Opposition Senator Francis ‘’Kiko’’ Pangilinan on Friday, Sept. 24 said at least 19 documents previously uploaded in a Google Drive submitted by the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service (PS-DBM) to the Senate went missing or were deleted from the same folder.
The documents involve government transactions worth P4.4 billion.
“The missing documents, most of them were testing kits from Pharmally ... Nadownload yung isang dokumento na nagpapatunay na two months na lang expired na yung testing kits tinanggap pa rin ng DBM-PS (We downloaded one document showing that during the test kits with two-month expiration dates were received by PS-DBM),’’ Pangilinan said during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the P42 billion COVID-19 response funds budget remitted by the Department of Health to PS-DBM.
Pangilinan pointed out that these documents are part of the submissions of PS-DBM to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
According to Pangilinan, his staff went through the documents on the morning of Sept. 10. These documents were submitted in a Google Drive folder earlier in the morning with a cover letter signed by Atty. Jason Uayan, OIC-ED of the PS-DBM dated Sept. 9.
When the staff went back to download more documents from the Google Drive in the afternoon of Sept. 10, it was found that some folders that were originally there in the morning were now missing or have been deleted.
“These includes the inspection and acceptance reports, inspection and evaluation reports, inspection and certification of acceptance report. One of these reports, doon namin nakita iyong 6-month expiry. Doon natin nakita iyong mga tinanggap,” Pangilinan said.
Each folder was named after a Purchase Order. At least six folders were deleted or were missing:
- 19,061 Thermoguns from Philippine Blue Cross Biotech Corporation.
- Various Medicines and Vitamins from Medico Exelente Marketing
- 8,000 kits BGI Real-time fluorescent RTPCR kit from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation
- 2,000 kits of A*Star Fortitude Kit 2.0 COVID- 19 RT-PCR Test
- 41,400 kits BGI Real-time fluorescent RT-PCR kit from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation
- MGIEasy Magnetic Beads Virus DNA/RNA Extraction kit from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation
Of the at least 19 documents, the Office of Senator Pangilinan was only able to download nine before they disappeared.
The downloaded documents showed PS-DBM still accepted near-expiry testing kits, which Pangilinan revealed in an earlier hearing.
“Mukhang meron po talagang naglilinis (As if someone is cleaning)... Are we being hoodwinked? Are documents being withheld? Is there a cover-up?” Pangilinan said.
Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's lawyer Queenie Evangelista corroborated the disappearance of the documents from the Google Drive and noted that the transaction was the last signed by former budget undersecretary Lloyd Lao.
"After making the timeline ... we found that the whole set of documents were missing already from the Google Drive originally submitted by the PS-DBM," she said
PS-DBM OIC-Executive Director Uayan was unable to respond to the question due to his absence after contracting Covid-19.
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