PITC to start delivery of P1B worth of items for PNP in December

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) has committed to start the delivery of the items for the Philippine National Police (PNP) amounting to P1.06 billion in December, PNP chief Gen. Debold Sinas said Monday.

According to Sinas, the PNP has already informed the Senate that the PITC has vowed to complete the bidding process for guns, police mobile, vests, and other items.

He said that the original amount of funds transferred by the PNP to PITC for the procurement is at more than P1.3 billion, but supplies amounting to P300 million are now being delivered to concerned police units.

“The remaining P1.06 billion, nagcommit ang PITC na tatapusin nila ‘yung bidding ngayon (The PITC committed to finish the bidding) and they will start delivering on the second week of December,” he said in a press briefing.

It was the Commission on Audit (COA) that first flagged in September the over P1 billion worth of items that the PITC has yet to deliver to the PNP since 2016.

The issue was also brought up during the Senate’s deliberations for the proposed budget of the PNP for 2021 in October.

Sinas explained that senators have already been told that the PNP has demanded the PITC to deliver the items.

“We presented to the Senate that we are already demanding that those items should be delivered or ibalik ang pera (or the money should be returned),” he said.

“The company committed that they will be distributing and start delivering the items in the second week or first week of December,” he added.

EDV