AQUINO ADMIN’S PPE PURCHASES IN 2015-2016 COST DOUBLE THAN DUTERTE’S

Government purchased personal protective equipment (PPE) in 2015 and 2016 at prices double the current market cost, the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) revealed yesterday.

Based on PS-DBM documents provided by Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, the government awarded two supply contracts for an eight-piece PPE at P3,500 per set on September 28, 2015 and another at P3,864 per set on June 23, 2016.

Lao noted that the previous administration, without any health emergency, procured PPE sets at a price more than double than of the Duterte government’s acquisition cost of P1,450 to 1,900 per set.

“Their [Aquino administration] procurement cost is more than double the procurement cost made by PS-DBM in 2020,” Lao said.

Based on the PS-DBM purchase order documents, medical equipment supplier Rebmann Inc. won two separate PPEs contracts from the Department of Health (DOH) worth a total of P23.24 million.

Rebmann bagged its first contract valued at P8.75 million, with purchase order no. 2015-139 dated September 28, 2015 for 2,500 units of eight-piece PPE sets at P3,500 per unit.

The PPE set includes goggles, gloves, plastic shoe covers, coverall, surgical gown, N95 face mask, surgical mask, and head cap.

A few days before President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, PS-DBM data showed that the government awarded another PPE contract to Rebmann, but this time, procurement cost increased to P3,864 per set.

The PS-DBM purchase order no. 2016-129 dated June 23, 2016 showed that Rebman supplied 3,700 eight-piece PPE sets to the DOH at P14.49 million.

“What puzzles me is that we are being insinuated to have caused the loss of P1 billion government money and being subjected to investigation, whereas the procurements made during the previous administration were double the cost, [but] is not being questioned and subjected to investigation,” Lao lamented.

Earlier, Lao insisted that government did not lose a single centavo from the acquisition of PPEs under President Duterte’s watch.

Instead, he said, the government saved some P800 million in taxpayers money after the PS-DBM decided to buy the PPE sets directly from foreign manufacturers and accredited distributors in China.