DOH in the hot seat

“You will be assured that no money went into corruption. None of it was stolen. I am sure of that,” Duque told interviewers.

Oh, yeah? How sure are you, Mr. Duque?

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Beleaguered Health Secretary Francisco Duque III says “no money went into corruption,” to deny a Commission on Audit (COA) report on the mishandling of P67.32 billion in COVID-19 funds by the Department of Health (DOH).

Is the DOH under Duque corrupt?

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Duque, during a hearing by the House committee on public accounts, made quite a scene when he said:

“You destroyed us. You destroyed the reputation of the DOH. You destroyed the reputation of all my colleagues (at the DOH). We can’t face the people because you’ve shamed us with all your accusations. I haven’t slept nights. This is really unfair, unjust.”

Duque should take a page from the book, so to speak, of US President Harry S. Truman, who told subordinates, “If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

C’mon, Duque, you’ve been shamed before for your supposed incompetence, and you were told to resign by senators and congressmen and even by some of your colleagues in the Cabinet. Yet you held on to your position like barnacles on a ship.

There’s no reason why you should be ashamed or embarrassed now. Just hold on, because President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte is defending you anyway.

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Health care workers, mostly nurses, in private hospitals want to resign over unpaid benefits from the government and sheer exhaustion.

Their plan to resign en masse in the midst of the pandemic speaks volumes about the government’s indifference towards the risk they’re taking in caring for patients who may infect them with the deadly COVID-19 virus.

Nurses are guided by the Nightingale Pledge, which says, among others, that they devote themselves to the welfare of those committed to their care.

They have probably reached the end of their patience with the government’s apathy towards their safety.

Maria Theresa Cruz, a nurse in a public hospital in Cainta, Rizal, was an example of the DOH’s neglect concerning the plight of nurses. Cruz died from COVID-19 last year after being infected by some patients under her care. Cruz’s family was supposed receive a hazard pay of P500 a day, which would have amounted to P30,000 for 60 days of risky work.

Do you know how much the family received? They only had P7,265 coming to them. That amount could not even pay for Nurse Cruz’s funeral!

The DOH, which handles COVID-19 funds, should be asked where the rest of the benefits for Cruz went.

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Why has the COA buckled under pressure from the powers-that-be over its audit report on the DOH?

The COA earlier reported that it found deficiencies in DOH’s handling of funds, describing the lapses as “non-compliant with laws, rules and regulations.”

The public was given the impression that DOH committed a criminal offense in spending the P67.32-billion COVID-19 funds.

But the COA later retracted on Friday, Aug. 13, its statement that DOH carried out malfeasance in disbursing the COVID-19 funds.

This time, the audit commission said the DOH deficiencies were the results of “non-submission of documentation or supporting papers, which the DOH may still submit in its compliance with the auditor’s recommendations.”

COA underscored that its report “does not mention any findings by the auditors of funds lost due to corruption” and that the amount “cannot be accounted for.”

Hmmmm! The sudden turnaround by the COA is suspicious.

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I’m not saying that the resident COA auditor at the health department was corrupt, but I was just wondering why there was a sudden about-face in the audit report.

(Why did he die of a heart attack when he was only 40 years old? Too much stress on the job or he was stressed beyond the job? Just wondering.)

You see, every government agency has COA representatives to watch over how the agency is spending its funds.

In the past, many COA auditors were wined and dined – and even given women in the case of male auditors – so they would keep their mouths shut.

I’ve seen so many COA auditors in the past getting rich off the agencies they were overseeing.

I’m happy to report that such situation, where the COA auditor is in cahoots with the people they’re watching, is now the exception rather than the rule.

But in the case of the COA auditors assigned at the DOH, their sudden change of tune is suspicious.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see through the COA’s turnaround.

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I’m taking this opportunity to thank young tycoon Reinier Tiu and his business partners from Mainland China for donating 800 sacks of premium rice and a number of canned goods to the Ramon Tulfo Good Samaritan Foundation.

With the help of Red Cross volunteers, my staff and I repacked the donation consisting of rice and canned goods into food packs for distribution to depressed areas. With the help of my friends, I am making feeding the hungry a continuing effort.

By the way, whatever happened to the community pantry that started in UP Village in Quezon City and spread like wildfire in other parts of the country?

If you can’t sustain it, don’t start it.

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Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez boasted earlier this month that 10 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Big deal!

Our neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have the following vaccination rates so far: Malaysia, 36 percent; Singapore, 65 percent; Cambodia, 41.5 percent.