Senator Risa Hontiveros believes that President Rodrigo Duterte has enough power to change the problematic Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) against COVID-19 over its pandemic response.
“Duterte is really the one in the hot seat in terms of command responsibility,” Hontiveros said in an interview on ABS-CBN.
“(The) element of command responsibility is to replace people who are not qualified, who are not doing their job well, lalo na’t isang taon na. It’s way more than the time we need, sobrang haba na ng pisi ng mga tao… something is not working,” she added.
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Hontiveros said that Health Secretary Francisco Duque is problematic.
“Problematic yung head ng IATF. Yung health secretary na nung isang taon pa lamang, mismong yung mga majority senators na colleagues namin ay nanawagan na palitan siya but he is still there in the saddle,” Hontiveros said.
The senator also lamented that former military men were in charge of the response when they should be in the West Philippine Sea and not in a health task force.
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“Perhaps it is a convenient excuse for the President na nandito itong mga tao na either hindi qualified sa position dahil hindi nila expertise iyon or kahit sila’y civilian, kahit pa health secretary at doctor ay hindi nagpapakitang gilas,” she added.
“The failure of equality management has to be laid on the doorstep of the IATF…The sorry state we are in right now ay dahil sa napaka-mahina at hindi mahusay na pandemic response sa pamumuno ng IATF,” the senator said. (TDT)
