Sen. Raffy Tulfo. Photo courtesy of PNA.
Senator Raffy Tulfo said Friday he planned to seek a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation into concerns surrounding the appointment of Food and Drug Administration officer-in-charge Franklin Anthony Tabaquin IV.
Tulfo raised the issue during deliberations on the Department of Health’s proposed 2027 budget, questioning Tabaquin’s qualifications for the FDA’s top post and his previous association with former agency chief Paolo Teston.
Tabaquin confirmed that Teston had recruited him but maintained that he went through the application process before joining the agency.
The FDA official said he had served in government for 15 years and had only recently assumed senior positions at the agency. He became officer-in-charge deputy director for operations in October 2025 and was appointed deputy director in July 2026 before becoming OIC director general.
The hearing also touched on a graft and corruption complaint reportedly pending against Tabaquin before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Tabaquin said the allegations concerned delays that predated his tenure in the positions involved. He also said it was the first complaint filed against him during his government career.
Tulfo nevertheless argued that Tabaquin’s connection with Teston merited further scrutiny and questioned whether other long-serving FDA personnel had been overlooked for the leadership post.
Separately, the senator sought documents concerning medicines worth hundreds of millions of pesos that had expired and were disposed of by the DOH, saying their procurement should also be examined amid medicine shortages in some health facilities.