BY all indications, President Rodrigo Duterte doesn’t seem to like the way the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has been transacting with the government as a top Palace official stood firm that the President has every right and authority to say whatever he wants to say.
Reacting over the statement issued by PRC chairman and Senator Richard Gordon reacting to a side comment of the President that hinted the Red Cross as greedy, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the President may say what he wants to say.
President Duterte in a meeting with top Cabinet officials dropped the words “mukhang pera” in reaction to a report by Health Secretary Francisco Duque which hinted on the resumption of the PRC COVID-19 tests after the government paid half of what the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation owed to the private humanitarian organization.
Gordon, who chairs the humanitarian organization, the President “should really be careful” because his statement “is not really presidential.”
“Let’s allow na lang the President to say what he wants to say, and let that remain on record,” said Duterte’s spokesman. “Bahala na po ang (it is up to the) PRC to construe what the President said,” he said in a public briefing.
Under an agreement it signed with the government earlier this year, the PRC would charge P3,500 for the swabbing of frontliners and other agencies endorsed by the state health insurer PhilHealth, which would cover the cost of their COVID-19 tests.
On Oct. 27, PhilHealth made a partial payment to the PRC worth P500 million for its P1.1 billion debt. PhilHealth paid another P100 million on Thursday.
The Philippines has Southeast Asia’s second highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths after Indonesia.