President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted the resignation of Nayong Pilipino Foundation Executive Director Lucille Karen Malilong-Isberto, said Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Thursday, May 13.

“It was a resignation that was submitted to the President and the President accepted it. It was as simple as that,” he said in an interview on ANC Headstart.

Nograles said he does not know if Duterte expressed and displeasure or anger at Isberto over her opposition to the construction of a “mega vaccination site” in NPF property by the ICTSI Foundation of tycoon Enrique Razon.

The project is backed by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. as an initiative crucial to the country’s vaccination drive. Malacañang has called on NPF executives to allow the project to push through.

Razon, chairman and chief executive officer of global port operator ICTSI, called the NPF Board members “idiots” for opposing the project.

Meanwhile, NPF board members claim the construction of the mega vaccination site would lead to the cutting of native trees and raised legal concerns on whether a private corporation can build on government land.

But the Department of Tourism, which oversees NPF, has said no trees will be affected by the project and that NPF executives chose the Parañaque property for the vaccination site. – Rappler.com