Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. defended the government's purchase of costly personal protective equipment (PPE) during the early days of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic last year, saying they were in a hurry to protect healthcare workers.

In a pre-recorded Cabinet meeting with President Duterte aired Tuesday morning, Aug. 31, Galvez said they wanted to immediately provide protective gears to the healthcare workers since there were 37 doctors dying daily during the onset of the pandemic due to the lack of protective suits.

"Noong nagbili po tayo ng PPEs Mr. President, talagang 37 po ang namamatay na doktor noon kaya po nagmamadali po kami. Ang PS-DBM po ang nakapagbigay ng supply po na iyon (When we bought the PPEs Mr. President, there were 37 doctors dying so we were in a hurry. The PS-DBM was the one who brought the supplies to us)," said Galvez, who is also the chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19.

According to the task force official, the PPEs that the government bought from China for P1,700 per piece were significantly lower compared to the pricing list of the previous administration.

"Ang P1,700 napakababa po noong panahon na iyon as compared 'yong pricing list ng previous government na P3,800 po ang isang PPE (The price P1,700 is lower at the time as compared to the pricing list of the previous government which is P3,800 per PPE)," Galvez said.

However, it was almost double compared to the price ceiling set by the Department of Health (DOH) during the pandemic which was P950.

Galvez explained that the protective suits that they bought from China were of "high" quality since it has a safety seal.

"Noong panahong nagkukumahog po tayo Mr. President at gusto niyo magproduce agad tayo ng PPE, talaga pong wala po kaming makuha sa local production and ang ginawa po namin naghanap po kami ng support sa ating mga diplomatic arrangement (At the time when we were rushing to produce PPE, we couldn't get anything from the local production so we chose to find support from our diplomatic arrangement)," he said.

"Sa China lang po tayo makakakuha ng mababang presyo at magandang quality ng PPE (It was only in China that we could get cheap and high quality PPE)," he added.

The PS-DBM's procurement of allegedly overpriced PPEs was among subjects of a Senate investigation last week.

The inquiry was triggered by a report released by the Commission on Audit which found deficiencies in the DOH's management of P67 billion worth of pandemic funds.