House panel urges raps vs Duque, ex-FDA chief
DUE to alleged irregularities in the COVID-19 response, a House panel recommended the filing of charges against Health Secretary Francisco Duque and former Food and Drugs Administration chief Eric Domingo.
In its Committee Report No. 1393, the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability said Duque and Domingo violated Republic Act 9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 and Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
The recommendation was issued following the committee’s inquiry on the policies and guidelines of the Department of Health and FDA for the registration, utilization, manufacture, distribution, or sale of drugs products for COVID-19, particularly policies and guidelines which appear to be “detrimental” to public interest.
Aside from Duque and Domingo, the committee also suggested the filing of charges against FDA Center for Drug Regulation and Research Director Joyce Cirunay.
According to the committee, the officials may have violated Section 8 of RA 9485 which ensures access to frontline services including acceptance of applications and requests, and action of concerned offices.
Meanwhile, under Section 4 of RA 6713, public officials and employees must have commitment to public interest, professionalism, justness and sincerity, political neutrality, responsiveness to the public, nationalism and patriotism, commitment to democracy and simple living.
The committee, in its report, said the resolution that pushed for the inquiry cited “issuances of the DOH and FDA as having been questioned for being arbitrary, bureaucratic, and inhumane for causing unnecessary delays in the approval and clearance of drugs and therapeutics for emergency use authorization or for use of drugs under compassionate special permit for COVID-19.”
The committee likewise questioned the DOH and the FDA over their “seeming bias” for particular professionals, particularly towards the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Inc. (PSMID) that proposed the CPG on COVID-19 which was later adopted by the health department.
“There appears to be no review done, considering the DOH officials, in the words of Secretary Duque himself, were not experts in the field of infectious disease and as such, the DOH appeared to be at the mercy of PSMID as they relied solely on the statements of PSMID panel of experts,” the report committee said.
“This presents a great danger considering most clinicians simply adhere to the recommendations of the DOH which is of course accountable to the people for the policies and issues it lays down,” it added.
Likewise, the House panel pointed out the application backlogs before the FDA-CDRR, saying that the Anti-Red Tape Authority had already previously recommended the mandatory implementation of the Automatic Renewal provision of the FDA Act on the pending renewal applications for License to Operate and Certificate of Product Registration of drugs.
“There is no reason for the FDA, specifically the CDRR, to have a backlog in its license application processing, especially applications that meet the conditions for automatic renewal,” the committee stressed.
