Duque on syringe offer: We have documents showing DOH answered professionally

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Tuesday said the Department of Health (DOH) has documents showing that its committee was in talks with the supplier offering 50 million syringes.

This was after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the DOH should have responded to the offer “professionally on the right” and not at the “junior level.”

“‘Yung sinasabi niyang dapat sagutin nang professional, meron kaming dokumento na nagpapakita (he’s saying that we should answer it professionally, we have documents showing so),” Duque said in an interview on Unang Balita.

“Binigyan namin ng sagot in a professional manner, ang email, may mga balikan ng email threads. In fact, si Secretary Vince Dizon interviewhin ninyo, kasama siya doon sa email thread,” he later added.

(We gave them an answer in a professional manner, in the emails, we have email threads. In fact, you should interview Secretary Vince Dizon, he was part of that thread.)

Duque said the supplier was in contact with the DOH Central Office Bids and Awards Committee.

“Anong problema mo sa Bids and Awards Committee na junior? Ang importante sumusunod sa proseso… kailangan sumunod sa proseso,” he said.

(What do you have against the Bids and Awards Committee that are junior? What’s important is that they were following the process.)

Last Sunday, Locsin claimed the government “dropped the ball again” after it failed to procure 50 million syringes from the United States.

In answer, Duque said the deal was rejected because they were overpriced.

He also clarified that the DOH informed the supplier that it had an approved budget of P119.5 million that comes out at P2.39 per syringe.

“Ngayong sinagot ng ating COBAC, as per request for quotation, the required total quantities 50 million pieces with the total approved budget for the contract amounting to P119.5 million,” he said.

“Sinabi naman nung na-submit ‘yan, ayaw nila kasi masyado daw mababa (after that, they rejected it because it is too low),” he added.

Duque also said he will first talk with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea instead of President Rodrigo Duterte as the latter is too busy.

“So gusto ko ayusin ito ng legal at maayos. Hindi ‘yung ganito na bigla na lang may susulpot sa twitter na kulang naman sa detalye, hindii mo alam kung ano ang kanyang tinutukoy,” he said.

(I want to fix this legally, not like this that a tweet will just show up out of nowhere without many details.)—AOL, GMA News