Despite lapses, Nograles says Duque still enjoys President’s trust

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III still enjoys the trust of President Rodrigo Duterte, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Wednesday.

Nograles also defended Duque from allegations that there was a “failure of leadership” under Duque’s watch amid the 2019-nCoV threat.

“Yung failure of leadership, I think that’s a very unfair allegation. Maybe there are lapses, but that will be rectified. In fact, Secretary Duque already said that within two days, 100 percent na yung contact tracing,” Nograles said in an interview in Malacañang.

“The President still has his trust and confidence in Secretary Duque,” Nograles added.

Nograles came to Duque’s defense after the latter was grilled in the Senate Tuesday after he reported a low outcome in the contact tracing of passengers who were aboard the same flight with the Chinese nationals who were earlier confirmed to have contracted the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Duque, during the Senate inquiry, disclosed that only 17 percent of the co-passengers of the Chinese couple have been contacted, claiming that the airlines allegedly refused to share their records.

Local airlines, however, said they already furnished the DOH with the list of passengers who took the same flights with the Chinese nationals.

“Let’s not take away all of the other efforts that the DOH family is doing. Let’s not take that away from them. Mahirap yung trabaho ng ginagawa nila. Mahirap yung trabaho na ginagawa ng mga health workers natin (The job that they’re doing is tough. The job that our health workers are doing is tough),” Nograles said.

“So we have to understand that there are a lot of details that need to be done and considering the circumstances, the pressure, the timeline and everything else that is happening,” he added.

Edited by MUF