Vice President Leni Robredo said Sunday that the P8.68-billion contract with the controversial Pharmally Pharmaceutical firm for medical supplies is nine times higher than the Office the of the Vice President’s 2021 budget.
Robredo made the remark as she aired her take on the alleged overpricing in government procurement of COVID-19 supplies in 2020 for the Department of Health’s COVID-19 response — now a subject of Senate inquiry.
In 2021, the OVP’s budget was at P908.79 million, which it used to help in the government’s COVID-19 response, Robredo said.
“‘Yung pag-award ng kontrata ang nakagugulat. Ang pinakamalaki … halos nine times ng budget ng buong Office of the Vice President,” Robredo said over her weekly radio program.
(The awarding of the contract was starling. The biggest was nearly nine times higher than the overall budget of the OVP.)
“Tapos lumabas na initial lang pala ‘yun. Mayroong dumadagdag na lampas P2 billion ngayong taon” (And that’s only the initial, add to that more contracts worth over P2 billion this year), she said.
She criticized the procurement of medical supplies, saying that allegations of corruption during the pandemic could be worse.
“Ano pa ba ang mas lalala na lumalabas na grabe ‘yung corruption na nagkakamatayan yung mga tao. Bakit ganito? Ang daming nagugutom, ang daming nawawalan ng trabaho, tapos pagkakakitaan ninyo,” she pointed out.
(Allegations of corruption keep on surfacing at a time when people are dying. Many people are hungry, many people lost their jobs, and yet you are making the pandemic as an excuse to do a lucrative business.)
Higher OVP budget
During the budget deliberations on OVP’s 2022 proposed budget at the House of Representatives, at least two lawmakers proposed that the vice president’s budget next year should be raised from P700 million to P2 billion.
Robredo thanked the House for the the proposed budget, but she noted that the OVP had implemented projects despite the meager budget.
“Mabuti na lang noong 2016, nasanay kami dito na kung ano ibigay, pagkakasyahin namin. Pero yung kaliitan ng budget, ‘di na siya dahilan para hindi tumulong,” Robredo said.
(We have gotten used to running the OVP on low budget since 2016. But we were able to allocate the meager funds to all the needed programs. Lack of money should not mean we should stop helping.)
“Kung ‘di kami bibigyan ng malaki, gagawan namin ng paraan” (If we won’t get a huge budget, we will adjust), she added. —LBG, GMA News
Pharmally contract 9 times more than OVP 2021 budget -Robredo
Source: Pinoy Hub News
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