Saying she still believes in President Rodrigo Duterte and his leadership, former Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial whose ad interim appointment was rejected by the Commission on Appointmets expressed her willingness to serve the government in whatever capacity.
Speaking in an interview over ANC on Thursday, Ubial said that if given an appointment, she can go back to the Department of Health because there’s nothing in that law that bars her since she is qualified.
But righr now, Ubial said she does not have an appointment after the powerful congressional body turned down her appointment as DoH secretary.
“Now maybe the other rejected secretaries cannot go back because they don’t have the qualifications for the other positions. Because it’s when you’re secretary then it’s just the trust and confidence and appointment of the President that will qualify you for the position but because I’m a CESO (Career Executive Service Officer) I qualify for any position in government,” Ubial said.
Civil Service Commission Assistant Commissioner Ariel Ronquillo confirmed that Ubial needs an appointment for a different position to go back to the service.
While she is now out of government service after losing her stint in government, she can return to the service being a career official.
Ubial said she is qualified to take any position even as an Undersecretary or other positions below it. She said that she had done it before when she was an assistant city health officer in Cotabato and accepted a lower position in the DOH when her family moved to Manila.
As of June 917, records from the Career Executive Service Board’s master list of Career Executive Service Officials (CESO) showed that Ubial has a status of CESO II.
A CESO belongs to the “3rd level or the managerial class in the group of career positions in the Philippine civil service.” Members of this service class are those qualified to take positions such as undersecretary, assistant secretary, bureau director, regional director, department chief, and an executive position as appointed by the President.
“The CES operates on the ‘rank concept’. Career Executive Service Officers (CESOs) are ‘appointed’ to ranks and ‘assigned’ to CES positions. As such, they can be re-assigned or transferred from one CES position to another and from one office to another but not oftener than once every two years,” according to the CESO website.
For the past 29 years in the DOH, Ubial served in the following CESO capacities–Director III of the Center for Family and Environmental Health (2000-2001); Assistant Regional Director of the Center for Health Development, Western Visayas (2001-2005); Regional Director, Center for Health Development, Davao Region (2006-2008) and Assistant Secretary (2008 – June 2016).
Ubial said that afhter being rejected by the CA, she texted Bong Go, the President’s executive assistant. “That’s how we communicate,” he said
“I will not let the President down. He appointed me and I will serve him,” said Ubial, who believed that a demolition job led to the decision of the CA to reject her.
She said there was a “calculated effort” to oust her at the helm of the DOH and chair of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
“I don’t know but I’m certain there is a calculated effort to remove me as DOH Secretary and as chairperson of the board of Philhealth. Calculated,” Ubial said. She added that there appears to be a destabilization effort and misinformation among the ranks of PhilHealth.
“We have a communication bureau unit in PhilHealth and they make the communication plan to the staff, to the public and I think it was adequately communicated. But I believe that there was a lot of, shall we say, destabilization and misinformation from among the ranks of PhilHealth because they felt that I was manipulative, I was trying to control PhilHealth but I did not. I did not,” Ubial said.
One of the oppositors to Ubial’s appointment was former PhilHealth interim president and chief executive officer (CEO) Hildegardes Dineros said Ubial “peddled” lies before the CA when the former Health secretary claimed that he resigned from his post.
Ubial said she is disappointed with Dineros for claiming that she lied, and insisted that she has proof that Dineros resigned and a resolution and minutes of the meeting showed that the board accepted Dineros’ resignation.
In his Facebook post, Ubial’s son Karl, said he was not disappointed or mad with the CA for rejecting his mother’s appointment.
“I am proud of what my mother and the DOH team in her tenure has accomplished,” said Karl but divulged that a part of him died “knowing that the esteemed body has made it clear that working from the ground up won’t give you the sky.”
He lamented that the CA not only rejected a Cabinet official but a career spanning 29 years, 22 years of which was a huge part of his life.
“My mother will walk out that hall— jobless, and vacated from a career that she worked hard for from the ground up. She accepted the risk when she accepted the appointment — that the risk was higher for her because there was no job waiting for her upon her rejection, yet she fought. She fought hard,” he said.
“I wish not to anyone to feel how it was growing up as her son, waking up not where she is, sleeping ahead of her, and wondering why we would move from place to place. I’ve been to more than five schools, spanning Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, just because my mother loved what she did. And for so long, I couldn’t understand why she did it, but as I grew up— I understood. She wanted to make this country a better place,” said Karl.
“I could see it every time she tries to bring me to a far-flung barrio or a hospital I have never thought existed. I could see it every time she stands at a podium and passionately talks about her vision for the Philippines. She made me aspire to become a leader,” added Karl.
He said that her mother’s work in the government inspired him to srudy medicine.
“It is her work that pushed me to become a student-leader when I was in my undergraduate program, in high school, and in every waking moment. It was her’s and my father’s honest work that has made me strive to make myself available to help when help is needed. I never got paid for my work in the DOH, for all that I did was to help my mother do what she has been doing all this time. I attended meetings with her, made some her speeches, and wrote down the minutes of every meeting I was in because I believed in her work.”
On Pacquiao’s seeking for an apology, Karl said “I will indulge him with one. I apologize for being too young, and for being too brash. I will not however, apologize for doing my duty, being a citizen of this country. I will not apologize for being a voter— the voice of one amidst the voice of a multitude. I will not apologize for being a Filipino.”
In his Facebook post, Karl shared a GMA News article about Pacquiao’s comment on the hero’s burial for the late President Ferdinand Marcos and commented: “Only God can judge Marcos. Supports judgment through death penalty.
Ubial is the fifth Cabinet official appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to be rejected by the CA. The other four were Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, and Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr.
