PITC should head COVID-19 vaccine procurement –Imee Marcos

Senator Imee Marcos said the procurement of vaccines for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) should be led by the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), which earlier this month was questioned for supposedly serving as a "parking lot" for government agency funds.

Speaking in a radio interview on Sunday, Marcos said that the procurement of vaccines should be done by the PITC given the controversies hounding both the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and the Department of Health (DOH).

"Wala pang final amendments pero ang pagkaintindi ko may dagdag P8 billion sa DOH tapos PhilHealth natin madagdagan din COVID response. Sa kabila ng kagustuhan nating magbigay ng pera sa DOH at PhilHealth, wala na sila ginawa kundi magkaroon ng eskandalo," she argued.

"Kaya sa palagay ko, talagang tututukan 'yan at ang procurement process ililipat sa PITC."

As a government owned or controlled corporation (GOCC), PITC was mandated to engage in both export and import trading new or non-traditional products and markets not normally pursued by the private business sector and provide export-oriented auxiliary services to the private sector.

"Alam niyo, tinatag 'yan ng tatay ko kaya medyo kabisado ko kasi tinatag 'yan ng ama ko para sa communist trade natin sa China, Russia noong panagon na 'yun di pa kumpleto diplomatic ties," said Marcos.

"Ganon lang ang papel nun kumbaga, ngayon lahat na lang ng procurement dumadaan kung saan saan napupuntahan kaya nagtataka kami kung okay lang ba ang PITC o baka mauwi na naman sa wala 'yan. 'Yung DOH 'wag naman pumalpak sa distribution kasi kailangan halos ice plant ata ang dapat storage," she added.

Earlier this week, Senator Franklin Drilon, citing a Commission on Audit (COA) report, said that over P33 billion in government funds were idly parked with the PITC.

Senate budget deliberations found that the P9.6 billion of the military's funding was still with the PITC, while the Department of Information and Communications Technology had P3.5 billion with the corporation.

The PITC has since denied that it served as a "parking lot" for unused funds of various government agencies, as it claimed that it had reverted all unutilized funds to the National Treasury.

For his part, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the tedious procurement process was the reason why agency funds remained within the PITC. — DVM, GMA News