Malacañang: Ona did not resign

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang on Friday belied a newspaper report that Health Secretary Enrique Ona has offered his resignation.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said she spoke with Ona and the official himself denied that he is stepping down from his post. She also found no document related to Ona's supposed resignation.

Valte revealed that Ona is only extending his leave of absence.

"My understanding is that Secretary Ona has already submitted his report that was asked, that was required of him by President Aquino, and that Secretary Ona is extending his leave of absence to afford the President time to assess the contents of the report that he has submitted," Valte said in a press briefing.

She said Ona's leave of absence is not indefinite, but she has no information as to how long it would be.

Valte refused to speculate when asked if President Aquino still has confidence in the embattled health chief.

"Now that Secretary Ona has given the answers to that, it is now time for the President to assess the answers that have been given to him, and also to perhaps propound additional questions," she said.

"The way that it works with the President is that he really has to go through it to see if the data that has been submitted to him, sufficiently answers his questions," she added.

Ona went on a medical leave on October 28 allegedly due to his personal health issues.

Aquino, however, revealed later that he asked Ona to go on leave so he could come up with a report that would explain his decision to purchase P800 million worth of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) 10 instead of the PCV 13, which as supposedly more cost-efficient and recommended by global health authorities