SENATE minority leader Franklin Drilon yesterday said he sees “premeditated plunder” with how the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) handled P42 billion COVID-19 response funds of the Department of Health.
Drilon was referring to the P42 billion transferred to the PS-DBM, part of some P67 billion COVID-19 response funds flagged by the Commission on Audit due to mismanagement.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee is looking into overpriced face masks, face shields and other items bought by the DOH through the PS-DBM.
Drilon, in an interview with radio dzBB, said the plunder appeared to have been planned.
“Under the Revised Penal Code we have what you call premeditated murder. In this case, it’s premeditated plunder. They really planned at a time government funds are low. This is treachery and deceit to the government coffers),” he said in Filipino.
All the questionable PS-DBM procurement happened when agency was under Lloyd Christopher Lao who resigned as PS-DBM head last June.
Drilon noted Lao was appointed PS-DBM head despite his extortion charges filed against him by socialized housing developers when he was still chief executive officer and commissioner of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.
“I am a lawyer. If there is no direct evidence, look at the circumstantial evidence. If you look at the series of events, first he was involved in a controversy at the HLURB, yet he was still appointed as budget undersecretary as of August 2019. He said he just applied for the job and he was appointed. As they say, tell it to the Marines. We know you would not be appointed if you have not been endorsed by the secretary,” he said in Filipino.
He said that days after President Duterte declared the country under a state of national emergency due to the pandemic last March 16, 2020, the Government Procurement Policy Board issued a resolution that face masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) be included in the list of common used supplies, which the PS-DBM can buy for a government agency.
As a result, he said the DOH started to transfer its P42 billion funds to the PS-DBM by March 27 of last year.
“This is when their happy days started. The PS-DBM bought surgical masks from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. worth P22.50, P27.72 and P22 per piece on April 16, 2020 and April 20, 2020, two weeks after the DOH transferred the funds. Also during the same period, the PS-DBM was able to buy face masks from another supplier which was priced at P13 [each]),” Drilon said.
On April 23, 2020, Drilon said, the PS-DBM bought test kits from Pharmally worth P688 million and PPE units worth P3.82 billion on May 8 last year, and another batch of test kits worth P2.88 billion on June 9 last year.
He said there were other contracts awarded to Pharmally, worth P6 billion from April 2020 to June 2020. All told, Drilon said, Pharmally was awarded more than P8.7 billion worth of contracts by the PS-DBM, all because Lao used his position apparently to manipulate the prices.
Pharmally started operations in September 2019 with a paid-up capital of only P625,000 with its chief executive officer identified as Huang Tzu Yen and its company secretary/treasurer going by the name Mobit Dargani.
During last Friday’s Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, senators grilled Lao for awarding P8.7 billion worth of contracts to Pharmally which they said track record and credibility to engage in big-ticket government procurement.
It was also found out during last Friday’s hearing that Pharmally has several issues, including the use of fake address, incorporation in September 2019 or just months before it started participating in bidding for pandemic contracts, links to Taiwan-based Pharmally International Holding Co. which had been taken off the stock market due to fraudulent activities, and limited experience in bidding for government contracts.
Lao claimed he had no knowledge of the issues against Pharmally when he was still head of the PS-DBM.
Meanwhile, healthcare workers said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III should resign now instead of later.
On Saturday, Duque said he has decided to step down after clearing the DOH’s name which he said was tainted by the COA report. Several senators have been asking Duque to resign, or President Duterte to fire him, since last year because of alleged incompetence.
“We hope he will resign now so that there will be no more failures in the leadership of the DOH,” said Robert Mendoza, president of the Alliance of Health Workers.
“We are like a public health disaster that should be rescued. Every single second counts and every life should be saved,” said Jocelyn Andamo, secretary general of the Filipino Nurses United .
Mendoza also said said healthcare workers from different hospitals in the country are set to hold a mass walkout today due to the continued failure of the DOH to provide them their mandatory benefits.
“About 10 private hospitals are holding mass walkout from their hospitals on Heroes Day.
They were given permission by their respective managements,” he said. — With Gerard Naval
