It makes people wonder why President Duterte refuses to remove Health Secretary Francisco Duque III from his post, shielding him from inquiries and even publicly announcing that he would not accept the DoH’s chief resignation, if he makes one since he already twice rejected such resignation offers from Duque.
Even if President Rodrigo Duterte calls the medical frontliners as the heroes in the era of Covid-19, it is not enough to appease the workers in the healthcare system who are tired to the bones, afraid for their lives and those of their loved ones and have been deprived all these months of just compensation (for those working in public hospitals and laboratories), hazard pay and vital protective equipment by this administration.
It makes people wonder why President Duterte refuses to remove Health Secretary Francisco Duque III from his post, shielding him from inquiries and even publicly announcing that he would not accept the DoH’s chief resignation, if he makes one since he already twice rejected such resignation offers from Duque.
Aggravating the healthcare workers’ discontent is the apparent lack of decisiveness of President Duterte to act against Duque and former Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, who in Senate inquiries could be held liable for “premeditated plunder” of the government’s pandemic response funds that went to favored suppliers, including a mysterious Pharmally Pharmaceutical. (See also: Epidemic of corruption: Lacson calls for deeper probe on anomalous DBM deals )
An affirmation of the sorry state of the country’s healthcare system is that many hospitals now complain of lacking nurses and other medical staff, who have resigned because of long work hours and low pay. They would rather work doubly harder and get fully- compensated for their efforts abroad.
A more realistic appreciation of heroes
Vice President Leni Robredo’s statement lamenting that there is no excuse for the delayed payout of health workers’ special risk allowance (SRA), among other benefits, about the health workers’ special risk allowance, among other benefits.
“Ngayon, walang excuse kung bakit hindi natin naasikaso dahil last year pa nga ‘yung pandemic. ‘Yung 2021 budget ginawa siya, panahon na ng pandemic. So, inaasahan na natin na kakailanganin natin ito dapat nakahanap na tayo ng paraan para ibigay ito,” Robredo said during her BISErbisyong Leni radio program.
Robredo said that the delay in 2020, the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, is understandable as the health crisis was unexpected.
She added that the SRA is one way to show how the government appreciates the health workers’ efforts in battling the pandemic.
“Ito ‘yung pinaka-recognition ng pamahalaan na naiintindihan namin kung ano ‘yung sakripisyong ginagawa niyo. Naiintindihan namin ‘yung pagod na pinagdadaanan niyo. Hindi namin ‘yun maaalis sa inyo pero ito ‘yung pagpapakita ng pamahalaan na naiintindihan namin ‘yun kaya ‘yung pangangailangan mo, we will provide,” Robredo raised.
As health workers are set to hold a mass protest on September 1, Robredo said that the government should not have waited for these actions to come and must have processed their benefits immediately.
“Parang hinintay pa natin para magkaroon ng mass actions para pakinggan sila. Dapat nga hindi na natin hinintay na nagreklamo sila. Dapat pagpapakita ng ating appreciation, inasikaso na kaagad natin,” Robredo shared.
Plunder charges vs Duque, Lao
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said on Sunday that Lao could face plunder charges as he was directly responsible for the DoH’s supply deals coursed through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), which was then headed by Lao.
Duque “made it possible” for the transactions to happen when he authorized what could be an irregular transfer of funds to Lao’s office, the senator explained.
Drilon in an interview over dzBB said there was apparent plunder of public funds in the overpricing of supplies for pandemic response under the PS-DBM transactions.
“It was all planned. If you look at the series of events—I’m a lawyer—if you don’t have direct evidence, you can look at the circumstances,” Drilon said.
“It seems to have been planned. If there is premeditated murder, here, we have a premeditated plunder. For me, in times of the pandemic, this is treachery,” he said.
Unmute
Under the law, plunder is committed when “any public officer who, by himself or in connivance with [others] … accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt criminal acts … in the aggregate amount or total value of at least P50 million.”
Suspicious deals
Documents on the DOH website showed that the Duque-led agency contracted Pharmally and another firm, Business Beyond Limits OPC, for the purchase of 2,005,860 face shields on June 11, 2021, after the joint venture won the bidding with a price of P37.9 million, or P18.88 apiece.
This was on top of about P8.7 billion worth of contracts for allegedly overpriced face masks, personal protective equipment sets and Covid-19 test kits awarded to Pharmally in mid-2020 by Lao as PS-DBM head.
At the time the 2020 contracts were signed, Pharmally was just a few months old since its September 2019 incorporation with a paid-up capital of only P625,000, according to Drilon.
Drilon noted significant disparities between the prices quoted by Pharmally and prevailing market rates at the time, including even the prices offered by other firms contracted by the PS-DBM, some of which were less than half of Pharmally’s.
The PS-DBM entered negotiated procurement deals with Pharmally and several other companies on behalf of the DOH’s after Duque transferred P42 billion of the health department’s funds to the procurement office for emergency medical supplies.
In 2020, the Commission on Audit questioned the propriety of the transfer to the PS-DBM without a memorandum of agreement, among other accounting deficiencies, prompting the Senate blue ribbon committee to investigate.
No due diligence
Senators tried to summon Pharmally executives to the Aug. 27 hearing but discovered that two of the officers had given a fake address at a Taguig condominium in the firm’s 2020 general information sheet filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission. A third officer was also unreachable and left her San Juan residence in May.
Drilon said it appeared that the DOH could not be bothered to investigate Pharmally’s background before awarding the recent face shield supply deal “because they didn’t care anymore.”
“If they are in good faith, they would perform due diligence, but since they are not, obviously, there was no due diligence,” Drilon said.
Lao, a lawyer, served as an undersecretary at the Presidential Management Staff-Office of Special Assistant to the President, an office headed by Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go when he was still President Duterte’s aide. Go, who was elected senator in 2019, however, denied that Lao directly worked under him.
Lao claimed during Friday’s Senate hearing that he applied for the undersecretary position with no one recommending him, but the senators doubted him.
Drilon said in jest that it was clear to everybody that Lao had an “MBA,” but it’s “not for Master of Business Administration, but May Backer Ako (I have a backer).”
Wider probe
The Aug. 27 hearing also led senators to speculate about the connection between Pharmally and Michael Yang, a former economic adviser of Duterte, after Sen. Richard Gordon, the Senate blue ribbon chair, played a video showing Yang and officials of Pharmally meeting the President in Davao City in 2017.
Gordon said he showed the video to allow the public to connect the dots on how Pharmally managed to bag deals despite its small capitalization.
Dig deeper
Besides Duque and Lao, Drilon said the Senate should dig deeper into the suspicious procurement deals to determine who else could be liable and how high up the hierarchy the inquiry might lead to.
He said he did not believe former Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado had any role in the negotiations, but the latter might help direct the Senate where to look to “unravel the mysteries in Pharmally.”
Avisado quit the Cabinet earlier this month, citing medical reasons.
Sen. Joel Villanueva on Sunday also recommended that all government agencies stop using the PS-DBM as their buying arm for big-ticket projects “until the agency has been reformed and cleared of controversies.”
Duque to resign after clearing his and DoH’s names
Last Saturday, Duque vowed to resign after he clears his name and addresses the CoA findings on DoH.
“Yun naman ang aking pakiusap, na bigyan ako ng panahon na i-clear yung mga COA findings, COA observations at yung aming action plan doon sa mga recommendation and then I’m leaving,” Duque told DZBB.
Duque said “It’s a matter of time. ‘Yun naman talaga ang hiningi ko, na I’m stepping down dahil ito na nga, pero bigyan lang ako ng kaunting panahon para maayos namin ng DOH ang lahat ng observations at findings.”
Duterte’s long-time aide, Sen. Bong Go advised Duque to “make the supreme sacrifice” by stepping down from his position.
Tags: #DepartmentOfHealth, #healthcareworkers, #Covid19, #corruption, #DepartmentofBudgetandManagement