By BEN ROSARIO
Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor chided Sen. Risa Hontiveros Tuesday for making false and baseless accusations against the Department of Budget and Management in connection with the alleged “overpricing” in the procurement of personal protective equipment.
In a press statement, Defensor, chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, said Hontiveros’ accusations are clearly aimed at hiding the overpricing of the same product during the previous administration.
The senior administration lawmaker said politics could be behind Hontiveros’ much-publicized but erroneous claim.
“I think the ‘yellows’ are trying to shame the Duterte administration to keep the opposition’s own shortcomings in flagging anomalous transactions during the term of former President Noynoy Aquino,” he said.
During the Aquino administration, the congressman said the Department of Health purchased PPEs from Rebmann Inc. at a much higher price of P3,500 per set in September 2015.
In 2016, a similar purchase was made for an eight-piece PPE set, but much at a higher price of P3,865 per set.
These prices are higher by at least 97 percent and 118 percent, respectively, compared to the purchase price of similar PPE sets bought by DBM in the middle of a pandemic at an average price of P1,773.51 per set.
“Sen. Hontiveros questions the alleged P200 overprice without proof, but she’s tight-lipped when her colleagues in the former administration bought PPEs at twice today’s prices,” he stressed.
The partylist solon debunked the senator’s claim that government lost P1 billion in taxpayer’s money in purchasing PPEs from Chinese companies.
At the time of DBM’s questioned purchases between March and May this year, the Philippines and the whole world were in panic mode.
Each country was scrambling for PPEs and facemasks and were fighting over limited supply.
“Even first world countries like the United States and Great Britain didn’t have enough protective gear for their frontliners,” he stressed.
Hontiveros earlier said the Chinese PPEs were at least P200 more expensive than the average estimated cost of PPE by the Philippine General Hospital, which pegged the price at P1,200 to P1,500.
But Defensor argued that there was nothing wrong in purchasing more expensive PPEs during the height of the pandemic.
“As the contagion spread and our frontliners were falling ill or dying due to lack of protection, government had to think and act fast,” he stressed.
“It’s no secret that between March and May 2020 there was extremely high demand for PPEs. As the epicenter of COVID-19 at that time, China itself was prioritizing its needs over other countries. Following the law of supply and demand, it was expected that prices of protective gear would go through the roof. Since it was a seller’s market, government had no choice but to bite the bullet,” he stressed.
The solon agreed with the DBM that the Philippines was actually lucky to have secured the PPE supplies considering the circumstances at that time.
“As DBM correctly noted, it was indeed a ‘miracle’ that we got the much needed supplies since hundreds of other countries wanted to get their hands on it. Prices only stabilized when production capacity finally caught up with demand, but it took months before this happened,” the party-list congressman said.
