{"id":266743,"date":"2020-08-27T22:23:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T02:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=266743"},"modified":"2020-08-27T22:23:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T02:23:29","slug":"duque-sees-senate-probe-as-venue-to-clear-his-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/27\/duque-sees-senate-probe-as-venue-to-clear-his-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Duque sees Senate probe as venue to clear his name"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_243433\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-243433\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/06duque.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-243433 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/06duque.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/06duque.jpg 620w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/06duque-300x181.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-243433\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Duque was Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president from 2001 to 2005, chairman of the board from 2005 to 2009, and board member in 2016. (PIA file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday welcomed the Senate inquiry into his public service record as &#8220;a way of clearing his name&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy public service record is an open book. If there&#8217;s a single thread of conclusive evidence of my involvement on any and all issues, then let the axe fall,\u201d Duque said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Duque was Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president from 2001 to 2005, chairman of the board from 2005 to 2009, and board member in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He again became the chairman of the state insurer from 2017 to present.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It pains me to be called &#8216;godfather&#8217; before the Senate by a very polluted source. It hurts my family to be dragged in all sorts of innuendos just because I have been a former PhilHealth president, chairman, board member, again its chairman,&#8221; Duque said.<\/p>\n<p>Duque said accountability and transparency have been his guidepost in all his years in the public sector.<\/p>\n<p>The Health official said he tried to reform PhilHealth which, he claimed, is composed of \u201cdecent and competent public servants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rotten eggs are not the be-all of the institution. I thank the President and the Secretary of Justice in pursuing a clean-up,&#8221; he said<\/p>\n<p>Duque suggested to the Congress that a fixed term President and Chief Executive Officer be returned &#8220;because the reforms are long term&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He also recommended a study to be made on &#8220;limiting the inclusion of Department Secretaries to ex-officio positions and the like&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Following the advice of senators, in yesterday&#8217;s PhilHealth Regular Board Meeting, I am seeking for a more active participation of the Secretaries of other member agencies of the Board of Directors,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday welcomed the Senate inquiry into his public service record as &#8220;a way &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":243433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ma-teresa-montemayor","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266743","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=266743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266744,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266743\/revisions\/266744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}