Not just for COVID updates, DOH spokesperson also defends agency

FILE PHOTO: Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire. INQUIRER file photo / EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines — A senior health official said on Saturday that the Department of Health (DOH) would be ready to face any investigation of the deficiencies found by the Commission on Audit (COA) in its use of a P67.3-billion pandemic response fund last year, but she appealed to the public to hold judgment until a full accounting of the money had been completed.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the DOH has “always been transparent” with regard to funds meant for controlling the spread of COVID-19 and that the P67.3 billion was “well-accounted for.”

“We are open to all types of investigation, we will not back down,” she said, during the Laging Handa briefing, adding that the state auditor had given the DOH until September to submit documents regarding its spending.

“I just want to say to our people that I hope you make your judgment after you see the complete evidence,” she said.

Under the Bayanihan 1 and 2 laws, the DOH received about P78 billion to lead the country’s pandemic response, while under the 202o General Appropriations Act, or the national budget law, the agency received P200.9 billion.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III last month said the department had obligated 98 percent of the Bayanihan 1 funds and 93 percent of the Bayanihan 2 funds. Obligated funds are those ready to be spent for identified budget items.

In its audit report on the DOH, the COA said that of the P67.3-billion pandemic response fund, P11.89 billion was unspent.

‘Wasted’ meds, supplies

Those funds “were not translated to much-needed health supplies, equipment and services that could have benefited both the health workers and the general public during the critical times of the pandemic,” the COA said.

It also said the DOH had wasted P95.15 million worth of medicines and medical supplies because these had expired or would soon expire or kept unused in expensive warehouses.

In another section of its report, the COA said the DOH and its attached agencies were unable to spend nearly 30 percent of their budget allotments for 2020.

The unspent P59.124 billion fund was “very material and are more than enough to affect the level of efficiency put into managing the COVID-19 funds vis-a-vis the agency’s implementation capabilities and its response to the urgent health-care needs during the time of state of calamity/national emergency,” the COA report said.

But the COA clarified in a statement on Friday that there were no indications that DOH money was “lost to corruption.”

Vergeire said the DOH was able to utilize “almost 98 percent” of all funds transferred to the department since the pandemic struck the country last year.

She admitted, however, that there were some DOH offices which have not yet been able to file the required documents and that the department was rushing to submit these to the COA.

Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo on Friday said the DOH allegedly failed to pay thousands of health-care workers in the front line in the war against COVID-19 their mandated benefits and called for a congressional inquiry into this supposed lapse.

Overhaul response

The Philippine Medical Students Association on Saturday called for an overhaul of the government’s pandemic response and to account for the deficiencies in the DOH expenditures.

“The Filipino people should know where their hard-earned money went,” said Joyce Brillantes, national vice chairperson of the group.

“We demand that the response to the COVID-19 crisis be one that assures every Filipino their right to health, and we believe that this is only possible with the overhaul of the response and leadership beginning with the supposed captain of the ship of the health response,” she said, referring to Duque.

Brillantes said the slow disbursement of the special risk allowances for health workers had angered them and triggered threats of mass resignations across the country.

Leila joins ‘Duque quit’ calls

The medical students’ group demanded Duque’s resignation for his alleged “criminal negligence” and for being “incapable of leading” the DOH.

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima on Saturday also renewed her calls for Duque to resign amid the latest controversies that had hit the DOH and its COVID-19 response.

Duque has repeatedly rejected calls for his resignation, saying he believed that President Duterte had chosen him to lead the DOH based on his long experience in government service, including as head of the Civil Service Commission.

“You know, it was President Duterte that appointed me. I was there in my province and he invited me to help his administration,” Duque told GMA News Online in an interview on Thursday. “He knows how I work.”

De Lima said Duque’s refusal to resign showed that he was like other administration officials whose “first loyalty is to themselves and to their cabal of patrons, cronies and minions.”

“But the least that such a public servant ought to do is hold himself accountable to the public, to the people that he serves. Duterte is not his king; it is to the Filipino people that he owes first and foremost loyalty and accountability,” she said in a statement.

—WITH A REPORT FROM MELVIN GASCON