Duque criticizes COA's COVID-19 fund deficiency report

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III criticized the Commission on Audit's (COA) report, calling it unfair and unjust for finding deficiencies in the Department of Health’s PHP67.32 billion allocation for COVID-19 response.

Duque said the report damaged DOH officials' morale and dignity, stating they have been losing sleep since COA released its annual audit report.

During a House hearing on Tuesday, Duque argued that DOH was not given an opportunity to submit a rejoinder to the preliminary observations in the audit report.