Thus said former Vice President Jejomar Binay in reaction to the resignation of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Dr. Eric Domingo on Monday.
“It should have been the Health Secretary for his mismanagement of the medical response to the pandemic,” said Binay, referring to Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
“His (Duque) failings have unduly compromised the safety of health workers and other frontliners, and eroded the chances of an early economic recovery,” added Binay.
He said if the country wanted the economy to recover, the solution was to improve the medical response to the pandemic.
“That will never happen under the present DOH leadership. We need a competent person leading the department. So I will say it again, the wrong person resigned,” he said.
FDA deputy director general Oscar Gutierrez replaced Domingo as officer-in-charge of the regulator.
Domingo said he did not have any specific reason for his resignation, but added “I think I did my part to help during the pandemic. I’m happy with that but now it is time to move on to other things.”
Domingo was named as officer-in-charge of the regulatory office in May 2019. He was named as FDA director-general in May 2020.
In August, Binay criticized Duque in connection with the Commission on Audit’s 2020 report regarding the agency’s non-compliance with the laws and regulations in the management of P67.323 billion in COVID-19 response funds.
“The effort and sacrifice of our medical frontliners go to waste. They are being led in this uphill battle against a deadly virus by an inefficient and incompetent Health Secretary,” said Binay, who is running for senator in the May 9 elections.
“Imagine billions of pesos in health funds unspent or misspent during a pandemic. This is unpardonable. And yet the Health secretary and other officials will always blame us and our supposed lack of discipline for our predicament. Whenever there is a surge in infections, it’s always our fault, never theirs,” he added.
The 2020 Commission on Audit report stated that the DOH procurement worth P5.038 billion was found to lack documentation and had
procedural deficiencies in violation of the Government Procurement Reform Act.
Among the deficiencies were the disadvantageous purchases of P194.403 million, defects in the sworn statements in contracts, non-posting of procurement information on government websites and non-provision of technical specifications in contracts.
At least P69.942 million worth of medical equipment and supplies were also purchased but were unutilized or were not immediately used, COA stated.
Some P4.49 million in liquidated damages were also not applied against payments to suppliers, it said, adding P275.908 million in cash allowances, gift certificates and grocery items also did not have legal basis.
According to COA, the donations in-kind worth P1.405 billion were also not properly documented.
Some P11.89 billion were unobligated despite an urgent need to beef up the capability of the DOH to address the pandemic.
The COA further noted that there were additional deficiencies of P1.036 billion with the improper charging of transactions, utilization
of funds not for intended purposes, and low or zero utilization of funds of P488.953 million.
State auditors cited “doubtful liquidations” of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s claims credited against the interim reimbursement mechanism funds of P81.818 million.