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Filipinos stranded due to quarantine protocols prepare to board a bus for travel to their home province of Isabela from Quezon City, Metro Manila. Photo: EPA

Philippines health department probed for ‘lapses’ in coronavirus fight

  • President Rodrigo Duterte has sacked special adviser Dr Anthony Leachon after he criticised the agency
  • Separately, the country’s ombudsman is investigating the department for ‘irregularities’ causing fatalities among medical frontliners
The Philippines’ Department of Health has come under fire as President Rodrigo Duterte sacked a special adviser to the task force battling Covid-19 who criticised the department, while the country’s ombudsman has revealed an investigation into its alleged “lapses and irregularities”.

Duterte on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of Dr Anthony Leachon as special adviser to the National Task Force Against Covid-19, after the health reform advocate on Saturday tweeted that “the lead agency has lost focus in everything – risk communication, priorities, data management, and execution of all plans”.

Infections in the country rose to 27,799 on Thursday as the health department reported 562 new cases. Of the latter figure, 481 were labelled “fresh”, meaning test results had been released within three days of testing, and 81 were “late”, meaning they had been released beyond that three-day window.

Fatalities stood at 1,116, while 7,090 people have recovered.

According to presidential spokesman Harry Roque, neither he nor health secretary Francisco Duque were behind the sacking.

“It was the declaration of the president himself,” Roque said during a Wednesday briefing. “The president himself noted that [Leachon] should not be doing what he was doing.

“We got angry because he made it appear that everyone was lying except him. It’s not possible that only he is telling the truth,” said Roque, who could not be reached for further clarification.

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When announcing the sacking, Covid-19 National Task Force chief Carlito Galvez said Leachon’s “pre-emptive releases of some information prior to official announcement and [adoption] jeopardised the communication efforts … and caused unwarranted misunderstanding” between the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, headed by health secretary Duque, and the task force, its implementing arm.

Leachon has not taken his dismissal lying down. The former president of the Philippine Medical Association gave media interviews on Thursday questioning the decision.

“Why should I be sanctioned for telling the truth? We are the only country in the world reporting [infection data] late,” he said. “It’s a mediocre performance and in times of crisis we should not tolerate mediocrity.”

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Leachon’s sacking on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Speaking to the Post on Thursday, Leachon said important policy decisions affecting people’s lives and livelihoods were being based on data from infections that had occurred two months ago but had been released only recently.

“In fact, [after my tweet] the health department issued a public apology on Sunday for their delayed reporting,” he said.

In their statement, the health department said “the timeliness and integrity of the data are only as good as the submission of our partners on the ground – laboratories, hospitals and local government units”, and that delays in reported test results had been “significantly reduced”.

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One possible trigger for Leachon’s exit was his public contradiction of health secretary Duque’s May 20 announcement that a “second wave” of infections had already hit the Philippines. Leachon insisted the country was still on the first wave, and had “plateaued” rather than flattening the curve. At the time both Galvez and the presidential palace agreed with him.

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, he said he had “cried actually” after being fired because it had been painful staying up into the wee hours crunching data and staying away from his family.

Leachon is not the only senior official pointing out inadequacies in the way the health department is handling the coronavirus outbreak. On Wednesday, Ombudsman Samuel Martires revealed to the media that from early March, he had ordered field investigators to the health department to investigate any “lapses and irregularities” that caused fatalities among medical frontliners.

Barbers wear protective suits to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Manila. Photo: AP

He later widened the probe to include various allegations, including delays in the payment of frontliners’ death benefits and the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) for them; overpaying for coronavirus testing kits and medical gear; and intentional delays in using cheaper locally made kits.

“Our investigators were given the runaround by some health department officials and personnel by referring us from one department or office to another,” Martires said. He warned that criminal and administrative charges would be filed against any health official or employee who wilfully obstructed or hindered the probe.

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Leachon said the ombudsman’s probe was “serendipitous” for him. “I have been saying there are lapses and irregularities that led to the deaths of frontliners,” he told the Post.

President Duterte had previously dismissed allegations that health secretary Duque had overpaid for PPE.

In response to Martires’ announcement, presidential spokesman Roque released a statement saying the palace respected the office of the ombudsman’s decision given it was an “independent constitutional body”. He asked Duque “and the entire department of health bureaucracy” to cooperate with the investigation.

Health undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said the probe had caught the department by surprise and had had a “big effect” on employees’ morale, adding that it was trying to improve data collection.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Philippine health department probed for ‘irregularities’
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