Four pharmacies receive partial payment from City

The four pharmacies serving the hospitalization program of the Cebu City Government have finally received partial payment for the medicines they released to the beneficiaries.

However, the pharmacies Pro-Poor, Pro-Inay, Domique and Dell Pharmacy only received less than half of the total bills that the City Government needs to settle.

These four pharmacies are serving the beneficiaries of City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program(Champ).

“We are still glad even if the payment is only partial,” said Myra Rentuza, owner of Pro-poor and Pro-Inay.

Rentuza’s phamacies had to stop providing medicines to the beneficiaries because of the city government’s failure to settle her P11 million bill.

But after receiving the P2 million partial payment yesterday, Rentuza said she will resume operations.

They can now pay their suppliers who sued them for estafa, after failing to settle the bills due to city hall’s delayed payment.

Despite the problem, the pharmacy owners still assured to continue serving the poor.

The delayed payment was because of the questions raised by the Commission On Audit(COA) on the medicine program of the city.

COA has suspended the P2.3 million payment for the Pro-Poor Pharmacy after the city failed to attach the doctors’ prescription and other necessary documents.

COA also questioned why beauty products, including Viagra, a medicine for erectile dysfunction was included in the prescription.

Shampoos, soap and milk were some of the products questioned by COA.

Rentuza said as long as the beneficiaries present a doctor’s prescription, they give what is listed there.

“If wala silay prescription dili namo tagaan. If unsay nakabutang sa resita, mao ra pod amo ihatag bisag naa pay viagra or shampoo diha,” Rentuza said. (We give them what is in the doctor’s prescription even if it includes viagra and shampoo.)

City hall explained that the soap and shampoos were all medicated.