Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and former PNP chief Camilo Cascolan. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS)
MANILA, Philippines — Should public health officials have a medical degree?
Lawmakers differed in the designation of retired Philippine National Police chief Camilo Cascolan as Department of Health (DOH) undersecretary, as the Alliance of Health Workers earlier called his appointment a “huge insult to our health experts.”
Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Monday raised the question as he defended Cascolan, his “mistah” (classmate) from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1986.
“If you are appointed to the DOH, do you need to treat patients? It’s not like that,” Dela Rosa, also a former PNP chief who served under former President Rodrigo Duterte, told reporters in a mobile phone interview.
“[Cascolan] was not brought [to the DOH] to treat patients. He was designated there to improve the management of the organization,” he said, adding that work in the DOH is “not just about syringes and medical equipment.”
“There are many personnel there. So those people have to be managed,” he said.
“You don’t need to be a doctor to manage an organization, right?” he argued. “You cannot question his ability when it comes to managing people.”
He said there was no law requiring DOH officials to be health professionals.
“All you have to do in that position is purely (managerial). What you need is management expertise,” he said.
Presidential prerogative
Dela Rosa said those who felt slighted by Cascolan’s appointment should understand that it was a presidential prerogative.
“Why will they be insulted? It is the prerogative of the President, not the prerogative of those who were insulted.”
Sen. Christopher Go agreed that “as a former PNP chief appointed at the height of the pandemic, [Cascolan] is very much capable.”
Go, in a statement, said Cascolan “brings with him the experience, especially in instilling discipline and enforcing health and safety measures against COVID-19.”
‘Surprised’
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Sen. Risa Hontiveros said they were “surprised” at Cascolan’s designation.
Hontiveros, whose late husband also belonged to PMA Class 1986, said she would have wanted that the post be given to a public health specialist.
“Aside from considering him a friend and my mistah, I respect Cascolan as an officer and a gentleman. His stint at the PNP speaks for itself,” said Hontiveros. But she said the DOH “should and must always be a public health-led agency, especially as we continue to deal with COVID-19 and other burdens of disease.”
ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro on Monday asked that the appointment of Cascolan be reconsidered, saying qualified health-care professionals were bypassed for the post.
Involved in ‘tokhang’
She asked: “What is Cascolan’s qualification for the health portfolio anyway? Is he going to conduct surveillance on progressive health worker groups or shoot the COVID-19 virus?”
Castro also noted that Cascolan as PNP chief was involved in the drug war’s “Oplan Tokhang (knock and plead).”
Cascolan was the PNP deputy chief for administration and among those who drafted the PNP’s Oplan Double Barrel that consisted of Oplan High-Value Target where police go after “big fish” drug lords and Oplan Tokhang where police knock on homes to find drug suspects.
House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin, a former health secretary, on Monday supported Cascolan’s appointment, saying the DOH did not only need doctors but also nonmedical managers.
“We respect the Executive’s decision to appoint a nondoctor in the DOH. Delivery of health services is not just about doctors and scientists working together,” she said.
Public health advocate Dr. Tony Leachon, who served as special adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), did not raise an issue against Cascolan, saying “I worked with him during my NTF days. He was assertive and organized. Let’s not judge him.”
“We have seen the performances of previous military officers in jobs beyond their level of competence. I’m hopeful the new Usec will step up to the plate,” Leachon said on Twitter on Monday.
Cascolan was commander of the Administrative Support to COVID-19 Operations Task Force that formulated PNP policy and response to the health crisis, among other tasks.
Cascolan started as chief of the special research division of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime in Camp Crame from 1999 to 2001. He became a security officer to former PNP chief and Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza until 2003.
From 2004 to 2008, he was with the PNP Aviation Security Group and served as chief of the 7th Police Civil Aviation Security at Cebu International Airport in Mactan.
From 2008 to 2016, he was police chief of Taguig City, PNP provincial director of Compostela Valley, deputy regional director for operations of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police and deputy regional director for administration for the Western Visayas police.
In March 2020, Cascolan briefly served as PNP officer in charge after former PNP chief Archie Gamboa figured in a helicopter crash in Laguna.
In February 2021, Duterte appointed him undersecretary in the Office of the President.
—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
RELATED STORIES
Ex-health chief OK with Cascolan appointment: DOH needs non-medical managers
DOH confirms appointment of ex-PNP chief Cascolan as undersecretary