Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and different public well being issues, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has but to nominate a everlasting secretary of the Department of Health (DOH).

After assuming energy on July 1, he designated one of many undersecretaries of the earlier authorities as DOH officer-in-charge (OIC). Three months later, the Marcos cupboard is full apart from the DOH, which remains to be headed by an OIC.

Marcos is aware of the significance of main an company to deal with a specific disaster. It’s the rationale why he appointed himself as agriculture secretary whereas the nation is battling a meals safety downside.

“There are things that the president can do that a secretary cannot, especially because the problems are so difficult that it would take a president to change and turn it around,” Marcos said in a current interview.

If management is essential in managing an emergency state of affairs, then why depart the DOH within the fingers of a mere OIC? What is stopping the president from appointing a everlasting well being secretary?

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His response has been obscure and even incoherent.

During his first one-on-one interview in September, he explained his motive for holding again in naming somebody to guide the DOH.

“There are many other elements to the DOH. That’s why until we finalize the structure of what – we just have to keep it functioning and finalize the structure.” He added that the everlasting secretary would be the “person who is helping us, the consultants from there, the consultants that are helping us, putting the new structure of the DOH together.”

After the media requested him once more about this problem in October, he mentioned he’s ready for the well being state of affairs to normalize. “[F]or now, I say, we are looking for ways so that we can normalize [the situation] and we don’t have to say that the Philippines is still in a state of calamity.”

Instead of elaborating this level, he merely mentioned that the federal government is attempting to repair one thing within the paperwork.

“I want people to understand that this is the government’s work, not everything is a crisis… That is what I am trying to do. So that every day functions are fulfilled every day, without fuss, without bother, without fixers, without paying.”

This confused many as a result of a everlasting DOH secretary would have expedited the reorganization of the company.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel advised Marcos to right away appoint a well being secretary. “Someone who shares the identical pondering he simply defined. Get an outsider if essential. But present and bathe her or him with all of the assist for us to have the ability to ‘live with the virus,’” Pimentel told the media.

The vacancy at the DOH became more pronounced after Marcos appointed a retired police general as health undersecretary. Responding to criticism that he chose someone with no health expertise, Marcos said the country’s former police chief will look into the “special concerns” and different features of the DOH like rightsizing and structural modifications. He mentioned that one doesn’t must be a physician to make an “administrative audit” of the company.

Nevertheless, the company remains to be functioning and not using a everlasting secretary. Some well being consultants believe Marcos is happy with the efficiency of the OIC. But if this had been the case, why the reluctance in making her appointment everlasting?

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Professor Peter Julian Cayton of the University of the Philippines famous that an OIC is prevented from making substantial reform proposals.

“An OIC is a temporary position that cannot make major reforms or decisions. She is only able to continue recurring programs and repeat decisions. She cannot start new policies since she is not DOH Secretary, she is only temporary until a real secretary sits,” Cayton told the media.

Marcos’ failure to call his DOH secretary was cited by well being staff as a major concern in grading the primary 100 days of the brand new authorities. They reiterated a few of their calls for akin to extra advantages and higher working situations. The Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) has expressed disappointment that as an alternative of appointing a DOH secretary, Marcos positioned a retired normal within the company, and warned that it might result in the “militarization of health services.”

“We need qualified health officials not only with medical and health expertise, but more importantly imbued with service orientation and proven track record of upholding the health workers’ and people’s right to health,” said HEAD in an announcement because it highlighted the infamous report of the brand new DOH undersecretary in implementing the earlier authorities’s bloody “war on drugs.”