Ex-cop chief as Health Undersecretary degrades career, qualified Department officials, says health workers group

A group of health workers decried the recent appointment of former PNP chief Camilo Cascolan as Department of Health Undersecretary.

They said his appointment was a huge insult to health experts.

“Cascolan’s appointment was a huge insult to health experts who are most qualified to administer and run the affairs of the DOH” the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) said yesterday.

AHW added the health workers are deeply concerned over the appointment of Cascolan as the former general was known to be one of the brains behind the bloody Oplan Tokhang.

“Cascolan served as the co-author of Oplan Double Barrel, the anti-illegal drugs campaign plan that was followed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) during former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

It can be recalled that under the project Double Barrel, there was an Oplan High-Value Target (HVT), supposedly running after big time drug syndicates and personalities, while Oplan Tokhang was focused on small time drug users and pushers.

The said anti-drug campaign under the former Pres. Duterte reportedly claimed thousands of lives through its years of operation, mostly suspected small drug peddlers and users.

There were also cases of extrajudicial killings connected to drugs which independent observers reported thousands of victims were mostly of poor economic background.

These prompted an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court against Duterte.

“We want to work with a Health Undersecretary who is an expert on eradicating deadly and infectious diseases, not an expert in violating human rights and extrajudicial killings”, AHW vowed.