A THOMASIAN doctor was re-appointed secretary of health by President Rodrigo Duterte last Oct. 26.
Dr. Francisco Duque III, a UST medicine alumnus, is set to leave the chairmanship of the Government Service Insurance System to replace Dr. Paulyn Ubial, whose ad interim appointment was rejected by the Commission on Appointments last Oct. 10.
Duque, 60, has served as health secretary under former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, from June 2005 to January 2010.
Duque finished bachelor of science in zoology in 1978, and post-graduate courses in medicine in the University in 1982. He took his master’s in pathology at Georgetown University in Washington in 1987.
Duque was born in Dagupan, and is the son of former Pangasinan governor Francisco Duque, the health secretary from 1962 to 1963, and Dr. Florencia Tiamson.
Prior to his appointment as health secretary in 2005, he served as president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. from 2001 to 2005.
Duque served as Civil Service Commission chairman from 2010 to 2015 under former president Benigno Aquino III.
