The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday, April 9 assured that the P9 billion fund under the Bayanihan I and II have been spent for the construction of temporary medical isolation and quarantine facilities, as well as the purchase of various medical equipment.
In a statement, DOH said that of the P4.49 billion provided under Bayanihan I, P4.36 billion was utilized as of Dec. 31, 2020 to procure medical equipment, such as mechanical ventilators, biological safety cabinets, laminar flow hoods, and biomedical microcentrifuges among other medical equipment essential to ensure that hospitals will be able to take care of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients.
Meanwhile, of the P4.5 billion provided under Bayanihan II, P3.88 billion has been utilized as of Dec. 31, 2020 for the construction of temporary medical isolation and quarantine facilities, field hospitals, dormitories for frontliners, and expansion of government capacity all over the country.
The remaining P617 million, P308 million have been utilized for the procurement of essential COVID-related equipment, such as mechanical ventilators, portable x-ray machines, hemodialysis machines, high flow nasal cannula oxygen machines, and other equipment necessary for increasing laboratories’ testing capacities, the DOH said.
It assured that "every centavo" of the questioned funds, as well as all other public funds provided to the department, were all accounted for and were available for the public to access and examine upon request.
The DOH said that "now is not the time to be fragmented in the pandemic response" as it called for unity from the rest of the government and the public due to the continuous increase in COVID-19 cases.