PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. said he may choose the health secretary from consultants of the Department of Health (DOH), who he said are helping restructure the department.
The President made the statement, in an interview aired over ALLTV on Tuesday, as he explained why he has not appointed a health secretary almost three months into his presidency.
The DOH is now headed only by an officer-in-charge, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
Marcos said while the restructuring is ongoing, the DOH will have to keep operating and functioning the way it is doing now.
On the next health chief, he said, “Actually, I’m hoping and I’m thinking that the person who is helping us, the consultants from there, the consultants that are helping us, putting the new structure of the DOH together, diyan manggagaling ‘yung ating bagong secretary (the new secretary will come from there),” he said.
The President also said the DOH is not just about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as it has “many other elements” that need to be considered in appointing the next DOH chief.
“We have to remember that the DOH is not about COVID alone. It’s about public health in general. So that’s another side of it and it’s as important as COVID is… the dengue rates are climbing. We have the second highest HIV rate of infection in the world…TB is coming back. These are things that we have to attend to,” he said.
Marcos also said that in appointing officials, he is looking for someone who should “know more than I do” about the department that he or she will head.
“One of my simplest criteria is: Who knows more than me about this subject?” he said.
The President said one of the common problems that he encounters in making the appointments is that people he wants to work for the government are already successful in their respective private fields. However, they later accept his offer to join his administration because of their love for the country, Marcos said.
RICE ALLOWANCE
The President, in the same interview, said he is considering the provision of rice allowance for government workers to ensure that they have food on the table workers amid the rising prices of basic goods.
Marcos, who is concurrently the secretary of Department of Agriculture, said the idea is for the national government to buy rice also from the government agency, which will be cheaper than the commercial rice in the market.
“I’m going to initiate, at least for the government workers, the rice allowance. Part of the sweldo, ang pagbayad is in rice para nakakatiyak tayo everybody, every family will have rice (I’m going to initiate, at least for the government workers, the rice allowance. Part of their salary is giving rice so we can ensure that everybody, every family will have rice,” he said.
He said he also intends to talk to corporations as he wants the provision of rice allowance institutionalized.
Marcos during the campaign for the presidency, said he wants to bring down the price of rice to P20 a kilo.
