A Malacanang official yesterday said there is nothing wrong or illegal in the government accepting donations from a tobacco company, and the health secretary posing for photos with the private firm’s executives.
“If the Department of Health (DOH) did not receive any donations from the tobacco company, we do not see any violation of law or rules. The same thing if the DOH secretary agreed to any photo-ops,” Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a briefing.
Castro said that as a public servant, there would be many opportunities where people would ask to have photos taken with you and one should be a gentleman.
She said Secretary Teodoro Herbosa Jr., agreeing to photo opportunities, does not damage the image of the DOH nor the policies of the government.
A photo of Herbosa with First Lady Liza Marcos, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian, and executives of a tobacco firm was taken during the turnover ceremony for four mobile laboratory clinics and a water station at the Kalayaan grounds in Malacañang last March 20.
The donated mobile clinic and water station would be used and deployed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in disaster communities as well as in the Walang Gutom Kitchens and care facilities under the agency.
Herbosa was criticized by a member of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) for posing for photographs with some executives of the tobacco firm, claiming that it undermined his credibility and showed his lack of integrity.
SEATCA Executive Director Ulysses Dorotheo said Herboss’s attendance in the turnover event and posing for a group photo hints at “trading public health principles and ethics for political convenience.”
