THE DEPARTMENT of Health on Monday said around 2 million face shields purchased from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. have all been distributed to and utilized by medical front-liners during the onset of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
During the hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said none of the health workers complained about the face shields delivered to them.
“Nagamit po ang mga ito (The [face shields] were utilized). I would like to set the record straight, 2 million po ‘yong mga face shield na pinag-uusapan natin (we’re talking about 2 million face shields), and based on the report to me, all 2 million have been distributed to the different regions,” Duque said.
DOH Undersecretary Carolina Taiño said the face shields were of “great help to health workers.”
When asked if there was a case where a health worker died from using the face shield, Taiño said: “Wala naman po sa pagkakaalam namin po (None as far as we know).”
Pharmally official Krizle Mago, in a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on Friday, revealed that the medical supplier changed the expiration dates of face shields procured for health workers from 2020 to 2021.
Duque, during the House hearing, clarified that the established shelf life of a face shield is 36 months or three years.
Duque said the matter is already being investigated by the DOH.
Panel vice chair Johnny Pimentel, for his part, said the issue should be focused on whether all the face shields have been utilized rather than the expiry dates.
Pimentel said the House panel was able to clarify some issues regarding the procurement process and overpricing.
He said the procurement process was legal and aboveboard based on the provisions of Bayanihan 1 law, which exempts Covid-19 goods and services from the coverage of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
“We were also able to find out that the requirements that were needed for the negotiated procurement under emergency cases, it’s not the same as the requirements needed for the competitive bidding,” Pimentel said. “So, meaning, it was established that the procurement of goods funded by Bayanihan 1 Act are exempted from Republic Act 9184.”
He also said there was no overpricing on the Covid-19 supplies procured, as Commission on Audit Chairman Michael Aguinaldo noted that the issue at hand is not overpricing.
“In fact, in their report, they never mentioned the overprice of the goods,” he said.
He said all the goods were delivered, inspected and accepted before payment was made, contrary to claims that there were ghost deliveries.
The committee will write a letter to the Senate to produce in the next House hearing on October 4 Pharmally director Linconn Ong, who has been taken into custody by the upper chamber for his evasive answers during the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
The committee was also poised to issue a subpoena to compel Mago to testify before the House panel on October 4 after she failed to appear in Monday’s hearing. (Filane Mikee Cervantes)
