Duque denies gov’t passed up 50M syringes, says price went over approved budget

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday denied claims the government passed up the chance to obtain 50 million syringes from the United States, saying the price of the supplier went over the approved budget.

Duque issued the remark after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. claimed the government had “dropped the ball again.”

“Wala, wala ‘yun, hindi totoo ‘yun. Kasinungalingan ‘yun, puro kasinungalingan ‘yun. Hindi totoo ‘yan (No, that’s not true. That’s a lie, it’s all a lie. It’s not true),” Duque said in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB.

“Ang gusto ni Locsin, sumunod kami sa gusto nung supplier na presyo. Ay hindi naman pwede ‘yun. Hindi naman kami g*go para gawin ‘yun. Meron tayong batas diyan—Republic Act 9184,” he later added.

(What Locsin wanted was for us to cater to the price of the supplier. But that’s not allowed. We’re not stupid to do that. We have a law for that—RA 9184.)

Duque said they were offered P411.5 million for 50 million syringes with each syringe priced around P2.38.

However, he said taking the contract would lead to a violation of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

“Walang katuturan ‘yung sinasabi niya. Unang-una nag back out ka kasi hindi nga maka-supply at that budget, bakit naman kami susunod doon, e di magga-graft naman kami,” he said.

(What he’s saying doesn’t make sense. First of all, we backed out because we cannot provide the budget. Why would we follow that? We will be charged with graft.)

Locsin, for his part, has previously said that the Department of Health’s offer of 4.7 cents a syringe is “hallucinatory.”

Meanwhile, the Health secretary expressed disappointment that Locsin did not reach out to him to clarify the situation since they belong to the same administration.

“Ay, syempre. Kasi tweet nang tweet ito hindi ako tawagan, open naman ang communications namin. Pareho naman kaming asa administrasyon, 'di ba? Madali naman mag-usap for clarification, 'di ba?” he said.

(Of course. Because he tweeted about it and he did not talk to me. Our communications are open. We belong to the same administration. Talking to each other for clarification is easy.)

Duque said he will talk to President Rodrigo Duterte about the issue later.

Meanwhile, he said the country has enough supply of syringes.

At least 44 million syringes were ordered three months ago, but in the first tranche of four million, only two million syringes arrived in the country. The remaining two million syringes are expected to be delivered next week.

Meanwhile, presidential aspirant and Senator Panfilo Lacson said "it is time to exact accountability swiftly and surely" if the health officials and those in charge of solving the pandemic so our country can go back to normalcy keep 'dropping the ball' in spite of selfless efforts by fellow officials like Locsin.—AOL, GMA News