FACT CHECK | Presidential candidate Montemayor’s claims lawyers control the pandemic inter-agency task force is partly false

March 21, 2022 , 06:46 PM

(March 21, 2022) – A presidential candidate claimed the country’s pandemic response inter-agency task force is led by lawyers and not health experts. This is partly false because the former Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles served as a co-chair of the task force together with Health Secretary Francisco Duque.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) was created to serve as the policy-making body to address the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response. Apart from Duque, there are doctors in the task force although the most visible are the retired generals, like Carlito Galvez, Delfin Lorenzana and Eduardo Ano. There was a perception the task force was “militarized.”

The task force is also co-chaired by the cabinet secretary and environment secretary. Both the former and acting cabinet secretary are indeed lawyers, but the acting environment chief is a career official with a degree in commerce. The former head of the environment agency is a retired general.

The ad-hoc agencies created for strategic operations and operations response under the IATF are also largely headed by retired military generals, and only one of them is a lawyer.

CLAIM:
At the PiliPinas Debates 2022 organized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), presidential candidate Jose Montemayor Jr, a physician and a lawyer, claimed the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is headed by lawyers.

Montemayor criticized the task force, which was formed to respond to emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19. He said the task force was coercing the public to act according to its demands.

“Tandaan niyo a. Ang IATF ang mga namumuno diyan, mga abugado. And the issue is health,” Montemayor said in reply to boxing icon and Senator Emmanuel Pacquiao during the debate.

“Tandaan natin, very crucial ito, the health of the nation is the wealth of the nation. So dapat tingnan muna natin nang mabuti, yung IATF instead na ilagay tayo sa magandang posisyon ay nilagay tayo sa masamang posisyon.”

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso corrected Montemayor’s claim, noting that the IATF is guided by and composed of medical practitioners and healthcare specialists.

RATING: PARTLY FALSE

FACTS:
The IATF-EID, which serves as the policy-making body in the country’s COVID-19 response, headed by the Department of Health and chaired by its secretary, Francisco Duque, according to the task force’s official website. Despite facing controversies for his handling of the pandemic response, Duque is in fact a physician by profession.

The IATF website also lists the cabinet secretary and the environment secretary as the co-chairs of the task force, although the information appears outdated as of writing – lawyer Karlo Nograles and retired army general Roy Cimatu have recently resigned from their posts, respectively.

The newly appointed acting cabinet secretary, Melvin Matibag, is indeed a lawyer. But the new acting environment secretary, Jim Sampulna, is a commerce graduate, and a career official who rose through the ranks since he was employed by the department at age 20 in 1977.

Beyond IATF, the strategic operations of the nation’s COVID-19 response were organized under the National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19. The task force is chaired by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and co-chaired by Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.

The National Incident Commander (NIC) was also created to lead the operations response, chaired by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary headed by Carlito Galvez, with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president and CEO Aristotle Batuhan as deputy.

With the exception of Batuhan, who is also a lawyer by profession, the heads of the NTF and NIC are all retired army generals.

WHY THIS MATTERS:
The PiliPinas Debates was aired to all local television and radio channels, and streamed on all of Comelec’s social media accounts, according to the poll body. These suggest that the debates reached a very wide audience across the country.

Montemayor is one of the 10 presidential candidates and so his positions can potentially misinform the public.

News 5 is part of #FactsFirstPH which brings together various sectors that are committed to promoting truth in the public space, and exacting accountability on those who harm it with lies. For those interested to join the initiative, e-mail info@factsfirst.ph.

Message News 5’s Facebook page if you want to have any claims fact-checked. Read our fact-checking policy here.

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