I’m hopeful the new Usec will step up to the plate,” Leachon said on Twitter on Monday.Ĭascolan was commander of the Administrative Support to COVID-19 Operations Task Force that formulated PNP policy and response to the health crisis, among other tasks.Ĭascolan started as chief of the special research division of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime in Camp Crame from 1999 to 2001. “We have seen the performances of previous military officers in jobs beyond their level of competence. Tony Leachon, who served as special adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), did not raise an issue against Cascolan, saying “I worked with him during my NTF days. Delivery of health services is not just about doctors and scientists working together,” she said. “We respect the Executive’s decision to appoint a nondoctor in the DOH. House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin, a former health secretary, on Monday supported Cascolan’s appointment, saying the DOH did not only need doctors but also nonmedical managers. She asked: “What is Cascolan’s qualification for the health portfolio anyway? Is he going to conduct surveillance on progressive health worker groups or shoot the COVID-19 virus?”Ĭastro also noted that Cascolan as PNP chief was involved in the drug war’s “Oplan Tokhang (knock and plead).”Ĭascolan was the PNP deputy chief for administration and among those who drafted the PNP’s Oplan Double Barrel that consisted of Oplan High-Value Target where police go after “big fish” drug lords and Oplan Tokhang where police knock on homes to find drug suspects. France Castro on Monday asked that the appointment of Cascolan be reconsidered, saying qualified health-care professionals were bypassed for the post. But she said the DOH “should and must always be a public health-led agency, especially as we continue to deal with COVID-19 and other burdens of disease.”ĪCT Teachers Rep. His stint at the PNP speaks for itself,” said Hontiveros. “Aside from considering him a friend and my mistah, I respect Cascolan as an officer and a gentleman.
Hontiveros, whose late husband also belonged to PMA Class 1986, said she would have wanted that the post be given to a public health specialist. Risa Hontiveros said they were “surprised” at Cascolan’s designation. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Sen. Go, in a statement, said Cascolan “brings with him the experience, especially in instilling discipline and enforcing health and safety measures against COVID-19.” ‘Surprised’ Christopher Go agreed that “as a former PNP chief appointed at the height of the pandemic, is very much capable.”
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