Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday corrected the misimpression that the government “dropped the ball again” in the emergency procurement of microsyringes for Covid-19 vaccines.
The issue stemmed from a Twitter post by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Saturday afternoon that the government refused an offer of 50 million pieces of syringes.
In an interview over People’s Television Network, Duque said the supplier’s price is higher than the budget the government had allotted for the syringes.
He also clarified that the microsyringes are not a donation as implied by Locsin, without mentioning the company’s name.
“Ang gusto ba naman eh mataas ang presyo na bibilhin namin, iyong bibilhin ng DOH, hindi naman puwede iyon ([He] wants the DOH to procure microsyringes at a higher price, which can’t be allowed). There is no basis for Locsin to say that this is a ‘dropped the ball’ because we never dropped the ball,” he said.
Locsin also tweeted that DOH’s offer of USD4.7 cents per microsyringe is “hallucinatory” because USD7 cents is the lowest price offer in the market.
He added the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) pays double the price and urged the DOH to make its purchases known to the public.
Duque said Locsin could have reached out to him for clarifications, instead of posting online.
“Produce the document. Wala siyang dokumento to show, no letter to the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force), no letter to the DOH. Ni hindi man ako tinatawagan, ni hindi man ako sinusulatan na for clarification man lang. Ano ba naman iyong tawagan ako o sumulat. ‘Can I clarify something?’ ‘di ba? Ang dali-dali naman gawin iyon (He doesn’t have documents to show, no letter to the IATF, no letter to the DOH. He didn’t even call, he didn’t write me a letter for clarification. ‘Can I clarify something?’ That’s easy to do).” Duque said.
The DOH and the National Task Force Against Covid-19 explained in a statement on Sunday that PHP2.38 per syringe was the basis for the ongoing procurement.
The agencies said the government procured 100 million pieces of 0.5ml AD (auto-disable) syringes in April for PHP2.38 per piece, from an initial approved budget of PHP2.50 per piece.
Thus, PHP2.38 per piece or USD0.048 cents was used as a basis for the ongoing emergency procurement of another batch of 50 million pieces of 0.5ml AD syringes.
The DOH and the NTF assured there is enough syringe supply in the country until the year ends.
Duque said he will discuss the miscommunication with President Rodrigo Duterte to prevent a similar incident between government agencies from happening again. (PNA)