President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered government agencies to submit an accounting of the funds spent to address the COVID-19 pandemic, after lawmakers raised concern over alleged “overpricing” of medical equipment and testing kits, Malacanang said Monday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said President Duterte will include the expenditure report on the COVID-related programs in his public address on Monday night.
Duterte will meet with members of his Cabinet in Davao City, where he has been staying since Aug. 3.
Earlier, several senators filed Resolution No. 479, asking the Commission of Audit to examine the Duterte administration’s spending on its COVID-19 response after the lawmakers raised concern over government purchases that they said were marred by allegations of overpricing.
The COA has been asked to present its findings before the 2021 budget deliberations.
Roque said the government it is open to having the government spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic audited.
“We have nothing to hide. We welcome the call of some senators for a special audit of the government’s expenses to curb the spread and impact of COVID-19 in the country,” Roque said.
The government has allotted P376.57 billion to various government agencies to support the COVID-related programs.
Of the COVID-19 fund releases, the government drew P266.52 billion from pooled savings from discontinued programs, activities and projects, P100.19 billion from special purpose funds, and P9.8 billion from the regular budget of agencies.
The Department of Social and Welfare Development, in charge of the emergency subsidy program for low income families, got the largest allocation with P200.97 billion based on a report from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The Department of Finance came second with P88.13 billion, followed by the Department of Health with P48.9 billion, and the Department of Labor and Employment with P12.58 billion.
Health officials on Monday reported 4,686 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country's total since the pandemic started to 194,252 cases.
Metro Manila still logged the highest number of new cases at 2,519, followed by Laguna with 286, Cavite with 218, Bulacan with 189, and Rizal with 179.
The new cases were based on reports submitted by 95 out of the 109 operating testing labs.
The DOH reported 13 new fatalities, bringing the death toll from COVID-19 to 3,010.
The total number of recoveries rose to 132,042 after 729 more patients recovered from the respiratory illness.
There are 59,200 are active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 91.5 percent of which are mild, 6.1 percent of which are asymptomatic, 1 percent of which are severe, and 1.4 percent of which are in critical condition.
Earlier on Monday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said about 3,000 additional health workers were still needed on the frontlines.
She also said that contact tracing efforts were being hampered by incomplete case investigation forms.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday said the Phase IV trials for COVID-19 vaccines will continue as part of the post-registration process.
FDA general director Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo, in an interview on Dobol B sa News TV, said that the waiver of Phase IV trials under the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act only covers public vaccination.
Under the Universal Health Care Law, a vaccine should complete the Phase IV trials in order to get approval for public vaccination.
Domingo said Phase IV trials could take up to two years.
With the waiver, however, the DOH will be able to study the vaccines for mass vaccination after Phase III, he said.
He said the FDA registers all vaccines that completed the Phase III.
The first three phases of trials establish the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
Phase IV trials, he said, involve post-marketing monitoring for possible side effects.
The DOH earlier backed the waiver of Phase IV trials with some safeguards.
Also on Monday, University of the Philippines researchers said the country may be able to flatten the COVID-19 curve by the end of August or September.
COVID-19’s reproduction rate — or the number of people infected by each person carrying the virus — went down to 1.1 from 1.5 after Metro Manila and 4 nearby provinces’ two-week return to the second strictest lockdown level earlier this month, said Dr. Guido David of the UP OCTA Research Team.
A reproduction rate above "1" means the disease is continuing to expand; below that threshold, it will eventually flatten out, he added.
Also on Monday, Vergeire said COVID-19 served as a trigger for the speedy implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.
Vergeire’s statement was made after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III drew flak for calling the pandemic a “blessing in disguise.”
“What the secretary meant was that the pandemic triggered the expeditious process of implementing the Universal Health Care law,” Vergeire said in a mix of English and Filipino.
“He did not mean anything to offend anybody. He was talking about the process on achieving reform, and what triggered it,” Vergeire said.
In a webinar Friday, Duque said the pandemic was “some kind of… blessing in disguise, serendipitous because it accelerated the UHC,” and called COVID-19 a catalyst.
“Although COVID-19 did expose the fissures or the cracks, the weakness of our Philippine health system, it has brought to fore the areas, the provisions of universal health care that need to be accelerated in terms of its implementation,” he said.
Reacting to Duque’s remarks, Senator Panfilo Lacson said: “Some people are definitely making a killing out of the misery brought upon our people by the coronavirus, coming as it does in many forms we cannot even imagine.”
“We have seen the PhilHealth’s illegal advance payments to unauthorized health care institutions and grossly overpriced procurement of IT equipment – not to mention its doctoring of financial records,” said Lacson.
“Yet, as we hear the Secretary of Health saying that the pandemic is a ‘blessing in disguise,’ we know for sure we haven't seen the worse for our suffering countrymen, in terms of health and economic well-being,” Lacson added.