Marcos defends ex-top cop Cascolan's appointment to DOH
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stood by his appointment of former Philippine National Police chief Camilo Cascolan saying that the top cop “doesn’t have to be a doctor” as he would not be overseeing health issues at the Department of Health.
“He doesn’t have to be a doctor. He’s going to look at the function of the DOH,” Marcos told reporters Wednesday, adding that Cascolan would be dealing with “rightsizing” and “structural changes” at the department.
“We need someone to examine what has been going on. What is good, what is not and what can be fixed. That would be his function,” Marcos continued partly in Filipino.
The DOH confirmed that Cascolan has been appointed by Marcos as undersecretary at the department after his appointment papers surfaced on social media.
This ignited a firestorm of criticism questioning why the former top cop, one of the architects of the brutal anti-illegal drugs program Oplan Double Barrel, was appointed to the health department even if he had no medical experience.
"Cascolan's appointment is a huge insult to our health experts who are most qualified to administer and run the affairs of the DOH," the Alliance of Health Workers said in a statement.
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