Press Release
August 18, 2021

Sen. Grace Poe's transcript
Senate Blue Ribbon hearing
Aug. 18, 2021

It was just last year when Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered the preventive suspension of eight PhilHealth executives and five DOH officials for various offenses related to the use of people's money during the pandemic. When asked whether this probe would affect the morale of the Health department during the pandemic, the Ombudsman refused to budge and instead raised the question for us, 'Are we not, as a people, also suffering from low morale?' The fact that we can't even go out of our homes--are we happy with what is happening? Are the medical frontliners happy with what is happening to them? Somebody must be held accountable. Today, we take it further and raise the question which still hasn't been answered despite numerous probes in the past: Shouldn't Sec. Duque be suspended by now if you're going to apply the same judgment as what happened to the PhilHealth executives? It's very simple, Mr. Chair. P11.89 billion of unobligated allotment for hazard pay and special risk allowance is unaccounted for, unobligated. Ito po ay hindi lamang kapabayaan, sabi nga ng isa, ito po ay kriminal.

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