MANILA, Philippines — Citing sources, Senator Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said a C-130 plane was supposedly used for the delivery of supplies procured from Pharmally, while a local manufacturer was not accorded with the same accommodation.
But National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. was quick to deny that a military plane was used to ferry the supplies purchased from Pharmally.
“We have that information but now that Sec. Galvez is denying it, then so be it. But we have our own sources,” Lacson said during the Senate blue ribbon committee probe.
“I’m just wondering why we cannot accommodate a Filipino entrepreneur who’s willing to help because of the pandemic, tapos hindi natin bibigyan ng ganoong accommodation na binigay sa Pharmally [and then we won’t give them the same accommodation similar to what was given to Pharmally],” he added.
Before this, Lacson had questioned why Filipino entrepreneurs were not granted the same treatment as foreign entities.
The senator cited the use of C-130 of the Philippine Air Force to ferry personal protective equipment (PPE) from China to the Philippines last year.
Face mask manufacturer EMS Components Assembly chief executive Perry Ferrer told the Senate that they imported their raw materials themselves through the Bureau of Customs.
The local manufacturer, which was tapped by the government to procure face masks, also delivered its finished product to designated delivery points on its own, according to Ferrer.
“Bakit ang accommodation sa foreign firm parang higit pa kesa sa accommodation kaysa sa sarili nating kababayan?” Lacson asked.
(Why are we accommodating the foreign firms differently than our own?)
Lacson, nevertheless, acknowledged the contribution of the Philippine military in the country’s response to the pandemic.
“Hindi ko po sinisisi ang [I’m not blaming the] Armed Forces… I acknowledge the heroism of our AFP personnel, there is no doubt about it,” he added.
In response, Galvez said the shutdown of the country’s borders at the height of the pandemic in 2020 prompted the use of the military plane in order for the badly needed PPEs to be delivered to the Philippines.
“Considering we have a lockdown then, they don’t have any flights because the different ports of the Philippines had been shut down because we had a total lockdown then,” he said.
Aside from three C-130 flights, six Philippine Airline flights and 12 Cebu Pacific flights were also used in April 2020 to deliver the PPEs, according to Galvez.
In total, 288,000 PPEs were delivered to the Philippines from China using the said flights, he noted.
“During those times, we don’t have supply…we don’t have any supply then, we don’t have PPEs, surgical masks, nothing,” he said.
When directly asked about the use of a C-130 for Pharmally deliveries, Galvez denied this but admitted he is “not aware who is contracting [the plane] because my mission is to produce the PPE and deliver it to all the hospitals.”
“During that time, the President gave the order on April 2. We immediately get the available PPEs in China and those PPE, I believe, are a different procurement, not from Pharmally,” he explained.
Senator Francis Pangilinan said he was quite surprised that C-130 planes were dispatched to get PPEs from China.
“So in other words, the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management entered into this contract and agreed that the private company can use Philippine Air Force planes and this was at our expense. We will buy from you and we will pick up,” Pangilinan said.
The Senate blue ribbon committee is currently investigating the procurement of “overpriced” PPEs, face masks and shields made by the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service on behalf of the Department of Health.
The company at the center of the probe is Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., which bagged government contracts worth over P8.6 billion in 2020 despite being only several months old and having just P625,000 in paid-up capital.