DOH downgrades Leachon from consultant to volunteer | Inquirer News
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DOH downgrades Leachon from consultant to volunteer

/ 05:40 AM September 10, 2023

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Leachon

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Leachon (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The appointment of health reform advocate Dr. Anthony Leachon as consultant of the Department of Health (DOH) has been downgraded to a “voluntary” status after a lawmaker questioned his new role in the government.

On Friday, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said he had moved to revise the job contract of Leachon, who “reverted back to a volunteer consultant without pay.”

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“I’ve talked to Dr. Leachon and he said he’s willing to be a volunteer consultant … so he’ll just help the government with whatever expertise he has,” Herbosa said.

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House Majority Leader Rep. Janette Garin has questioned the appointment of Leachon as a consultant for noncommunicable diseases, pointing out that his monthly salary was nearly P100,000, or equivalent to the pay grade of a DOH director.

Garin, a former DOH chief, wondered why Herbosa named Leachon a consultant when there were career officials with a similar role in the health agency.

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Garin said the DOH should have instead tapped the current officers of medical societies, such as the Philippine College of Physicians and Philippine College of Cardiology.

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An internist and cardiologist who served as COVID-19 task force adviser during the Duterte administration, Leachon called the statements of Garin “personal destruction.”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Leachon said he “can work without compensation,” like when he was a “one-peso consultant” of then DOH chief Enrique Ona in 2012.

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TAGS: Anthony Leachon, Departmentn of Education

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