Health department defends ambulance purchase

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday defended its purchase of ambulances that Sen. Panfilo Lacson claimed to have been overpriced by P1 million apiece.

Without disclosing the total number of ambulances, DOH Undesecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday did not contest the amount paid for each of the ambulances, but said they came as a “complete package” and its price included the training of drivers to handle special medical equipment.

“The DOH has always been transparent in all transactions. The purchase of ambulance went through the bid process with our bids and awards committee,” she said in a press briefing.

Vergeire said there were two types of ambulances based on DOH standards. The Type 1, which the senator questioned, comes with complete equipment specifically for transport of critically ill patients.

She said each one included automated external defibrillator, a suction unit, oxygen and medicines.

Vergeire said the winning supplier, whom she did not identify, provided the lowest calculated bid and that the ambulances were now being used by local governments.

Lacson told Inquirer.net on Thursday that the DOH bought the ambulances under its Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) at P2.5 million each, but he checked with local governments that procured similarly equipped vehicles and found out that the actual cost was only P1.5 million a piece.

The senator said he was still gathering “more accurate figures,” but he cited local government sources who said that the defibrillator Vergeire mentioned cost only about P300,000 and that similar ambulance units that did not have the equipment cost only P1.27 million, leaving a still substantial price difference.

He did not cite figures on the total number of ambulance units involved in the alleged overprice, but noted that in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region alone, the DOH supposedly distributed 98 units, noting that fleet vehicle purchases usually include one free unit for every 10 purchased.

Lacson said he was personally upset by the overpriced purchases since he was the one who realigned P8.68 billion from the 2021 budget to provide additional funding for HFEP.

“That’s on top of the 2020 insertion, or realignment, that I made [to the tune of] P1 billion,” Lacson said.

“Isn’t it infuriating that one ambulance has been overpriced by P1 million? In other words, five would have been bought with that amount used to buy three, if you will compute it accurately,” he said on the news website’s program “INQSide Look.”

Lacson revealed the transaction amid the ongoing Senate investigation of the alleged overprice in the government’s purchase of P8.7 billion worth of face masks, face shields and personal protective equipment as part of its pandemic response.