Duque takes responsibility for late gov’t declaration of health emergency over COVID-19

March 11, 2020

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III Wednesday took responsibility for the government’s late declaration of a state of public health emergency as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spreads.

Duque told a House hearing he should have declared an emergency instead of waiting for President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Yes, I will concede to that,” Duque told Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate.

Zarata asked Duque  during a hearing of the House committee on health if he should have declared an emergency to warn the public.

The committee, chaired by Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan, called for a hearing to allow the Department of Health (DOH) to brief lawmakers on the measures by the government against COVID-19.

Duterte last March 9  declared a state of public health emergency following a case of local transmission.

It took Duterte more than a month after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as an international public health emergency on January 30, 2020, the same day the first Philippine COVID-19 case was confirmed.

Duque said he decided to just leave it to the WHO to handle the declaration of a health emergency of international concern which he said is a “de facto declaration on my part.”

Zarate said Duque has the power to declare the emergency ahead of the President to “forewarn the public.”

“We became complacent, just because there were just initially one to three cases, and they were foreigners,” he told Duque.

Duque denied the DOH was lax in reporting new COVID-19 cases, saying there was a problem in the department’s reporting system.

He told ACT -CIS Rep. Niña Taduran there was no intention “to not disclose important pieces of information as can be legally allowed under the law.” DMS