Fixing the government does not just involve using public funds properly but also needs the right people in the right positions to properly execute the tasks expected of them, Partido Reporma chairman and standard-bearer Panfilo “Ping” Lacson stressed Wednesday.
In a radio interview with Ted Failon and DJ Chacha on Radyo Singko, Lacson stressed that skills matching would be a must for competent government officials serving with him once he is elected President after the 2022 national elections.
The longtime public servant was reacting to a question by Failon on if he would appoint people who knew what their jobs entailed—and knew how to sniff out corruption and not turn a blind eye to graft, as some officials were apparently doing—once he gets the people’s mandate to lead them after the May 9 polls.
“May diperensya tayo, Ted, e. Kung sino-sino ‘yung na-a-appoint na hindi talaga tugma doon sa position, ‘yung sa skills ba saka talent, ‘yan ang problema talaga e,” Lacson said.
The veteran senator cited as an example the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), the state health insurer which has a doctor, in the person of the Health Secretary, as its ex-officio chairman.
“Bakit ang ex-officio chairman doctor? ‘Di ba, dapat ang nilagay mo sa PhilHealth ay ‘yung parang finance officer under the Department of Finance, tapos mag-appoint ka diyan ng nakakaalam sa financial or doon sa finances, ‘di ba, dahil insurance ‘yan e,” Lacson told Failon.
Making things worse for PhilHealth – which this week has seen several of its private hospital partners leave the state insurer owing to billions of pesos in unpaid claims – is that its current head, lawyer Dante Gierran, is a career law enforcer who came from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Lacson added.
“E tapos naglagay ka pa ng law enforcer galing sa NBI? Ganyan ang ano e, wala ‘yung parang skills matching,” the Partido Reporma chairman told the radio program.
