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Duterte changes tack, says he'll accept if Duque quits 'voluntarily'

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ABS-CBN News

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday departed from his previous stance, saying he would accept Health Secretary Francisco Duque III&#x27;s resignation if he did it &quot;voluntarily.&quot; Duque&#x27;s agency is facing questions on its management of funds, after the Commission on Audit said some P67 billion in various &quot;deficiencies&quot; led to &quot;missed opportunities to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Duterte said he would not fire Duque because &quot;there is no corruption, there is no loss of funds&quot; and &quot;whatever be the environment of the time, you have to observe fairness.&quot; &quot;Now ngayon, kung si Duque will offer to resign voluntarily, tatanggapin ko,&quot; the President said in a taped meeting with health secretary and other officials. &quot;Pero kung sabihin mo ako ang magsabi sa kanya &#x27;mag-resign ka,&#x27; that will never happen, that will never happen,&quot; he added. (Now, if Duque will offer to resign voluntarily, I will accept it. But if you tell me to order him, &#x27;resign&#x27;, that will never happen.) This is a departure from the Duterte&#x27;s Aug. 16 remark, in which he said he would <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/17/21/duterte-says-hell-reject-duque-resignation" target="_blank">reject</a> any attempt at resignation from Duque. On Friday, the President also said he won&#x27;t fire Duque III <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/21/21/duterte-says-to-keep-duque-even-if-it-brings-me-down" target="_blank">&quot;even if it will bring me down.&quot;</a> The President previously rejected calls for the firing of the Health chief over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the P15-billion corruption allegation against medical state insurer PhilHealth, whose board is chaired by Duque. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/13/21/coa-clarifies-report-after-doh-audit-backlash">COA clarifies after DOH audit backlash: &#x27;We did not say money lost on corruption&#x27;</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/16/21/doh-halts-purchase-of-laptops-worth-p700000">After backlash, DOH halts procurement of laptops worth P700,000</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/14/21/doh-no-corruption-in-p67-b-coa-flagged-funds">DOH: No corruption in handling P67 billion in COA-flagged COVID-19 funds</a></li></ul>

President Rodrigo Duterte now says he'll accept Health Secretary Francisco Duque III's voluntary resignation, contrary to a previous statement.