HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque maintained on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, that the Department of Health (DOH) was not involved in the alleged anomalous procurement of pandemic supplies led by the Procurement Service (PS)-Department of Budget Management (DBM).
"It is unfortunate that the Panel turned a blind eye to the truth that was revealed during the Senate Blue Ribbon hearing that all procurements for the country's Covid-19 response were made through the PS-DBM, the agency purposely tasked to undertake such activities," Duque said in a statement.
"We at the DOH were not part of the activity as we were focused on the medical side of the pandemic response," he added.
Duque said he is ready and will fully cooperate should an appropriate tribunal conduct investigation on the matter.
He made the statement following the release of the partial report of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in its investigation on the alleged misuse of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic funds of the DOH.
The committee has recommended the filing of plunder charges against Duque.
“This public officer posed no serious questions against the wisdom, method, and legality of the inter-agency transfer,” the report reads.
The committee was pertaining to the transfer of around P42 billion to the PS-DBM supposedly to hasten the procurement of face masks, face shields, Covid-19 antigen test kits and personal protective equipment upon the order of President Rodrigo Duterte.
It said it was made even if the DOH is able to purchase such supplies at “considerably lower prices” than that of PS-DBM.
“One stark example happened on the same day, 25 March 2020, as a Request for Quotation or 'RFQ' for surgical masks was issued by DOH Central Office Bids and Awards Committee ('Cobac') to eleven (11) 'suppliers with known technical, legal, and financial capability to deliver based on previous transactions' while the PS-DBM issued an RFQ to the undercapitalized Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation,” the committee said.
“On the one hand, the DOH bid led to a unit price of P16.64 awarded to a fully Filipino corporation. On the other hand, PS-DBM awarded Pharmally with its first contract for surgical masks with a unit price of P27.72,” it added.
Pharmally bagged over P8.6 billion worth of contract from the PS-DBM for the purchase of said supplies.
The company was tagged as the biggest supplier of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country despite local manufacturers that could do the same.
The committee report said Pharmally, a start-up company in the Philippines with paid-up capital of only P625,000, was favored due to its links with former presidential adviser for economic affairs Michael Yang, who was also recommended to be criminally charged and deported by the committee.