Francisco Duque

Francisco T. Duque III, present Chairman of the Philippine Civil Service Commission and former Philippine Secretary of Health, was born on February 13, 1957 in Manila. He started as director at the University of Pangasinan from 1989–1999; then as Medical Director at the Doctor's Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Veterans Village, Parañaque City from 1996–1999, among others. He became undersecretary at the Department of Health from March 2 to June 17, 2001. In June 2001 President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him as President & CEO of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth.

He became Cabinet Secretary on October 11, 2004 and appointed as Secretary of Health on June 1, 2005, having been confirmed by the Congressional Commission on Appointments on June 11, 2008.^[1]

Duque finished his Bachelor of Science at the University of Santo Tomas in 1978. He finished his Doctor of Medicine also at the same university in 1982; his Master of Science at Georgetown University in 1987.

He undertook an Immunology Scientific Training at Georgetown University School of Medicine from 1985-1988. He also took his Post-Graduate Course, Executive Education on Health Program Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and Graduate School of Management in 1992.^[2]

Duque was awarded in 1993 the Most Outstanding Rotary President, District 3790. He was honored with The Outstanding Thomasian Alumnus Leadership (TOTAL) Award in the Field of Government Service in 2004; then the Albertus Magnus Science Award in 2007 by the UST College of Science for his achievements in Medical Science, Public Health and Stewardship of the National Health Insurance Program.

As Health Secretary, Duque formulated a paradigm of health reforms – the Formula One for Health through which he prioritized sustaining and increasing investments for health as central to strategic reforms.^[3]

Duque moved for the historic passage of two major legislations – the Universally Accessible, Affordable Quality Medicine Act of 2008 and the Food and Drug Administration Law of 2009.

The World Health Organization commended the Philippines for effective containment and mitigation strategies as well as for being one of three countries worldwide with the best risk communication on A(H1N1). This was due to the DOH's effective handling of the AH1N1 crisis under Duque's leadership.^[4]

Appointed as Civil Service Commission Chairman in 2010, he spearheaded the development of the Commission’s Roadmap for Development and Reforms for 2010-2015, a five-year blueprint which spelled out the Commission’s priority programs for the country’s 1.4 million workforce. Duque steered the Commission in the adoption of the Performance Governance System onwards to setting the agency’s vision of becoming “Asia’s leading Center for Excellence for Strategic Human Resource and Organizational Development by 2030.” Duque implemented anti-corruption efforts through the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 and other civil service rules.^[5]

Under Duque's Chairmanship, the CSC was conferred “Governance Trailblazer Seal” after it achieved the highest compliance rating of 9.03 at the Performance Governance System (PGS) Revalida on October 14, 2011.^[6] Under his chairmanship, the CSC got the highest rating, with 98 percent of clients saying they were satisfied with the services they availed of from the CSC based on a Pulse Asia survey covered the period October 24 to November 17, 2011.^[7]

Duque is married and has five children.

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