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.”
“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.
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.
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.
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.