FROM being a defender of the previous administration in his capacity as former Justice Secretary, now Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra has transformed into a persecutor of the government where he once was part of.
Speaking to reporters, Guevarra admitted that the Department of Health (DOH) under former Health Secretary Francisco Duque erred in leaving the procurement of face masks and face shields to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
Guevarra said that such a call was a precarious decision even as he claimed that the act of allowing another agency to do what looks more like a highly-technical task that only the DOH has familiarity with is something that would always be questionable.
Moments after the congressional hearing called for by the House committee on appropriations over COA-flagged fund transfers, Guevarra insisted that procurement of medical supplies forms part and parcel of its mandate – unless the purchase involved a commonly used item like pen and paper.
While working as Justice Secretary under the previous administration, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the DOH’s for its P47.6 billion transfers to PS-DBM.
COA then said in its report that DOH could have opted to buy the personal protective equipment (PPE) on its own, for which Guevarra agreed.
“They could have done it on their own. One legal question here is can you classify items used to combat the pandemic as commonly-used items? Can they be classified as commonly used items that the PS-DBM can procure? So, that’s a very critical question,” Guevarra said.
“And, I think – well I do not want to suggest an answer for the Department of Health – that is quite precarious, right? Because some people will say, ‘that’s not commonly-used items like ball pens, paper, et cetera, so, you can’t hand the responsibility of procurement to PS-DBM,” he added.
Interestingly, Guevarra has some reservations – “You can also argue that we are dealing with a pandemic. That was the beginning of the pandemic, you do not know how long the pandemic will last. You don’t know how many people will need or how many agencies will need PPEs.”
“So, to that extent, probably the DOH felt that these PPEs, the test kits can be classified already as commonly-used items in the context of a pandemic. So, probably that will be the legal issue if at all that it will be questioned before a court of law,” he added.
It was also during the same congressional hearing that Duque pointed his finger to his appointing authority – former President Rodrigo Duterte, whom he claimed ordered the transfer of DOH’s P47.6 billion to the PS-DBM which subsequently entered into a contract with the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.
Pharmally later on was found to have collected prior to the delivery of overpriced face masks, face shields, and other equipment used against the COVID-19 pandemic.
In August 2021, COA in its audit report said that deficiencies hounded its P67.32-billion fund which made things harder for the government to cope up with the pandemic. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
