Miriam links ex-senator to P15-M overpriced medicine

MANILA, Philippines – A former senator’s pork barrel funds were allegedly used to purchase medicine for Central Visayas that was overpriced by P15.46 million two years ago.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, in Resolution No. 547, is seeking an investigation into the matter as well as the recurring reports of government hospitals allegedly keeping millions of pesos worth of surplus and expired medicine.

The resolution cited a report of the Commission on Audit which discovered that the medicine the “Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service purchased for Central Visayas using the pork barrel of an unidentified former senator were overpriced by P15.46 million.”

Santiago’s office said it did not know who the former senator was and would still check with COA. But the name is expected to come out in the hearing, Santiago’s media relations officer Tom Tolibas said.

COA’s 2007 audit report published recently revealed that the DBM purchased two years ago 14,650 boxes of multivitamins at P1,199.12 each or a total of P17.46 million for Central Visayas, “and it was noted that the price was eight times higher than those procured by the Department of Health (DOH) from the same manufacturer and distributor, PITC Pharma Inc.”

In her resolution, Santiago also said the COA report found that government hospitals were keeping P8 million worth of surplus and expired medicine,  some of which were purchased under the “GMA 50” program reportedly launched in July 2001 when President Arroyo made a commitment to lower by 50 percent the prices of drugs and medicine frequently bought by the poor.

Some of the government hospitals mentioned in the COA report that were found to stock excessive and unnecessary and/or expired or about to expire medicine are: Metro Manila’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (P750,313), Rizal Medical Center (P336,000), Caraga Regional Hospital (P106,348), Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (P3.5 million), Caraga’s Batanes Regional Hospital (P122,739.58), Southern Isabela General Hospital (P39,093.80), Zamboanga Peninsula’s Central Health Department (P25,960.01), and Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center (P109,012.94).

The COA report blamed the prevalence of overstocking and expiring medicine in eight state-owned hospitals across the country to the DOH’s inadequate planning of purchases, disorganized schemes of issuance and the poor monitoring of the shelf life of drugs.

It also reportedly stated that the DOH “failed to properly coordinate with the recipients of donated medicine such that excessive and unnecessary donations resulted in overstocking and expiration of these medicine.”

The resolution said based on a news report, the drugs, labeled “slow-moving’” medicine, were no longer prescribed by some physicians and that the DOH delivered more than what the hospital needed in a given period.

COA has reportedly advised the DOH to observe the three-month volume requirement in the purchase of medicine and observe the first-in, first-out method in the issuance of drugs.

It also directed the DOH to continue promoting the availability of the GMA 50 drugs and require hospital doctors to prescribe these drugs “to ensure the success of the GMA 50 program.”