SENATORS on Tuesday expressed disagreement with President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III should be considered the “hero” in the Philiippines’ COVID-19 response.

During his talk to the nation on Monday, President Duterte hailed Duque as the hero in the country’s fight against the pandemic and stressed that the government was doing good in its COVID-19 response.

“That’s his (Duterte’s) opinion, to me, the frontliners are the heroes!” Senate President Vicente Sotto III.

Senator Grace Poe agreed with Sotto and reminded the President that the real COVID-19 pandemic heroes are courageous workers risking their own lives for others.

“With their hard work and resilience, we see people volunteering to make up for the inadequacies to the virus response,” Poe stressed.

“Even as we all have been humbled by this health crisis, let us not deny our frontliners the recognition that rightfully belongs to them,” Poe added, calling for efficient governance and social services.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, who blamed Duque for the delayed procurement of COVID-19 vaccines last year, also rejected Duterte’s statement.

“He said that the Philippines is doing good in the fight against COVID-19 and called his health secretary a hero. What he really meant was ‘hilo’,” Lacson tweeted.

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan expressed disbelief in the health secretary’s supposed excellence in managing the pandemic.

“Palagay ko sila sila nalang ang naniniwala do’n,” he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Duque should not be the only one getting the credit, saying several officials have also done their part in addressing the health crisis.

“Just to be fair, there were several heroes who effectively contributed to the government’s response to COVID — these are Sec. (Carlito) Galvez, Sec. (Vince) Dizon and all the medical frontliners,” he said.

“This is a team effort. No one man can arrest a pandemic of this magnitude,” Gatchalian said.

Several senators have long been calling on Duque to resign for his supposed blunders in handling the COVID-19 outbreak.