By Hannah Torregoza
Procuring overpriced personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies needed to combat the threat of the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 during this pandemic is considered top-level malfeasance, opposition Senator Leila de Lima said on Thursday.
De Lima, in a statement, said she is surprised that the Department of Health (DOH) is again at the center of corruption allegations while government funds are “quickly drying up” and while the health sector is struggling to hold the line during a global health crisis.
During the Senate committee of the whole hearing, Sen. Panfilo Lacson earlier sought an explanation from the DOH why the government procured costly laboratory equipment that could be bought by the private sector at a much lower price
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon also questioned the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) over its overpriced COVID-19 test package rates, valued at P8,150, when it can be reduced to a much reasonable rate.
“Amidst a medical crisis of epic proportions, where the survival of the entire nation depends largely on a public health response, it is at the height of shamelessness when the very government agency tasked to steer the health sector is the very entity that has allowed possible corruption to creep through the system,” De Lima said in her latest statement.
“Procuring overpriced PPE sets and supplies in the face of countless complaints from health frontliners who are crying for protection is top level malfeasance during this pandemic,” she lamented.
The DOH, she said, should also explain why it has to purchase expensive PPE from China when there have been reports that most products coming from China are defective and are dangerously substandard.
“Our people have suffered and placed our survival in the hands of our government. If we are to ‘heal as one’, we need our government to be transparent and accountable,” De Lima said.
De Lima also noted that while the DOH has been boasting about the amount and quantity of supplies and equipment it has bought as part of the government’s COVID-19 response, there are still medical frontliners asking to be given ample protective gear.
“Due to limited supply, the Philippine General Hospital announced that it will limit PPE rations to three per week per person. Dahil dito napipilitan ang ating health workers na tipirin ang paggamit ng kanilang PPE o kaya ulitin ang paggamit nito sa kabila ng panganib na maaaring maidulot ng ganitong gawain (because of this, our health workers were forced to be thrifty and reuse their PPEs even though they are aware of the danger of such practice),” she pointed out.
De Lima also pointed to reports that requests for tests from health workers exposed to COVID-19 positive patients and those showing symptoms are being refused either for lack of testing kits or due to backlogs in testing centers.
“You bought PPE sets at P1,800 pesos each from China while Vice President Leni Robredo was able to tap local manufacturers and suppliers, and procure PPE sets at only P400 pesos each!” she stressed.
“Nakakagalit na sa gitna ng pagpe-press release ng DOH ng mga ‘achievements’ nito, eh ayan ang pinaka-malinaw na ebidensya na may posibleng anomalyang kumukulo na at pumuputok na (that’s clear evidence there are possible anomalies that are going to surface) – at the expense of medical frontliners no less!” De Lima emphasized.
Lacson, who took the DOH to task to explain why it procured a P4-million each worth of nucleic acid extractor that can be bought at P1.75-million each, also echoed De Lima’s frustrations.
“So there’s a pattern of overpricing. Not this time, we are in the middle of a crisis. We should not be distracting DOH and other government instrumentalities by conducting an investigation,” Lacson said in an ANC interview.
“But I think there should be a day of reckoning on all this. Seizing an opportunity out of a crisis is a good thing when you do it for country. For example when we know other locators or factories are relocating from China to other places in Asia, that’s the opportunity to seize.
“But to seize an opportunity for self-aggrandizement out of a crisis as big as the COVID-19 pandemic --- I think that’s the height of callousness and greed,” Lacson further said.
Lacson also said that even if DOH’s top officials come up with all sorts of reasons, “at the end of the day, we see a pattern of overpricing.”
“If it’s only one item then probably it’s been overlooked or they can reason out it is because of different suppliers or manufacturers. But it’s a pattern. Every time they procure health products, when you compare it with the purchased price of private sector…it’s either very expensive or always double the price,” the former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief lamented.