The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday assured the public that “every centavo” of the questioned P9 billion funds of Bayanihan I and II, as well as all other public funds provided to the agency, “are all accounted for” and are “available for the public to access and examine” upon request.
Likewise, the DOH said that it would provide the “full expenditure reports” to the offices of lawmakers requesting for the said data.
The DOH explained that the P9-billion funds for the construction of health infrastructure under the Bayanihan I and II were spent, emphasizing that the said funds were utilized to construct temporary medical isolation and quarantine facilities, field hospitals, dormitories, and expand government hospital capacities through the procurement of various medical equipment.
“Of the P4.49 billion provided under Bayanihan I, P4.36 billion was utilized as of December 31, 2020 to procure medical equipment, such as mechanical ventilators, biological safety cabinets, laminar flow hoods, and biomedical microcentrifuges, among other medical equipment, essential to ensuring that hospitals will be caring for Covid-19 patients,” DOH stated.
Meanwhile, of the P4.5 billion provided under Bayanihan II, P3.88 billion has been utilized as of December 31, 2020 for the construction of temporary medical isolation and quarantine facilities, field hospitals, dormitories for frontliners and expansion of government capacity all over the country.
On the other hand, the DOH said, of the remaining P617 million, P 308 million has been utilized for the procurement of essential Covid-related equipment such as mechanical ventilators, portable X-ray machines, hemodialysis machines, high flow nasal cannula oxygen machines, and other equipment necessary for increasing laboratories’ testing capacities.
“The Department of Health emphasized that it is, and has always been, committed to upholding utmost integrity and transparency in fulfillment of its mandate to establish and maintain an accessible health system that provides quality health services to every Filipino,” the agency assured.
Further, the DOH emphasized that “now is not the time to be fragmented in the pandemic response” and called for “unity” from the rest of the government and the public as the country faces an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
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