The Department of Health (DOH) is now looking into the revelation of an official of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. that the company had altered the expiry date of face shields that it supplied to the national government.
During the hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on the alleged overpriced Covid-19 supplies, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told lawmakers the matter is already being looked into by the health department.
But Duque also clarified that the established shelf life of medical-grade face shields is 36 months or three years.
“There was no [mentioned of] expiry date, but I’m still having that investigated because of the revelation of the officer of the Pharmally. We’re checking on this,” Duque said.
“The shelf life is 36 months, according to our Disease Prevention and Control Bureau director Beverly Ho. There is a component of the face shield that has a styrofoam,” he said.
Asked by committee chairman DIWA Party-list Rep. Michael Edgar Aglipay if there is a case where a health worker died for using the face shield, DOH Undersecretary Carolina Taiño replied: “No one, as far as we know.”
During the recent Senate hearing, Pharmally official Krizle Grace Mago revealed that the expiry dates of the face shields were tampered with by changing the expiry date from 2020 to 2021.
Meanwhile, the committee has issued a subpoena to compel Mago to testify before the House panel on October 4 after she failed to appear in Monday’s hearing. It was earlier reported that Mago could no longer be contacted after her revealing testimony in the Senate.
Properly distributed
Duque said all the 2 million face shields were “properly distributed to and utilized by the health workers.”
He added that none of the health workers complained about the face shields delivered to them.
“I would like to set the record straight, the 2 million face shield, and based on the report to me, all 2 million have been distributed to the different regions,” Duque added.
This was corroborated by Undersecretary Taiño, who added that the face shields were of “great help to health workers.”
‘Produce Ong’
Meanwhile, House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability chairman Aglipay directed the committee secretariat to write a letter to the Senate to produce in the next House hearing on October 4 Pharmally director Linconn Ong, who has been taken into custody by the upper chamber for his “evasive” answers during the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
Aglipay said that the House probe was meant to “thresh out the truth, without political bias or agenda.”
The committee vice chairman and Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel also said during the two previous hearings conducted by the House, “we were able to clarify some issues regarding some misconceptions.”
He noted that it was already established that the procurement process was legal and aboveboard considering that the procurement process was based on the provisions of Bayanihan 1 law, which exempts Covid-19 goods and services from the coverage of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
Pimentel also noted that there was no overpricing on goods procured under Bayanihan 1, as no less than Commission on Audit Chairman Michael Aguinaldo, as corroborated by his staff, that the issue at hand is not the overpricing. “In fact, in their report, they never mentioned the overprice of the goods,” he said.
The controversial Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corp. secured P8.6 billion worth of the government contracts for the PPEs in 2020 and P2.9 billion in 2021. Pharmally was registered in September 2019 with the Securities and Exchange of Commission with a paid in capital of P625,000.
The Senate is also investigating the procurement of allegedly overpriced Covid-19 emergency supplies.