Senator Christopher Go, a close associate of the President, has advised Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to “make the supreme sacrifice when the right time comes” following mounting calls for his resignation over the deficiencies flagged by the Commission on Audit in the handling of P67 billion COVID-19 response funds.
Go’s advice came three days after President Rodrigo Duterte said he will accept it if Duque offers to voluntarily resign.
“My word of advice is to make the supreme sacrifice when the right time comes,” the senator told Duque as the Blue Ribbon committee resumed hearings on the COA audit report.
“For now, we have a hearing at the Blue Ribbon committee. Clear yourself and address COA’s findings,” Go said.
Duque told the committee he is prepared to resign "if the time comes" but he wants to clear first the DOH of the fund use mess.
"If the time comes when I need to resign, there’s no problem with me. What is important is we clear all of these findings for purported deficiencies and we will address [these queries] with all my DOH team who worked so hard to lead the fight against this pandemic for 18 months, and we have been relentless," he said.
"If I need to leave, there’s no problem with that, I just want to be cleared of all these COA findings," Duque added.
When Senator Panfilo Lacson sought clarification whether Go was asking Duque to step down from his post, Go said that it was only his "advice" because he was concerned.
“This is just my advice. I pity the President,” Go said.
“Let us give them a chance to come clean. It is still Sec. Duque's decision when the time comes,” he added.
In April last year, at least 14 senators co-authored a resolution pressing for Duque to resign, citing his "failure of leadership, negligence, lack of foresight, and inefficiency in performance" which led to "poor planning, delayed response, lack of transparency, and misguided and flip-flopping policies and measures" in addressing the pandemic.
The senators repeated their call for Duque to step down in September last year over the alleged massive corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.
Duterte has maintained he will not fire Duque as it will be an "injustice" to punish someone who has done no wrong.
On Tuesday, however, the President appeared to open a window to resolve the issues hounding the DOH by saying he will accept it if Duque resigns voluntarily.