Health Secretary Francisco Duque III denied that the head of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) was replaced after she allegedly refused to do VIP coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) testing.
In an interview over DZBB, Duque said Dr. Nestor Santiago, assistant health secretary who was designated as RITM OIC-Director IV over the weekend, will only oversee the RITM’s testing facilities and not replace the current director, Dr. Celia Carlos.
“We made a mistake in the department order, and we corrected it, because assistant secretary Santiago was only assigned to oversee the testing facilities accredited to the RITM,” he said on Monday.
The health department earned flak from Filipinos online after they thought that Carlos was fired for refusing to prioritize politicians and other public figures, as well as their families, in testing for COVID-19.
Several social media users called for immediate mass testing for COVID-19 after a number of senators bared that they have already been tested, some even getting tested twice, despite a reported shortage of testing kits.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, along with Senators Imee Marcos, Ramon Revilla Jr., Francis Tolentino, Pia Cayetano, Panfilo Lacson, and Grace Poe were asymptomatic when they were tested by the RITM at the Senate on March 17.
The tests were conducted after Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri confirmed that he was found to be COVID-19 positive.
However, Department of Health (DoH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said that there is no need to conduct mass testing in the country yet.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines swelled to 380, with 25 deaths and 17 recovered patients, as of Sunday afternoon. (Mynka Tiangco)