Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday denied claims that the government missed the opportunity of securing a deal with the United States over 50 million syringes.
"Wala, wala ‘yun, hindi totoo ‘yun. Kasinungalingan ‘yun [No, it's not true. That's a lie]," Duque said in a radio interview with another media outlet.
"Ang gusto ni [Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro] Locsin, sumunod kami sa gusto nung supplier na presyo. Hindi naman pwede ‘yun. Hindi naman kami g**o para gawin ‘yun. Meron tayong batas diyan, Republic Act 9184," he added.
[What Locsin wanted was for us to agree with the price of the supplier. But that’s not allowed. We’re not stupid to do that. We have a law for that, RA 9184.]
Duque made the statement after Locsin said in a tweet that the government agencies 'dropped the ball again' and refused to discuss the matter.
"Discussed the need in Washington DC and got a response prepared to go into details with PH agencies but they refused to discuss the ball let alone catch it. First Pfizer, then Moderna. Ok, I see the pattern," he said in a tweet.
According to Duque, they were offered PHP 411.5 million for 50 million syringes with each syringe priced around PHP 2.38.
However, if they took on the contract, they could be charged of graft for violating the RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
Duque also aired his disappointment on Locsin for not reaching out to him to clarify and discuss the said matter.
"Tweet nang tweet ito hindi ako tawagan, open naman ang communications namin. Pareho naman kaming asa administrasyon, 'di ba? Madali naman mag-usap for clarification, 'di ba?" he noted.
[He tweeted about it and he did not talk to me. Our communications are open. We belong to the same administration. Talking to each other for clarification is easy.]
Duque said he will talk to President Rodrigo Duterte about the issue later.
This is not the first time that the country missed this kind of opportunity.
In December 2020, Locsin bared that the government missed out on a chance to secure 10 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine because “someone dropped the ball.”
At that time, Duque then defended himself from the accusations, saying that the required confidentiality disclosure agreement (CDA) with Pfizer was originally intended to be signed by the Office of the President (OP) and not the Department of Health (DOH).
