{"id":268079,"date":"2020-09-08T05:53:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T09:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=268079"},"modified":"2020-09-08T05:53:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T09:53:01","slug":"prrd-to-duque-its-not-time-for-you-to-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/08\/prrd-to-duque-its-not-time-for-you-to-resign\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD to Duque: It\u2019s not time for you to resign"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The Senate committee of the whole earlier recommended the filing of criminal charges against Duque and others over the alleged massive corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). (File Photo: PCOO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte believes that Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III should not heed calls for him to step down from office.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Duque, this is not the time for you to resign,\u201d Duterte said in a taped public address on Monday night.<\/p>\n

The Senate committee of the whole earlier recommended the filing of criminal charges against Duque and others over the alleged massive corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).<\/p>\n

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Duque, PhilHealth\u2019s ex-officio chairperson, should not be claiming he is innocent since he is responsible for the activities of all the agencies that are under his jurisdiction<\/p>\n

However, Duterte expressed full trust and confidence in Duque, saying he believes that the DOH chief was not corrupt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of now, I have full\u2026 I said there\u2019s a — there\u2019s an investigation going on. Let it be if you are not guilty of corruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, said he could not turn a blind eye to controversies hounding the PhilHealth saying he would still review the findings of the Senate committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng kalaban ko lang ho \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0corruption (My only enemy is corruption). Well, let us see\u00a0doon sa ano mo \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0negligence\u00a0mo<\/em>\u00a0(what it says about your negligence),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Same boat\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte said he understood what it was like handling a \u201cbig organization\u201d since he was once mayor and now President.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalagang mane<\/strong>-negligent\u00a0ka kasi hindi mo mahabol minsan eh<\/em>\u00a0and sometimes\u00a0mawala \u2018yung papel<\/em>\u00a0(You will really be negligent because sometimes you won\u2019t be able to chase papers and sometimes they get lost). The one that really matters to me. What matters is\u00a0\u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0(the) corruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duque did not have \u201cany reason\u201d to resign if he is not corrupt, he added.<\/p>\n

According to Duterte, he and Duque were on the same boat\u201d in terms of keeping watch over the activities of several agencies.<\/p>\n

He compared it to making background checks before deciding on appointments and looking over contracts of loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya naintindihan kita<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s why I understand you) if it\u2019s just negligence of coming up with the papers on time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duque, meanwhile, thanked Duterte for his continued trust in him.<\/p>\n

He earlier dismissed allegations as “baseless” and vowed to clear his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte believes that Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III should not heed calls for him …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":249270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268079","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268082,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268079\/revisions\/268082"}],"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=268079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}