{"id":258484,"date":"2020-06-18T06:55:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T10:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=258484"},"modified":"2020-06-18T06:55:44","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T10:55:44","slug":"duterte-displeased-with-leachons-remarks-against-doh-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/18\/duterte-displeased-with-leachons-remarks-against-doh-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte displeased with Leachon\u2019s remarks against DOH: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on May 25, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Former special adviser to the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 Dr. Anthony \u201cTony\u201d Leachon was removed from his post because President Rodrigo Duterte disliked how he cast doubts on the Department of Health\u2019s (DOH) reporting of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) data, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a virtual presser, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque explained that while it was not Duterte who fired Leachon, the President was displeased with his remarks against the DOH when he should be doing his job as the consultant to the chief implementer of the country’s National Policy Against Covid-19, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President did not say he should resign\u00a0kasi lahat naman kami hindi kami talaga sigurado kung anong papel niya<\/em>\u00a0(because all of us were not sure what his role was),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque denied Leachon\u2019s claim that he and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III had a hand in his removal, saying Galvez decided to let go of Leachon because of Duterte\u2019s displeasure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiguro po hindi po ako, hindi si<\/em>\u00a0Secretary Duque\u00a0ang nag-udyok kay<\/em>\u00a0(It was not me, it was not Secretary Duque who prompted) Secretary Galvez to let go of him. It was a declaration of the President himself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque recalled how the President questioned Leachon\u2019s expression of disappointment over the DOH\u2019s Covid-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cNung huling pagpupulong ko kay Presidente, nanggaling naman po kay Presidente na \u2018Bakit nagsasalita ng ganito \u2018tong si<\/em>\u00a0Leachon?\u2019 (During my last meeting with the President, he asked \u2018Why is Leachon saying those things?) So let me correct you Dr. Leachon,\u00a0hindi po ako, hindi si<\/em>\u00a0Secretary Duque,\u00a0mismong si Presidente po<\/em>\u00a0(It was not me, it was not Secretary Duque, it was the President himself who) noted that you should not be doing what you were doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said even members of the task force wondered why they were being attacked by Leachon, who was supposed to be an ally.<\/p>\n

\u201cNung siya po ay nagsalita<\/em>\u00a0casting doubts\u00a0dun sa<\/em>\u00a0figures\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0DOH\u00a0e talagang lahat po ng miyembro ng<\/em>\u00a0strategic task force\u00a0ay talagang nagtatanong \u2018Bakit tayo tinitira ng sarili nating kakampi\u2019<\/em>\u00a0(When he was talking, casting doubts on the figures of the DOH, the members of the strategic task force were wondering \u2018Why is he attacking an ally?),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

No monopoly of the truth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque said Leachon\u2019s remarks made it appear that the DOH was hiding the real Covid-19 situation in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya nga po kami nagalit e kasi pinalalabas niya nagsisinungaling ang lahat<\/em>\u00a0except\u00a0siya<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s why we were angry because he made it appear that everyone, except him, was lying),\u201d he said. \u201cWe are perfecting the recording of cases. We have not perfected it yet but we are striving to improve and we will always give the truth and the true numbers as far as we know, to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roque challenged Leachon to prove that the DOH was manipulating Covid-19 data.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not have the monopoly of the truth and we have never lied.\u00a0Saan po kami nagsinungaling? Dapat ilathala niya \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(When did we lie? He should put it on paper),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque also defended the DOH\u2019s supposed late reporting of Covid-19 data, saying data from local government units, regional offices, and labs also came in late.<\/p>\n

He, however, assured that the DOH is taking steps to solve delays in the reporting of Covid-19 data by automating the Covid Kaya application.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeron na pong solusyon diyan yung<\/em>\u00a0Covid Kaya app\u00a0na dinidevelop<\/em>. We\u2019re hoping to automate it\u00a0para mawala na po yung lag pagdating sa<\/em>\u00a0reporting (We have a solution for that, the Covid Kay app, which is being developed. We\u2019re hoping to automate it so that we can remove the lag in reporting Covid-19 data),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

In a tweet on Wednesday, Leachon bared that he vacated his post but remained to have his full respect for Galvez.<\/p>\n

He previously expressed disappointment over the DOH’s Covid-19 response efforts and reporting of Covid-19 data.<\/p>\n

Galvez, in a separate statement, said Leachon was removed because his preemptive releases of information “jeopardized the communication efforts” of the NTF and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and caused misunderstanding between the two entities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Former special adviser to the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 Dr. Anthony \u201cTony\u201d Leachon was removed from his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":256072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258486,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258484\/revisions\/258486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}