Duterte: Government bought PPEs, face masks below suggested retail prices
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said it was inaccurate to call the controversial purchase of Personal Protective Equipment by the government last year "overpriced" because these were below the suggested retail prices submitted by the departments of trade and health at the time.
The Department of Budget and Management's procurement service, as well as former Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Cristopher Lao, who was its officer-in-charge until June 2020, has received heightened scrutiny and criticism from lawmakers in large part due to its procurement of supposedly "overpriced" medical supplies.
"Were the purchases of face masks overpriced? That is the question," Duterte said in a recorded address aired late Thursday night. "The answer is no, they are not, because the PS-DBM purchased the face masks below the [DOH and] DTI suggested retail prices during that time."
He stressed that the government "had to look for the gadgets, PPEs and mask, wherever we can, there was no supply because bigla ang putok ng pandemic."
At a Senate hearing on the DBM-PS purchases, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said one supplier, Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., sold the face masks to government "at a whopping P27.72, when other suppliers sold the same to PS-DBM at P13.50, P16.00, and P17.50 for the same period."
He said the company also "sold test kits at P1,720 when it could be bought at P925. It sold PPEs at P1,910 each when its market cost was at P945."
The president said Thursday night that it is "not accurate" to compare prices paid for masks when they were scarce and during the height of the pandemic with their now-stabilized cost.
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DTI: Face mask price set at P28
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez at a recorded address with the pandemic task force last week said his department's suggested retail price of face masks was P28 when the pandemic began due to "really uncontrollable" prices "because of scarcity."
But the Philippine Red Cross was purchasing face masks for P5 when the COVID-19 crisis took hold of the country, according to its chairman Richard Gordon.
Sen. Gordon also said the PRC was buying face shields for P20 when the government was buying them for P120.
Asked about the matter at a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing last Friday, Lao said he could not explain the vast price difference.
"Maybe Red Cross has a very good network," he told senators. "Red Cross has wider access during that time compared to us." — Bella Perez-Rubio
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