Palace to Trillanes: No need to appoint Robredo COVID-19 task force chief, don't be 'divisive'
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Friday accused former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV of "sowing intrigue and division" by challenging the Palace to appoint the vice president as chief of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“[Vice President Leni Robredo] is helping in her own ways and if her intentions are genuine, there is no need for her to be appointed or designated in the [IATF], as suggested by the former senator,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
Trillanes issued the challenge after Roque on Wednesday said Robredo should offer solutions instead of criticizing the government's COVID-19 response.
“If Malacañang really wants to flatten the curve, then it should appoint [Robredo] to be the IATF chair,” Trillanes said in a statement issued Friday morning.
Roque then flip-flopped on his earlier remarks, saying “be that as it may, this does not diminish the fact we acknowledge the contributions of the vice president in the fight against COVID-19.”
He maintained that his earlier criticism of Robredo was “simply a response to a specific question by media.”
At the start of the COVID-19-induced lockdown on March, Robredo’s office initiated bus transportation services for healthcare workers who were left without means to get to their workplaces when mass transportation was halted.
The Office of the Vice President has also raised funds for purchase of PPEs and opened up accommodations for frontliners during lockdown, and launched an e-market project that taps tricycle drivers to deliver market goods to buyers.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III sits as head of the task force, with Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles as his co-chairperson.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires on Friday said his office is summoning documents from Department of Budget and Management Secretary Wendel Avisado and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III's offices as part of its probe on the government's pandemic response.
A former IATF adviser, Tony Leachon, on Thursday said that the health department could be liable for the death of "so many Filipinos."
He further slammed the DOH for its poor management of COVID-19 data in the country, going as far as calling it "useless."
More than half of the Senate has called on Duque to resign citing his “failure of leadership, lack of foresight and inefficiency in the performance of his mandate.”
An umbrella group of private hospitals in May also called on the president to replace the health secretary. — with reports from Kristine Joy Patag
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