedly died after receiving Dengvaxia vaccine yesterday included the brother of Health Secretary Francisco Duque in a complaint filed against him in connection with a family-owned company engaging in business transactions with the government.

In an interview on June 21, the complainants said Social Security System (SSS) commissioner Gonzalo Duque had admitted that their family owns the Educational and Medical Development Corp. (EMDC), which entered into a lease agreement with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. or PhilHealth.

The complainants said Gonzalo admitted that the lease contract was signed more than 20 years ago when Francisco was health secretary and president and chief executive officer of PhilHealth during the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The contract involved PhilHealth’s lease of a property owned by the EMDC, which was used as regional office of the agency in Ilocos.

The complainants said that based on the contract, which was renewed in 2018, PhilHealth should lease the EMDC building for P529,261.20 per month.

They said PhilHealth even made an advance security deposit of P1.105 million to EMDC.

In their original complaint filed on June 21 before the Office of the Ombudsman, the group charged Duque with violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees as well as of plunder as defined under RA 7080.

The complainants said Duque still continues to hold substantial shares of stock with EMDC even after he was reappointed as health secretary by President Duterte in November 2017.

They said that based on the company’s 2018 general informaton sheet filed with the Securities and Exchange Comission, Duque owns 13,268 shares in the EMDC amounting to P13.268 million, representing one-eighth of the P61.535 million total paid-up capital of the firm.

In their supplemental complaint, the group said Gonzalo must be implicated in the plunder charge as he also owns a subtantial share in EMDC, and for allegedly allowing his brother to accumulate illegal wealth.
They said the Duques allegedly conspired to accumulate ill-gotten wealth.

The group said that with Gonzalo’s admission, the amount of money that his brother must have received from PhilHealth may have exceeded P50 million, the threshhold amount of ill-gotten wealth for a crime to be considered as plunder.