President Duterte said that there’s no overpriced purchase of face shields and face masks.
President Rodrigo Duterte said that there was no overpriced purchase of face shields and face masks as prices skyrocketed due to scarcity.
The President has ruled out corruption in the government’s procurement of face shields and face masks which lawmakers have questioned for supposedly being overpriced.
Earlier, the Senate this week raised suspicion over the face shields and face masks priced at Php 120 and PHP 27.72 per piece, respectively, procured by the Department of Health (DOH) through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) in early last year.
Some senators also questioned the lack of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the transfer of funds from the Department of Health to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management for the procurement of the said items.
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President Duterte said in a taped speech aired Saturday morning that the items were purchased during the height of the coronavirus outbreak when the prices of supplies skyrocketed due to “scarcity of supply and abrupt demand increase”.
“I want to make it on record to the public and everybody that I and the Cabinet knew about it. Sabi ko go ahead and buy the things you need. Pandemic nga e. Sabi ko emergency ito. emergency hanggang ngayon. Just to disabuse the mind of some people about corruption, it ain’t here at this time. I suppose that you are barking at the wrong person,” President Duterte said.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, who was also present at President Duterte’s televised meeting with his Cabinet, said that the prices of face shields and face masks then were “really uncontrollable simply because of scarcity”.
Former PS-DBM head Lloyd Lao recently broke his silence about the said issue, saying that those face shields and face masks were the “cheapest” they could find then.
He also explained that a memorandum of agreement wasn’t needed for the transfer of funds from the Department of Health to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management since the items being procured were classified as common supplies.
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