{"id":262446,"date":"2020-07-22T00:48:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T04:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=262446"},"modified":"2020-07-22T00:48:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T04:48:45","slug":"prrd-not-using-duque-as-scapegoat-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/22\/prrd-not-using-duque-as-scapegoat-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD not using Duque as scapegoat: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte confers with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III while holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on March 9, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is not using Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as a scapegoat for the alleged lapses in the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) response of the national government, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque rejected the statement made by detained Senator Leila de Lima that Duque has not been fired from his post because the President needs a \u201cwhipping boy\u201d as the country continues to grapple with the prevailing pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read the same papers and I watch the same news as Senator Leila de Lima, I can tell you the President has not been treating Secretary Duque as a whipping boy,\u201d Roque said in an interview over CNN Philippines.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, admitted that many have been asking him why the President has not considered blaming Duque for the health-related issues hounding the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question I\u2019m asked more often is \u2018why not?\u2019 But it has never been the case that I think the President has ever used him as a whipping boy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said Duque continues to enjoy the President\u2019s trust and confidence, even giving him advice on how to handle criticism after making honest mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s’ (Duterte) always been supportive of Secretary Duque. He says mistakes have been made. For as long as his mistakes were done in good faith, it\u2019s no reason for him to lose confidence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a handwritten note issued from the Philippine National Police Custodial Center where she is detained on drug-related charges, de Lima claimed that the President is letting Duque act as \u201ccaptain of the sinking ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guess is the President just needs a whipping boy for the tragedy that they themselves have brought to our nation.\u00a0Kaya siguro hindi niyo matanggal-tanggal para laging may masisisi ang taumbayan<\/em>\u00a0(Perhaps that\u2019s why he can\u2019t be removed so there is someone to blame). Is that your strategy? Have we cracked the code?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her statement came amid calls for Duque to step down which have been made since the pandemic started, especially after he mistakenly claimed the country is experiencing the second wave of Covid-19 infection and when he wrongly said the country is flattening the curve or slowing down the rate of Covid-19 infection.<\/p>\n

In April, senators signed a resolution asking Duque to resign while questioning his handling of the health crisis.<\/p>\n

Several groups have also demanded the same after Duque was tagged in the anomalous purchase of medical supplies and equipment.<\/p>\n

Duque ignored these calls, saying he served at the pleasure of the President.<\/p>\n

Duterte has repeatedly vouched for Duque\u2019s integrity and took \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for the order of supplies.<\/p>\n

He also extolled Duque for his competence, saying he would not have been appointed as health chief had he thought otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is not using Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as a scapegoat for the alleged lapses in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":249270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262446","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\/262446","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=262446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262448,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262446\/revisions\/262448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}