Duque admits corruption in previous DOH deals

MANILA – Health secretary Francisco Duque III admitted that the agency had entered anomalous deals in the past after Sen. Richard Gordon threatened to block the approval of its 2021 budget.

During the Senate’s plenary hearing on Thursday, Gordon cited that the P3.5 billion worth of public funds were withdrawn in 2015 for the Dengvaxia vaccine, then another set of money was taken out for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program for the supposed construction of barangay health systems.

JBros Construction Corp. was awarded a P3.5-billion contract to build over 3,200 barangay health stations in two phases during former Health Secretary Jeanette Garin’s time in 2016.

The firm terminated the contract in 2018 without completing the project. The department was ordered by the Court of Appeals to pay for the 270 barangay health stations that were built.

Sen. Pia Cayetano, who sponsors the Department of Health’s (DOH) budget, said there is a pending appeal before a local court to scrap the contract agreement and blacklist JBros Construction Corp.

“DOH terminated the contract and blacklisted the contractor, but such decision was overturned by the RTC of Manila, thus DOH and OSG (are) questioning the decision. Case is pending before the RTC of Manila,” Cayetano said.

Gordon then asked Duque if he believes that there was corruption in the program. Cayetano responded that an investigation is ongoing, but it is possible that there were anomalies, an answer that fumed Gordon.

“I am tempted now to stop the budget of DOH if they themselves cannot admit that they’ve been hoodwinked especially because the Secretary of Health has already said it’s a badly planned exercise and money is lost. The question is simple: Do they agree that there is corruption as a department?” Gordon said.

Cayetano then conferred with Duque, who was seated behind her and responded to Gordon, “The answer is yes. The secretary is responding behind me and he said yes.”/PN