Health Secretary Francisco Duque III denied the claims of Foreign Affairs chief Teodoro Locsin Jr. that the government wasted a 50 million syringes supply deal with the United States.
Duque said the supplier went over the approved budget, arguing that they could not push through with what Locsin wanted as it would violate the law.
“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 supplier’s price. But that’s not allowed. We’re not stupid to do that. We have a law for that—RA 9184.)
Duque explained that the supplier offered P411.5 million for 50 million syringes, each costing around P2.38.
Duque denies wasting 50M syringes deal
However, the DOH chief said sealing the deal would violate 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 could not provide the budget. Why would we follow that? We will be charged with graft.)
Meanwhile, Duque was disappointed that Locsin did not reach out to him to clarify the issue.
“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. So talking to each other for clarification is easy.)