MANILA — Former Department of Health acting head Maria Rosario Vergeire has been appointed as "chief of undersecretaries" of DOH operations.

DOH chief Teodoro "Ted" Herbosa disclosed this Thursday when asked about Vergeire's new role after leading the agency for almost a year.

"I gave her a position of like the chief of all the undersecretaries that are in charge of our operations of all the different regions," he told ANC's "Headstart".

Vergeire will be overseeing Undersecretary Nestor Santiago Jr. in NCR and Southern Luzon, Undersecretary Enrique Tayag in North and Central Luzon, Undersecretary Camilo Cascolan in the Visayas and Undersecretary Abdullah Dumama Jr. in Mindanao.

"She will be helping me deliver the goals with her experience and her previous job [as] caretaker of the Department of Health will continue in that segment of operations," Herbosa said.

"She requested for that, and I gladly gave it because I think she deserves that," he added.

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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Herbosa as the country's new health secretary this week.

Herbosa served as a DOH undersecretary from 2010 to 2015 and was the regional director of the department's National Capital Region office. He was also a special adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic.

Prior to his appointment, Herbosa was also a professor at the College of Medicine in the University of the Philippines Manila, and served as UP System's executive vice president from 2017 to 2021.

Herbosa's appointment as health secretary came after almost a year that the post had been vacant since Marcos assumed the presidency.

In the absence of a DOH secretary, Vergeire had been leading the department as its officer-in-charge. Calls to appoint Vergeire were previously made, with Vergeire herself saying she was ready to take on the post.

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